亚洲商学院出招吸引美国教授

Business schools in Asia are courting professors in the U.S. with the prospect of doing leading research work as the schools aim to strengthen the credibility of their graduate programs.

As business schools in Asia work aggressively to become brand names in business education, their dominant strategy has been targeting and recruiting Western-trained professors. Deans at those schools say nabbing 'star' professors is critical for building clout in the research world and subsequently attracting the brightest students to their graduate programs.

When Xu Bin accepted a three-month teaching stint at China Europe International Business School, CEIBS, in 2003, he had no plans to abandon his tenured position at the University of Florida's Warrington School of Business. Instead, Prof. Xu saw the visiting professorship as a change of pace and a chance to spend time in Shanghai, where he grew up.

But while there, the professor of economics and finance was struck by the quality of the students and the rhythm of the city life. At the same time, CEIBS's dean made an attractive full-time offer -- a competitive pay package, three months rent-free in a two-story house close to the school and plenty of opportunities for research about emerging markets. Prof. Xu took the job.

'The school really values high quality, bilingual faculty,' says Prof. Xu, who left Florida to join CEIBS in the fall of 2004. 'Our scarcity makes the university treat us well.'

Prof. Xu is part of a growing number of mostly foreign-born U.S. business school professors being lured overseas by more competitive salaries than schools abroad have ever been able to offer, lighter course loads, the promise of more time research and direct-access to emerging economies.

The defections are adding to a problem American b-schools have faced for the better part of the past decade: a shortage of business Ph.D.s to teach the 100,000-plus students who enroll in graduate-level business programs each year. Over the past two decades, many U.S. schools trimmed down or shuttered business Ph.D. programs, resulting in fewer professors entering the market. Bernie Milano, president of the KPMG Foundation and the PhD project -- a program designed to bring more diversity to business school faculty -- says international students are a major contingent in U.S. Ph.D. programs and in junior faculty slots.

'As international schools offer more lucrative opportunities for students, U.S. schools are no longer training Ph.D. students to stay here,' Mr. Milano says. 'The top [U.S.] schools have the financial and reputation resources to never feel it. But it's the flagship state schools that will have to make difficult decisions.'

While most elite schools haven't had trouble retaining faculty, many local and regional players are more vulnerable. Alex Sevilla, assistant dean and director at University of Florida's M.B.A. program, says talent at many schools is being poached similarly to the way top managers at Fortune 500 companies are picked off. He says schools like his have the same caliber of faculty, but sometimes aren't as well-known globally, which makes them more vulnerable.

The average base salary for business professors at 30 elite business schools is $153,000 for new doctorates in nine-month contracts, according to Dan LeClair, vice president and chief knowledge officer of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Across all schools, the average full-time business-school faculty salary in 2009 was about $111,000, according to AACSB. That figure makes it easier for Asian schools to compete, and international schools are also able to gain traction with summer research stipends and better or less expensive health-care options, he says.

AACSB doesn't track compensation for business schools abroad. But Mr. LeClair said that based on his experience, a new doctorate going to a highly ranked private business school in Europe might earn the equivalent of $125,000 and receive public health care. A similarly ranked school in Asia might draw $90,000 salary and offer housing, he added.

While Asian schools are able to offer competitive pay packages for the living standard in the region, it's not just the pay package that makes it hard for faculty to resist the lure of a foreign post. At CEIBS, star professors are offered lighter teaching loads and extra Executive M.B.A. courses for more pay, says Lydia Price, dean of CEIBS. Ms. Price regularly scouts potential recruits, tracking target professors' research and momentum -- sometimes for years, before making an offer.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, HKUST, is currently raising money to create 10 new chair positions, in fields like marketing and entrepreneurship, specifically to attract star faculty from the West, says Steve DeKrey, a former assistant dean at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management who was hired to help build the school's M.B.A. program. Mr. DeKrey, a senior associate dean at HKUST, says he was attracted to HKUST by its scholarly focus, collegial environment and lucrative vacation allowance of more than two months.

Hiring someone like Mr. DeKrey from a brand-name U.S. or European business school is an asset in attracting faculty and students. Ms. Price of CEIBS says her background as an American and the fact that she was a marketing professor at INSEAD, an international business school with campuses in France and Singapore, has helped her tremendously when it comes to recruiting faculty.