MONARCH GLOBAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Deeper questions.
Global perspectives.
New understanding.
RESEARCH · KNOWLEDGE · RESPONSIBILITY
A place for professionals, managers and academics to explore the ideas shaping business and society through theoretical inquiry, critical thinking and responsible scholarship.
INSTITUTE OVERVIEW · SEPTEMBER 2026
MGRI
The MGRI perspective
Understand the ideas.
Extend the knowledge.
Professional experience reveals important questions. Research gives us the means to examine them more deeply.
A home for deeper inquiry
Building on Monarch’s experience in doctoral education, the Monarch Global Research Institute explores the concepts and theories behind practice—and how experience can challenge, refine or extend them.
Our commitment is to rigorous, original research within the institute’s areas of expertise. We welcome researchers who want to look beyond familiar explanations and contribute new knowledge.
Knowledge with a wider purpose.
Research should reach beyond academic circles. By sharing its work with scholarly, business and public audiences, MGRI aims to support informed debate, greater inclusion and a fairer, more collaborative society.
One Monarch. Three connected areas.
MGRI
Theoretical inquiry and scholarly contribution through the Monarch Global Research Institute.
MBS
Graduate and executive management education with a professional and applied focus.
MMI
Accessible professional learning and continuing development through the Monarch Management Institute.
MGRI connects management with the social sciences and humanities, providing a research-focused home within Monarch’s wider educational community.
MGRI
Research across disciplines
Follow the question beyond a single field.
Examine the ideas, assumptions and wider forces that shape business, institutions and society.
International relations theory
Explore how different theories explain relationships between states, institutions and societies. History, politics, diplomacy, and conflict and peace studies offer perspectives on cooperation, tension and global change.
Critical studies in economic theory
Look beyond economic models to examine their assumptions. Comparing schools of thought helps researchers investigate how social relationships, institutions and business activity shape wealth creation and our understanding of economic life.
Philosophy of the social sciences
Ask how we build reliable knowledge about people and society. Explore the foundations of social-scientific inquiry, its relationship with philosophy and the natural sciences, and the role of evidence, reasoning, objectivity and ethics.
Connected fields of inquiry
Leadership · Governance, CSR & ethics · Women in management · Political economy · Philosophy · Political science · History of management · International relations · Global management
Let the question guide the method.
Comparative and qualitative inquiry help researchers examine different contexts, interpret experience and test the assumptions behind established explanations. Methods should support a clear, defensible contribution.
MGRI
Your route into research
Develop your next scholarly contribution.
Explore a pathway suited to your interests, experience and stage of research development.
PhD programmes
ACADEMIC DOCTORAL INQUIRY
Develop an original contribution through sustained theoretical and empirical inquiry. The PhD in Business Research connects your research question with faculty guidance and a structured doctoral journey.
Doctor of Social Science
SOCIETY & INSTITUTIONS
Explore doctoral study in the social sciences and the questions that shape our understanding of people, institutions and contemporary society.
Post-doctoral pathways
BEYOND THE DOCTORATE
Explore opportunities to extend your scholarly work beyond the doctorate and develop a further contribution to your field.
Research themes are areas of inquiry, not separate degree titles. Programme focus, availability, structure and entry requirements should be confirmed on the relevant programme page and with Admissions. View the programme portfolio.
MGRI
Global perspectives · Intellectual exchange
Ideas develop through dialogue.
A changing world needs more than one perspective. MGRI brings different contexts and intellectual traditions into conversation.
Global means more than crossing borders
History, culture and lived experience shape how people understand the world. Examining these differences helps researchers question familiar explanations and explore shifting relationships between economies, institutions and societies.
Open inquiry. Ethical responsibility.
MGRI welcomes a broad range of viewpoints, with an emphasis on careful argument, ethical reflection and respect. Researchers consider whose interests are represented, whose voices may be missing and what their work means for others.
Seminars and scholarly conversation
Seminars provide a setting to exchange ideas, examine emerging questions and learn from work beyond one’s own specialism. International intellectual exchange is central to the institute’s purpose.
The MGRI Journal
The Monarch Global Research Institute Journal provides a platform for fellows, researchers, doctoral candidates and guest contributors to share critical scholarship. Publishing and circulating this work brings new ideas into academic, scientific and business conversations.
Make knowledge accessible.
Our wider ambition is to help people beyond the university engage with research findings, question established views and consider new possibilities for inclusion and shared prosperity.
For information about seminars, the journal and participation, contact Monarch.
BEGIN WITH A QUESTION
What would you like
to understand
more deeply?
Tell us about your interests, experience and the questions you want to explore. We can help you identify a suitable next step towards research at Monarch.
Start a conversation →umonarch.ch/mgri/
umonarch.ch/contact/
Institute overview · September 2026
Programme details should be confirmed with Admissions.
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