Four Indian business schools have secured places among the world’s top 25 institutions for the impact and use of teaching cases, according to the Financial Times’ BizEd Impact analysis.

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM Bangalore) secured the 11th position globally, making it the highest-ranked Indian institution in the teaching-case category. It was followed by the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) at 15th, the Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, at 18th, and the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad, at 25th.

Teaching cases are an important component of management education, allowing students to examine real-world business situations and analyse decisions involving strategy, finance, operations, leadership and public policy. The method encourages students to apply theoretical concepts to practical challenges and evaluate possible solutions.

The Financial Times assessment examines the impact of business-school research across four areas: publications in practitioner-focused journals, citations in public-policy documents, external research funding and the use of teaching cases in classrooms worldwide.

The framework aims to assess how academic research influences business practices, policy discussions and management teaching, beyond conventional measures such as research publications and academic citations.

The performance of Indian institutions in the teaching-case category highlights the reach of their academic material in management classrooms internationally. However, their rankings in this category do not necessarily reflect their performance across the other dimensions assessed by the Financial Times.

In practitioner-focused publications, Switzerland’s IMD, the Netherlands’ Tias and France’s Edhec feature among the leading institutions. In policy-related citations, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Columbia Business School and the University of Zurich are among the top performers.

The findings underline the different ways business schools can contribute to management education, from producing research used by practitioners and policymakers to developing teaching material that helps students understand complex business decisions.

For Indian management institutions, the rankings also draw attention to the role of case-based learning in connecting academic research with industry practices and preparing students to address real-world organisational challenges.