Eastern India Centre for Case Research, Innovation & Management Practice (EICRIMP)

About the Centre

The Eastern India Centre for Case Research, Innovation & Management Practice (EICRIMP) at Management Development Institute Murshidabad (MDIM) is envisioned as a platform for creating, documenting, and disseminating contextually relevant management knowledge. With a special focus on Eastern and North-Eastern India, the Centre seeks to bridge academic knowledge and managerial practice by engaging faculty, students, industry, entrepreneurs, government institutions, policymakers, and the wider academic community.

Eastern and North-Eastern India offer rich yet relatively underrepresented contexts for management research and case development. The region presents distinctive business models, entrepreneurial journeys, family businesses, MSMEs, cooperatives, rural and social enterprises, public-sector innovations, and emerging industries. EICRIMP aims to systematically document these experiences and transform them into teaching cases, research outputs, policy notes, and industry insights.

At its core, EICRIMP is committed to field-based and evidence-driven knowledge creation, encouraging direct engagement with organisations, entrepreneurs, communities, administrators, and other stakeholders to understand real-world managerial challenges and practices.

Vision

To establish MDI Murshidabad as a leading centre in India for developing, publishing, and disseminating contextually relevant management knowledge through case research, innovation, action research, and industry–government–academia collaboration, with a special focus on Eastern and North-Eastern India.

Case Research and Knowledge Creation

Case research and knowledge creation form the core of EICRIMP. The Centre aims to develop original teaching cases across diverse sectors, including

• MSMEs
• family businesses,
• rural and social enterprises,
• cooperatives, agriculture and agri-business,
• logistics and ports, tea, tourism, healthcare,
• FinTech, manufacturing,
• start-ups, women entrepreneurship,
• public administration, and
• digital transformation, and sustainability

The Centre seeks to capture not only success stories but also managerial dilemmas, innovations, failures, transformations, and decision-making challenges. These cases will bring authentic Indian managerial contexts into classrooms and contribute to experiential management learning.

Eastern India Digital Case Repository

A key initiative will be the Eastern India Digital Case Repository, envisioned as a searchable platform for teaching cases, multimedia and video cases, industry and policy notes, rural innovation stories, business models, start-up databases, and family-business profiles. It is intended to develop into a distinctive intellectual resource of MDI Murshidabad for preserving and disseminating management knowledge from the region.

Student Engagement

Through the Student Case Research Programme, students will participate in rural immersion, urban studies, industry documentation, digital storytelling, government innovation studies, entrepreneurship documentation, and sustainability projects.

The programme aims to transform students from consumers of knowledge into active contributors to knowledge creation. Field-based projects will strengthen their research, observation, analysis, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities. The Centre envisages students graduating having written or contributed to a publishable case, policy note, or field study.

Faculty Development and Research

EICRIMP will strengthen institutional capabilities in case-based teaching and research through faculty development programmes on case writing, action research, field research, design thinking, qualitative research, multimedia case development, AI-assisted research, and case-based teaching.

The Centre will also encourage interdisciplinary case-writing teams and collaborative research, translating its activities into teaching cases, practitioner papers, policy papers, innovation briefs, and other scholarly outputs.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

EICRIMP seeks to connect innovation, entrepreneurship, management education, and practice through collaborations with engineering institutions, start-up incubators, MSMEs, Atal Incubation Centres, and government innovation missions. Such partnerships will help document entrepreneurial journeys and explore the transformation of innovations, patents, and prototypes into business cases, commercialization plans, investment proposals, and viable business models.

Government and Public Policy Engagement

The Centre seeks to position MDI Murshidabad as a knowledge partner for government and public institutions. It will encourage cases and policy-oriented documentation on district administration, smart cities, Panchayats, public health, water management, education, women self-help groups, digital governance, rural development, and cooperative models.

Through documenting administrative practices and public-sector innovations, EICRIMP aims to promote dialogue between management scholarship and public policy and facilitate the dissemination of replicable practices.

Corporate and Industry Collaboration

EICRIMP will build partnerships with industry associations, MSMEs, industry clusters, ports, banks, manufacturing companies, logistics firms, and other organisations. These collaborations will facilitate teaching cases, executive education, consulting projects, corporate-sponsored research, and other research outputs.

The Centre aims to develop a two-way relationship in which management practice informs research and teaching, while academic knowledge contributes to addressing contemporary organisational challenges.

International Collaboration and Global Outreach

While firmly rooted in Eastern and North-Eastern India, EICRIMP has global aspirations. The Centre seeks partnerships with international case centres, business schools, universities, development agencies, and international journals, along with opportunities for faculty and student exchange.

Through high-quality cases rooted in regional realities, EICRIMP aims to bring the managerial experiences of Eastern and North-Eastern India into national and international classrooms and scholarly conversations.

Conferences and Knowledge Dissemination

EICRIMP will promote dialogue and knowledge exchange through the Annual Eastern India Case Conference, case-writing competitions, doctoral colloquia, innovation summits, practitioner dialogues, and government–industry round tables.

Knowledge will be disseminated through an Annual Case Compendium, MDIM Case Series, Working Paper Series, Policy Brief Series, Digital Case Library, podcasts, video documentaries, faculty blogs, student digital stories, webinars, conferences, industry roundtables, government knowledge forums, and social media.

Through these initiatives, EICRIMP aims to build a vibrant ecosystem where regional realities inform management knowledge and management knowledge contributes to organisations, communities, industries, and public institutions. By integrating rigorous case research, innovation, experiential learning, and collaborative engagement, the Centre aspires to strengthen MDI Murshidabad’s position as a leading hub for contextually grounded management knowledge from Eastern and North-Eastern India.