Research Outputs
Honours
On 21st April, Aalborg University (Denmark) conferred an honorary doctorate on Professor John Child (Doctor Mercaturae Honoris Causa) for "distinguished efforts in the fields of business and management".
Research funding
Holly Birkett, Etlyn Kenny and Joanne Duberley, together with Louise Ashley (PI, Royal Holloway) have been awarded a grant of £14,232.00 (BBS share 49%) from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission. The project, titled ‘The Recruitment of High Performing Employees to the UK Investment Banking Sector’. The main aims are to identify current good practice in relation to recruitment practices within the banking sector including as this relates to securing wide access on the basis of social background, and to understand how any barriers to access and career progression on the basis of social background might be overcome.
External engagement
Business engagement resources
If you are interested in collaborating with business for research or other activities and would like to find out more, visit our all-new Business Engagement intranet page. There you’ll find all the information you need, from how to go about engaging with industry to what business engagement can mean for you. You can also read about colleagues’ success stories and find out how to get in touch with your Business Engagement Partner, Andy Newnham. We look forward to hearing from you!
Birmingham Energy Institute and Energy Research Accelerator (ERA) organise conference on Social Science Research in Energy
The Birmingham Energy Institute and Energy Research Accelerator (ERA) are organising a conference on Social Science Research in Energy on 27th April, jointly with the Midlands Energy Consortium. The conference will explore research ideas and identify examples of successful partnerships and barriers for social scientists in energy research. It will also be an opportunity for ERA partners (Birmingham, Nottingham, Loughborough, Warwick, Aston and Leicester) and academics to present research and discuss future concepts.
The objectives are:
- To show successful experiences on multi-disciplinary research across social science and science.
- To provide a wider view about ERA.
- To present research.
- To discuss and to identify the research interest and areas of research that we are willing to have across social science in ERA.
The team from the University of Birmingham comprises Tao Zhang, Rachel Mulhall, Maria Jesus Herrerias, David Maddison, Sarah Ellen Hewitt, Omar Saaed and Gavin Harper.
Emmanuel Adegbite speaks at Institute of Directors Nigeria’s Forum on Women Directors Development in Lagos, Nigeria
Emmanuel Adegbite spoke on the topic of ‘Women and Corporate Governance’ at the Institute of Directors Nigeria’s Forum on Women Directors Development in Lagos, Nigeria on the 14th April, 2016. The event brought together distinguished individuals from across the Nigerian business community to discuss issues around the theme of ‘Women as leaders: financial independence and business sustainability’.
Kaushik Mitra invited to present at Ninth Conference of the International Research Forum on Monetary Policy
Kaushik Mitra was invited to present a paper entitled "Expectations, Stagnation and Fiscal Policy" (co-authors George Evans, University of Oregon, USA, and University of St Andrews, UK, and Dr Seppo Honkapohja, Bank of Finland) at the Ninth Conference of the International Research Forum on Monetary Policy (IRFMP) held the European Central Bank (ECB), Frankfurt in March.
Andy Hodder speaks at Trades Union Congress
Andy Hodder was invited to speak at the annual Trades Union Congress Young Workers Conference, London on 9th April. Hodder ran two workshops with young workers where he disseminated his research findings.
Publications
Geraint Harvey has published the following:
Harvey, G., Rhodes, C., Vachhani, S., and Williams, K. (2016) 'Neo-Villeiny and the Service Sector: The Case of Hyper Flexible and Precarious Work in Fitness Centres', Work, Employment and Society, DOI: 10.1177/0950017016638023
Abstract: This article presents data from a comprehensive study of hyper flexible and precarious work in the service sector. A series of interviews were conducted with self-employed personal trainers along with more than 200 hours of participant observation within fitness centres in the UK. Analysis of the data reveals a new form of hyper flexible and precarious work that is labelled neo-villeiny in this article. Neo-villeiny is characterized by four features: bondage to the organization; payment of rent to the organization; no guarantee of any income; and extensive unpaid and speculative work that is highly beneficial to the organization. The neo-villeiny of the self-employed personal trainer offers the fitness centre all of the benefits associated with hyper flexible work, but also mitigates the detrimental outcomes associated with precarious work. The article considers the potential for adoption of this new form of hyper flexible and precarious work across the broader service sector.
A version of the research was also published in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/how-business-is-devising-new-ways-to-rip-off-workers-57398
Book chapters:
Harvey, G., and Turnbull, P. (2017) 'Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations', in Budd, L.C.S., and Ison, S. (Eds.) Air Transport Management, London: Routledge.
Harvey, G., and Turnbull, P. (forthcoming) 'Industrial Relations', in Redman, T., Wilkinson, A., and Dundon, T. (eds.) Contemporary Human Resource Management, Pearson.
Pei Kuang and Kaushik Mitra havehad a paper accepted for publication in the Journal of Monetary Economics.
Kuang, P. and Mitra, K. (2016) "Long-Run Growth Uncertainty", Journal of Monetary Economics, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2016.04.001
Abstract: Observed macroeconomic forecasts display a positive correlation between expectations of long-run growth of endogenous variables (e.g., output) and cyclical activity. Existing business cycle models appear inconsistent with the evidence. This paper presents a model of the business cycle in which households have imperfect knowledge of long-run growth rate of endogenous variables and continually learn about these growth rates. The model features comovement and mutual influence between households׳ growth expectations and market outcomes. It can replicate the evidence on growth forecasts and suggests that optimism and pessimism about long-run growth rates is a crucial ingredient in understanding business cycle fluctuations.