Research Roundup
Research funding
Yipeng Liu has been awarded £9,986 (all to Birmingham) from the British Academy International Partnership and Mobility Scheme. The project, entitled “International migration, talent mobility and entrepreneurship ecosystems: Evidence from China”, is led by Yipeng Lu (PI), who is working with Yijun Xing (Beijing Jiao Tong Uni. China).
Research events
Paul Lewis reports from his ESRC seminar series - Understanding the post-crisis landscape: assessing change in economic management, welfare, work and democracy
The last three months has been a busy time for our ESRC seminar series with workshops hosted at our partner institutions of the University of Sheffield, King’s College London and the Johns Hopkins University - Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. Taking a comparative perspective across the EU, the Sheffield seminar focused on changes to labour market regulation following the crisis; at KCL we considered the classical role of the welfare state in social and economic reproduction and the strains that austerity present for that function; and with particular timeliness the seminar in Barcelona considered democratic responses and political pressures for change as a result of the post-crisis landscape. The series has sought to engage with stakeholders external to academia and participants have included representatives from Eurofound, the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority, the Fawcett Society, Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME) and the Financial Times. The Barcelona seminar brought together representatives from social and political movements including Pandemos, the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, and the Radical Housing Network, with academics from across the Social Sciences based at institutions in Europe and the US. Given the diversity of backgrounds it was heartening the extent to which there was deep engagement between participants and a healthy cross-fertilisation of examples and ideas.
Andy Lymer reports from the Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM). The annual CHASM conference was held on 15th June at the Friend’s Meeting House in London. The theme was ‘Debt into Savings’, looking at the financial challenges faced by lower-income households in Britain, and thinking about ways in which they could be supported to save. The group were very pleased to be joined by over 50 delegates and to have a distinguished panel of experts setting out some of the challenges and opportunities of a new savings agenda. At the conference, Director Andy Lymer launched the Annual Report for the 2015-16 year, and reflected on the work of the centre, including an AHRC project on responsible lending, and another on lifetime gifts and inter-generational relationships for the Leverhulme Trust. In addition to this, the Centre has continued a number of other pieces of work and started several new projects. These include an exciting new project funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust developing a 'Saving Manifesto' for those on low incomes. This was launched at an event in Birmingham in May bringing together various thought leaders in the sector, those involved in product development for this group and those providing financial advice to those on low incomes. The Manifesto itself will be available in September. CHASM’s work on financial education this year included a commission to provide advice and support to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education in Schools. This group undertook an Inquiry on the state of financial education in primary and secondary schools during the year and CHASM members, Peter Davies, Lee Gregory and Andy Lymer, supported Young Enterprise/pfeg who provided the secretariat to this Group in undertaking this Inquiry. The final report of the APPG was released on May 23rd.
CHASM also continued to offer more than just research outputs and reach out beyond the University. Lee Gregory (School of Social Policy) led a Year 10 Discovery day, which the College of Social Sciences runs as a joint endeavour with the College of Arts and Law. The aim of the day is to provide a taster of University life in the Social Sciences and Law and humanities subject. Along with CHASM Director Professor Andrew Lymer, Lee offers a social policy workshop for Year 10’s thinking about studying at university. Andy Lymer's session looked at the UK taxation system under the title 'Taxation - a necessary evil?' The session used a mind mapping approach to extract fragments of information the students knew about taxation, using this to create an image of how the UK tax system works and why tax is an integral part of a modern developed society like ours.
External engagement
Gill Bentley was asked to speak at a Centre for Cities event entitled The First 100 Days - What Should Be at the Top of the Mayor’s In-Tray? – West Midlands on Thursday 21st July at the Library of Birmingham. Gill drew on her research featured in the recently published paper on Leadership and Systems of Governance in sub-national terrains. Other panellists were: Gisela Stuart MP; Paul Faulkner, CEO of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce and Marc Reeves, editor of the Birmingham Mail.
John Fender has made numerous contributions to the Brexit debate throughout May, June and July. Nationally, these include participating in a BBC Radio 5 live debate with Gisela Stuart, Jeremy Lefroy and Anthony Hopkins on 17th May, and being interviewed on Sunday Politics (ITV) on 19th June. In addition to this, he wrote a piece for the Conversation ‘What will happen to Britain’s finances if it leaves the EU?’ (https://theconversation.com/what-will-happen-to-britains-finances-if-it-leaves-the-eu-61181). Locally, John took part in a Panel Debate in the city Library on 26 May ‘Changing Europe: Should Britain Stay in the European Union?’, gave a talk to the Lunar Society, Edgbaston Priory Club, on 8th June and participated in the Birmingham Professional Forum (EU Referendum Special) on 22nd June.
Awards and activities
“The work CREME’s Professor Kiran Trehan has been recognised by the Academy of Management at their annual conference in Anaheim, California. She has won their 2016 award for “most outstanding reviewer”. The Academy of Management’s award comes during a stellar week for Professor Trehan which saw the launch of “Beyond Morgan’s eight metaphors: Adding to and developing organization theory”, an issue of the journal of Human Relations that she has co-edited with Anders Örtenblad and Linda L. Putnam. A week that has also seen her finding success closer to home with the news that she has reached the finals of the 2016 Birmingham Awards, shortlisted for their “Contribution to Education” award.
- You can vote for Professor Trehan here (closing date 22 August 2016)
During June and July the Business School has hosted a visitor from FGV-EAESP, Sao Paulo School of Economics. Dr. Amon Barros won a Brazil Fellowship to work with Scott Taylor on the historical and contemporary influence of thinktanks. Their research is designed to analyse how thinktanks sit between universities, policymakers, and businesses. Existing research notes that thinktanks are influential public voices in debates about the economy, business practice, and management. However, it is not known how they function internally as they develop the ideas they promote, how they recruit members, and why they have achieved such a prominent position in public debate during the last 50 years. By analysing how two prominent thinktanks developed in Brazil in the 1960s, they are bringing together political science and critical management studies perspectives on this important aspect of everyday organizational, economic, and social life. For more details about Amon Barros, see: http://gvpesquisa.fgv.br/professor/amon-narciso-de-barros
The Dean’s Research Prize, a new prize for outstanding Early Career Researchers, was launched at June’s School Assembly. This year the prize has been split between Hisham Farag and Andy Hodder, who were both awarded £1,000 for research activities.
Finola Kerrigan has won the Journal of Marketing Management Reviewer Awards 2015, for her outstanding contributions to the JMM reviewing process.
At the 2016 IACMR Conference Yipeng Liu was presented with the Inaugural Hermann and Marianne Straniak Stiftung – MOR Best Paper Award for his 2015 paper Poetry and Leadership in Light of Ambiguity and Logic of Appropriateness, Management and Organization Review, written with Yijun Xing. The aspiration of the Hermann and Marianne Straniak - MOR award is to advance original indigenous high impact management scholarship in business and economic philosophy in the context of an East meets West.
Publications
Gill Bentley has had a paper published in Regional Studies and a book chapter accepted for publication.
Bentley, G., Pugalis, L. and Shutt, J. (2016) ‘Leadership and systems of governance: the constraints on the scope for leadership of place-based development in subnational territories’, Regional Studies, DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2016.1181261
Abstract: A triadic conceptualization of leadership, governance systems and central–local relations is constructed in order to aid understandings about the influence of systems of governance on the scope for place-based leadership. Deploying the dual concepts of ‘permissibility’ and ‘acceptability’ provides an innovative analytical device for deciphering the actually existing nature of place-based leadership. Recently initiated public–private partnerships in one of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) most centralized countries are analysed to articulate characteristics of controlling mechanisms of the national system of governance which shape the degree of autonomy of leadership of city and regional development in sub-national terrains.
Bentley, G., Bailey, D. and Braithwaite, D. (forthcoming) ‘Resilience, adaptation and survival in industry sectors: Remaking and remodelling of the automotive sector’, in N. Williams and T. (eds.) Creating resilient economies, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Abstract: This chapter explores the resilience of industry sectors in context of the discussion about the resilience of regions. The case of the automotive industry sector illustrates that the UK auto industry has the capacity to recover after economic shocks and that firms in the industry sector undertake a range of adaptive and avoidance actions in remaking and remodeling itself in order to survive. However, it argues that sectoral resilience is a contestable concept; the issue being that resilience is generally seen as being the outcome of the actions of individual firms in the sector rather than as sectoral resilience per se. Secondly, it suggests that regional resilience needs to be understood as the interaction of the development of multi-scalar patterns of relational geographies of production in industrial sectors and that those are of increasing complexity. There is a need for an understanding of this and a policy response to match the complexity: an holistic approach to regional and industrial policy.
Andy Hodder has co-authored a book chapter examining the state of trade unions in the UK during the period of the Coalition Government 2010-2015.
French, S. and Hodder, A. (2016) ‘Plus ça change: The Coalition government and the trade unions’, in P. Scott and S. Williams (eds.) Employment Relations under Coalition Government: The UK Experience, Routledge: London, 165-184.
Pamela Robinson has published an article in Operations Management Research, linked to her recent British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant.
Robinson, P.K. and Hsieh, L. (2016) ‘Reshoring: a strategic renewal of luxury clothing supply chains’, Operations Management Research, doi:10.1007/s12063-016-0116-x
Abstract: This paper contributes to the emerging literature on reshoring by taking a value-driven enquiry into the renewal of supply chain strategy. It enhances the understanding of the use of reshoring in generating the value demanded by a changing business model. An iconic British high-end clothing brand, Burberry, is the chosen case study to explore the recent move towards reshoring because its changes of leadership, business model and evolving supply chain strategy from 1997 to early 2016 provide a timely and pertinent context. Burberry has continued to realign its business towards a brand-led and customer-centric model along with restoring its corporate heritage and core brand values. The changes in Burberry’s business model triggered the need to renew and realign its supply chain strategy through consolidating and rebuilding manufacturing activities back in the UK, in order to support its brand repositioning as quintessentially British and the company’s refocus on heritage products. The increased managerial control in the supply chain together with the close proximity of design and manufacture enables the promise of quality and brand provenance to be fulfilled. The renewal of Burberry’s supply chain strategy has contributed to an increase in revenues and brand values. These findings suggest that the renewal of supply chain strategy through reshoring and increasing control in supply chain operations can enhance value and firm competitiveness.
Ferran Vendrell-Herrero has published a paper in Industrial Marketing Management.
Vendrell-Herrero, F., Bustinza, O.F., Parry, G. and Georgantzis, N. (Forthcoming) ‘Servitization, digitization and supply chain interdependency’, Industrial Marketing Management DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.06.013
Abstract: This study draws on literature at the intersection of servitization, digital business models and supply chain management. Work empirically explores how digital disruption has affected Business-to-Business (B2B) interdependencies. Dematerialization of physical products is transforming the way firms are positioned in the supply chain due to a reduction in production and transport costs and the different ways business engage with customers. Specifically, we propose that these new market conditions can empower downstream firms. We further propose that upstream firms can still capture additional value through digital service if their servitized offer includes difficult to imitate elements. The context of the analysis is the publishing industry. The Payment Card method employed is used to test UK and US consumer's perceptions of digital formats (eBooks) and assess their willingness to pay in relation to printed formats. The method undertaken enables us to elicit aggregated consumer demand for eBooks which in turn identifies optimal pricing strategies for the digital services. Analysis demonstrates that during digital servitization upstream firms should seek to deploy unique resources to ensure their strategic position in the supply chain is not diminished.