Academic Departments and Strategic Initiatives

Events of the last several years have highlighted the importance of accounting to the proper functioning of capital markets, as well as to the proper governance of corporations. The research and insights of the Accounting Information & Management Department's faculty provide business leaders with a solid understanding of accounting in order to become more effective analysts, investors, creditors, and senior managers.

The Finance Department is renowned in a broad range of specialties, from technical asset pricing to corporate financial policies and capital market dynamics. Faculty research is consistently recognized by award-winning publications in flagship finance journals. Faculty also serve as editors of leading professional publications, setting the standards for new ideas in finance. The Finance major is among the most popular in the Kellogg Full-Time and Evening & Weekend programs.

The Management & Organizations Department is dedicated to understanding the behavior of individuals and groups in organizations, and how companies interact with their environments. It is an interdisciplinary field drawing on sociology, psychology, anthropology, and political science, as well as on knowledge from institutional settings such as business, government, and health services.

The Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences Department is comprised of economists and political scientists who study individual decision making, incentives within organizations, the performance of markets and of political institutions, economic development, and international relations. The department has produced fundamental research on auctions, mechanism design, game theory, voting, information aggregation, and strategic behavior.

For decades, Kellogg has been the recognized leader in marketing. At Kellogg, marketing is more than a function or a discipline. It is a mindset, a way of looking at the world that is customer-focused, insight-driven and ever-evolving. The department applies an innovative, multi-disciplinary, research-based approach to developing and testing new theories and educating the next generation of leaders. Kellogg graduates lead organizations that create new markets and deliver superior customer experiences that produce sustainable growth.

Operations management is the study of how firms organize their resources and recurring activities to achieve their strategic goals. The Operations Department takes an expansive view of the topic. In both teaching and research, faculty consider not just traditional manufacturing topics but also supply chains and services. Faculty are interested in a wide range of industries including retail, transportation and healthcare. Carefully evaluating the inherent trade-offs and identifying the key drivers of operational performance are essential to the long-run success of the organization.

The Strategy Department explores how firms create and capture value and how they do so in light of their market environments, organizational capabilities, and regulatory constraints. The department's research and teaching are grounded in microeconomics and reflect its commitment to both rigor and relevance. Strategy courses improve students' understanding of how the decisions of managers shape the economic performance of their firms.

Kellogg pioneered the study of negotiations and teamwork in management. This initiative builds upon these critical and dynamic fields to reinvent collaboration through networks, crowds, and human-machine partnerships. KACI lives at the emerging intersection of human behavior, digital networks, and data science.

All businesses must continually find new ways to create value. This initiative helps business leaders—from startups to large corporations—discover new ideas and turn them into valuable goods and services.

Anticipating and meeting customers' needs is essential in today's economy. This initiative generates and disseminates knowledge to help business leaders create and reinvent markets through greater customer insight and focus.

This initiative works to identify, understand, and impact the larger social issues that business leaders must navigate. We engage economic, financial, and healthcare institutions; inform policy with groundbreaking research; proactively convene conversations across business, government, and society; and teach and model skills leading to real social impact.