Professor Mary Yoko Brannen has been appointed Visiting Professor of Strategy and Management at INSEAD beginning the academic year 2008/2009. At INSEAD, Professor Bannen will lead a project on Biculturals and Multinational Organizations funded from a 120,000 Euros Cisco Grant.

The project involves a two-fold research agenda that is both conceptual and empirical. Conceptually, Professor Bannen’s team will develop a definition of biculturalism: what it is, how it is distinct from monoculturalism, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism, the different variations of biculturalism based on similarities and differences between the representative cultures and how the individuals themselves came to be bicultural.

Empirically, the team will strive to understand more precisely what distinctive skills biculturals have, as distinct from other non-biculturals, and how the development of these skills can be enabled by organizational structures and management processes, such as employment opportunities and the kind of career development they are given.

Changing the focus, Professor Bannen’s article on “Merging Without Alienating: Interventions Promoting Cross-Cultural Organizational Integration” has recently been accepted by the prestigious Journal of International Business. Professor Brannen’s article “Unpacking Absorptive Capacity: Understanding the nature and Contexts of Knowledge Transfer” coauthored with INSEAD colleagues Yves Doz and Jose Santos has been published last month also.

In addition, in April 2008, Professor Brannen will go to Stockholm to serve as the formal faculty opponent to Laurence Romani in a European dissertation defense hosted by the Stockholm School of Economics.