BedsBiz - Issue 1

BedsBiz

Connecting Imaginations

Changing Realities Creating Futures

Welcome from our Dean A warm welcome to all our staff, students and employers to this magazine – our first issue – aimed at all associated with University of Bedfordshire Business School. Whether you are a student or a staff member studying or teaching or managing one of our courses in Luton or Bedford or wider afield at one of our partner locations in the UK or overseas – I hope you find this school magazine both informative and an interesting read.

I have been Dean of your Business School now for just over a year and this magazine is long overdue! We have a vibrant and diverse staff and student community that has many success stories and thought leadership that need to be shared. This is one purpose of having a magazine of this type. A second key purpose is to keep our students informed of any important issues that affect their experience and learning. Finally, we aim to use the magazine to keep our external client and alumni network informed of the shaping of an imaginative new Business School here at the University of Bedfordshire.

I hope this magazine also helps in improving our dialogue and discussion with our students. As our School implements its strategy we are eager to involve current and past students in helping bring about greater relevance and success in what we do.

So over the next few pages I hope you will start to get a sense as to what we are about and perhaps you can offer your help in getting the University of Bedfordshire Business School story told. You, our staff and students, are at the heart of this story and together we can build the reputation of our School regionally, nationally and internationally.

As this is the first issue of our School Magazine we can be confident that it will not be like the second or third issue. We aim to have three issues a year – one per semester. We have developed nine key sections to the magazine to organise our stories – Cover Story, Thought Leadership, Student Room, From the Classroom,

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In Partnership, Talking Business, The Research Pod, News Room and Joiners-Movers-Shakers.

Your ideas and feedback on how we can improve things is most welcome and you can contact me or any member of the team who helped produce this first issue with your thoughts.

Happy reading!

Sonal

Contents Cover Story

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Launching Leadership Futures

Thought Leadership

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Eating soup with a fork: teaching entrepreneurship to business students

Student Room

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Lively debate hosted by the School of Law “Ready, Steady, Green!” – Ashley Ellis’ experience Business School graduate helps drive company forward Future legal eagles sparkle at Law Society Ball Talking to help

From the Classroom

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MBA Practice Weeks

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In Partnership

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Omani graduates set to be business high flyers A Beds story from Kaplan

Talking Business

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PR students grab the opportunity Leisure and Tourism Employability Conference

The Research Pod

Significant new research in the utilisation of ‘alternative’ investments The Big Data event

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New Year: new offices A book from the Business School Business expert shares insights at international conference

Joiners-Movers-Shakers

Editorial

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News Room

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14 14 15

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This magazine depends on the excellent stories of success that our staff and students generate. Deadline for inclusion of these in the next edition is 31 May 2013. Please email your stories and images to bbsdirect@beds.ac.uk

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Cover Story Launching Leadership Futures Launched at the House of Commons in October – with keynote speakers Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP and Naman Ajitsaria, Executive Director of Prithvi Group of Industries – the Leadership Futures programme aims to give the University’s Business School students imaginative and practice-based management education.

Bill Rammell, Vice Chancellor and CEO at the University, said: “The University of Bedfordshire embarks on an exciting new vision to play a place shaping role in the cities, communities and contexts it interacts with. The Parliamentary event for Leadership Futures marks the launch of a high profile guest speaker series that gives our students the opportunity to engage with and learn from inspirational leaders from diverse backgrounds.”

Dr Sonal Minocha, Dean of the Business School, added: “The launch of the series is an exemplar of what our Business School and University are championing – practice as a defining feature of our educational model in which the development of our graduates as future intelligent practitioners and leaders is our central mission”.

If you would like further information about how to engage with our Leadership Futures series either as a speaker or sponsor then please contact Tim Priestman, Business School Projects Executive, on: Tim.Priestman@beds.ac.uk In November the Leadership Futures programme welcomed the Mayor of Atlanta Kasim Reed, who gave an inspiring view of his path through his aspirations as a 13-year-old, right up to his inauguration as the 59th Mayor of Atlanta – the capital of civil and human rights movements in America.

Throughout the series there will be more high-profile guest speakers, drawn from a wide range of sectors and specialism. The succession of lectures is intended to place corporate and community engagement at the heart of the University’s vision.

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or 01582 743972

Thought Leadership Eating soup with a fork: teaching entrepreneurship to business students

By Muhammad Azam Roomi, Principal Lecturer at the UoB Business School More and more people are aware of the benefits of “inventing a job rather than finding a job”.

Across the world, universities and colleges are rushing to introduce entrepreneurship classes. This phenomenon has rekindled the age-old debate, whether entrepreneurship can be taught in business schools or one is better off learning it ‘by doing’?

A number of academics, researchers, entrepreneurs and business people have participated in the debate and raised their voices. I share the view of Professor Howard Stevenson at Harvard Business School who thinks that teachers have the ability to show students what mistakes to avoid, save them from getting caught up in the “paralysis of analysis” and help them acquire the knowledge they need to move forward and adjust. I am also a proponent of the idea that entrepreneurship education prepares potential and existing entrepreneurs to take decisions “beyond gut feeling”, equips them with the skills and characteristics to avoid common mistakes and helps them to learn about the pitfalls.

Teaching entrepreneurship in an enterprising manner in business schools can only be achieved by making the shift to ‘focus’ of learning from knowledge to insight, from critical analysis to creativity, from concept/theory to conceptualising a problem or opportunity, from passive understanding to active understanding, and from absolute detachment to emotional involvement. Teachers have to make sure that they achieve this shift in the ‘focus’ of learning by arousing every student’s curiosity for inspiration and stimulation during the ‘process’ of learning.

Entrepreneurs need to be able to act out different roles in different situations. In building relationships with different stakeholders – with a banker, venture capitalist, government official, employee, regulator, customers and so on, they should be able to think and speak on their feet and more importantly, they should have an ability to have empathy with an alternative point of view. Teachers in business schools should polish their students’ capacity to argue and present a case in a flexible, harmonious, and innovative manner.

To achieve this goal at the University of Bedfordshire, we design our entrepreneurship modules to maximise our students’ potential for stimulating entrepreneurial attributes and insights and equip them with skills for action. We use enterprising modes of learning focused upon practising behaviours, developing skills and reinforcing attributes associated with being an enterprising person by using case studies, role plays, and critical incidents in the classroom. Enterprising modes of learning are based upon the assumption that all people have some capacity for behaving entrepreneurially and a teacher’s job is to enhance that capacity. But some students are naturally more enterprising than others and every person demonstrates a different range and mix of potential.

Some are more creative, some are more capable of taking initiatives independently, and others are better at networking and so on.

We consciously make an effort to make these pedagogies interesting and inclusive with real life examples and situations. This elevates our students’ curiosity and attracts their attention to participate in the class activities with zeal, energy and enthusiasm, and reinforces our belief that “business school education helps, if you want to become a successful entrepreneur”.

Article published on 14 November 2012 in the MBA Blog, available at: http://blogs.beds.ac.uk/mba/2012/11/14/eating-soup -with-a-fork-teaching-entrepreneurship-to-business-students/

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Student Room Lively debate hosted by the School of Law Students put forward strong arguments in favour and against giving prisoners the right to vote, and dropping juries from criminal trials, at the University’s first Crown Prosecution Service Invitational Debate.

Hosted at the School of Law, the Debate heard from undergraduates from Bedford and Luton as well as the universities of Derby and Hertfordshire.

“Voting is a privilege, and not a right,” said Hannah Harvey, a first-year computer studies student from the University of Derby.

Debate judges Dr Shane Sullivan, the University’s LLB course leader; Baljit Ubhey, Chief Crown Prosecutor; and Judge Bridge from Luton Crown Court agreed with them.

Philippa Bourne, from the same university, reinforced the argument, asking: “If you break the law, why should you have the right to make the law?”.

Ms Ubhey, who was “delighted to be a part of the judging panel” said the pair had put up an impressive argument.

Lewis Gittens, a second-year law student from the University of Hertfordshire, was not swayed.

“Society has changed over the years,” he pointed out. “In 1867 you students would have been in prison for debt. So how can we go along with a law dating back to 1870 depriving prisoners of the right to vote?”.

Rebecca Corbett, from Bury St Edmunds, and Tasneem Attia, from Bedford, won the overall CPS Debating team award. Tasneem and Rebecca are an excellent partnership on a winning streak – last month they won an award of £1000 each from Bedfordshire solicitors, Taylor Walton, for academic excellence. They achieved the highest marks in their second year of the Bedfordshire LLB Law Degree.

Grace Mowatt, also from Hertfordshire, concluded: “Voting is a fundamental aspect of democracy.

Everyone deserves a second chance. Everyone deserves the right to vote.”

The second debate, on criminal trials without juries, saw two of the University of Bedfordshire’s campuses taking opposing sides.

Sanah Sultan and Zaherah Saghir, third-year law undergraduates from Luton, argued in favour of the motion that it was “time to rid the criminal justice system of juries”.

Their fears included that juries can be “influenced by publicity”, could have “biased views” and be “open to jury tapping”.

But Tasneem Attia and Rebecca Corbett disagreed (pictured above).

Arguing that the perception of judges in England and Wales are stereotypical “pale, male and stale” Tasneem asked: “How then could they represent society?”

And Rebecca stressed that being tried by a jury was a “fundamental aspect of a fair society”.

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They were supported in the debate by Pasanan Locke and Haajra Riaz.

The winning team received the Chief Crown Prosecutor's trophy and a week's work experience with the CPS – which includes an overview of its work, observation sessions in the Magistrates' and Crown Courts, and spending time on different teams.

“Starting out in the legal profession is a daunting prospect and work experience is very important,” said Ms Ubhey.

Dr Sullivan said: “This event by the Student Law Society is an important innovation for the University and it demonstrates the strength, quality and innovative nature of our students. The support provided by external partners such as Taylor Walton and the Crown Prosecution Service is both valuable and re-affirms the quality of our legal provision."

The event was organised and co-ordinated by third year Bedfordshire Law Students Kenroy Justin and Qaiser Raja, from Luton, on behalf of the Student Law Society.

Student Room “Ready, Steady, Green!”

– Ashley Ellis’ experience “I come from London and I particularly didn’t want to go to a London university because I wanted to have more independence away from home, but at the same time I didn’t want to be too far away. Luton being only half an hour drive from London, I thought, would be an ideal choice. Plus I’ve heard good things about the university, so it helped me make my choice.

In terms of choosing the course, it was easy.

Business is all around you. I studied it in secondary school and also at college too, so I wanted to continue with it. My favourite aspects are strategic management, finance and project management. I also like the lecturers who are so friendly and helpful.

After the second year of studies I did my placement with Cawleys waste management company. They’ve been established for about 60 years, so they are very experienced in their field. I had a double role – sales and marketing assistant and business development assistant.

After the fixed term of 12 months, I was offered to stay in the company until the start of my third year at the university, and when that time came, I was excited at being offered to continue working on a part-time basis.

It is my first office job, and the things I like most about it are getting out and about a lot, talking to customers, presenting presentations and thrill of winning big contracts. I am utilising my communication skills to the full!

Since returning to my studies, my job role has now changed to Client Training Executive.

The most memorable moment of my job was working on the “Ready, Steady, Green!” campaign for a food production company. I was sort of a green fitness instructor, if you imagine Mr Motivator, presenting at each site, getting them enthusiastic to recycle and compete with each other. I had to do it about ten times, and

although it was fun, at the end I was happy to put the track suit aside!

I noticed that after gaining some work experience my approach to studies changed. I utilize my time a lot better, e.g. if I have lectures from 9am till 12pm, I would still stay at the university and study till 6pm or even later on some occasions.

This year I have graduated with a first class degree and have been offered the Jubilee scholarship, which allows me to continue onto a Masters degree at Bedfordshire for free. I have chosen to study MSc Finance and Business Management because I found myself enthralled with both my accountancy units and modules during my undergraduate degree. It was the art of being able to critically think using mathematical nous and problems solving skills to overcome challenging assignments that I relished upon.

Upon my graduating from my Masters degree, I aim to delve into the world of finance and accountancy as I desire a solid profession that warrants career growth from hard work.”

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Student Room Business School graduate helps drive company forward Irfan Khan, a business graduate from the University, is applying the skills and knowledge he learnt during his degree to the world of work through Arriva UK’s Business Development and General Management Scheme.

The UK company is part of leading global transport and logistics services, Deutsche Bahn AG. Irfan’s 18-month internship is allowing him to gain insights into the different functions of key departments including finance, HR and marketing.

Amanda Harrison, Human Resources Business Partner at Arriva said: “The Recruitment Team at the University of Bedfordshire were superb in coming out to see me at Arriva. We discussed the HR intern position before advertising it and shortlisting candidates. The whole process was dealt with efficiently and professionally and the quality of candidates was great. I would certainly recommend the University to other organisations and will utilise their services again.”

Future legal eagles sparkle at Law Society Ball

It was a night of glitz and glamour at the Auction House in Luton when the Student Law Society hosted its annual ball in December. More than 70 guests donned their finest gowns, suits and masks for a night of dinner and entertainment.

Guests included Chief Executive of BPP University College Carl Lygo, a barrister and Professor of Laws, as well as staff from legal firm Noble Solicitors, who have offices around the country including Luton.

Awards were given to the students who got top marks in their exams over the summer: Attis Khan, Kenroy Justin and Rebecca Corbett, all now in their third year, and second-year student Paul Gastardo.

By working in partnership with employers we aim to enhance our student employability.

The best-dressed-guest award went to third-year student Jake Mowatt!

The University’s Student Law Society, founded in 2006, is run entirely by students who organise moots, guest lectures, discussions, field trips and social events. Another example of our practicebased vision as a School.

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Student Room Talking to help “Studying for a degree in the field of English Language and Linguistics at Bedfordshire gives you opportunities to develop possible interests in different topic areas, from business, journalism and media to teaching and clinical linguistics.

The Department of Language and Communication constantly helps with making students aware of opportunities within different fields, from teaching in primary schools, to voluntary work in speech and language therapy at the local hospital.

Last year, I went to a talk given by the Voluntary Services Manager and a Speech and Language Therapist from the Luton and Dunstable Hospital.

This was organised by the department and the Student Union, and the subject was about volunteering as a ‘Conversation Partner’, a very useful experience for those interested in careers that require linguistics in clinical settings.

A Conversation Partner’s role is to start conversations with patients with aphasia (as a result of having a stroke). The idea is to the have the patients talking more than you. This purpose could be for companionship and for the patients to regain confidence with speech, so as to carry on with everyday life.

Following an interview, you begin with a training session. The Speech and Language Therapy department shows the best ways to communicate with patients with aphasia. For example, possible conversational topics, visual aids that could be used such as a paper or magazine, and how to effectively use your body language and gestures to show you truly understand, such as not just nodding, but noting down what patients tell you to assure them you have understood what they said. This gives you the experience of the best ways to start a conversation, and more importantly to keep conversations going.

best ways to communicate. This was a great experience as you get a taste of what the six months volunteering might entail. You begin your time volunteering on the wards for 6-8 weeks, gaining further experience. If you feel comfortable and confident, this leads to the possibility of being partnered with one patient in their home, which usually would last for six months, where you visit them once a week.

The role is incredibly rewarding and heart-warming, as you see people begin to open up to you, improving their self-esteem and buoyancy, and letting you into their life. Naively perhaps, I hadn't realised how many different types of people can have a stroke, especially how it can strike all ages.

This relates to my course as I have learnt briefly in class about speech impediments, how they may be caused, and having studied linguistics as a science. Through volunteering, however, it is especially interesting to now see how language impediments impact a person's life.

As speech and language therapy is a possible career for me, this voluntary work has given me a lucky advantage of helping to decide whether it is right for me personally, or not. If it is, then it’s brilliant as an insight to possible patients you may work with in the future. But even if you are not sure that it is a career you want to progress into, it is great for building your own people and communication skills and confidence, and it has given me one the most rewarding feelings I’ve experienced.”

Amy Chamberlain BA English Language Studies, 2010-2013

As part of the training, the hospital brought two ex-patients in so we could practise the

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From the Classroom MBA Practice Weeks The full-time MBA course has taken the initiative to pilot an "MBA Practice Week" for our new intake in this academic year (2012-2013). The purpose of this MBA Practice Week is to incorporate elements for developing creative mindsets, intelligent practitioners and leaders of the future.

Our very first MBA Practice Week was held from 31 October to 5 November 2012, organised by MBA Course Leader, Dr Vincent Ong, Professor Paul Burns and the MBA Teaching Team. The activities of this first MBA Practice Week consisted of team building and networking activities, teaching and learning exercises, Dragons' Den presentation and personal development assessments. MBA students were divided into various syndicate groups to complete each activity within a timescale. They were expected to use their creative mindsets and apply knowledge and concepts in a practical, effective and professional manner. Prizes were given for the winning syndicate groups in this MBA Practice Week.

Students have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and acquired a number of key transferable skills.

Student experience has also been greatly enhanced

through individual self-assessment and cross-cultural teamwork and learning activities. Feedback and lessons learned from each activity were provided by staff members to help students develop their confidence in learning and to become better leaders.

This MBA Practice Week has helped staff members understand the importance of practice-based learning and student experience through innovative activities and events. In the next MBA Practice Week in Semesters 2 and 3, we intend to bring in practitioners and employers who can engage and contribute to our delivery.

In Partnership Omani graduates set to be business high-flyers Even the dramatic change in climate failed to dampen the spirits of graduates from the Middle East who came to collect their awards at the November graduation ceremonies.

The seven students, who completed the University’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme at our partner institute Majan University College in Oman, made the long journey to Luton to attend their graduation ceremony.

Madusha Pihilladeniya, one of our graduates, who was accompanied by her husband and daughter, said: “It was hard work as I was working while studying and looking after my daughter, who was one at the time. But it has all been worth it.

“I heard about the course from friends and I knew the reputation of the University was good so that’s why I chose this course.”

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Khaldoon Al Mjamae, 27, is now working as a Project Manager for Golden Way LLC, a construction company in Oman.

“It’s my first time in the UK and it’s been my dream to visit here ever since I was a boy. I can’t believe that I am graduating,” said Khaldoon.

“It has been hard but if you want to do something, you can do it. I’m looking forward to developing and improving myself and my new job.”

Shahla Alzadjali, 28, followed in her sister’s footsteps as she crossed the stage in St Mary’s Church to receive her award.

“I was encouraged to do this course by my sister as she did the same course,” she said. “I wanted to have a better career and a better education and I wanted to make my family proud.

“I’m working at HSBC in Oman in the payment and cash management department and I want to progress in my career.”

Reminding the graduates that education was the “most powerful transformative force which can be used to create opportunities and change lives,” Vice Chancellor Bill Rammell urged students to “be the best you can be; do the best you can do; become all you can become and give the most you can give”.

They were among more than 300 students from the University’s Business School, concluding a busy week of seven graduation ceremonies.

Majan University College is the largest university college in the Sultanate of Oman and a proud partner of UBBS since 1998.

A Beds story from Kaplan Kaplan Higher Education Institute is part of Kaplan Inc., a leading provider of educational and career services for all individuals, schools and businesses.

Through collaboration with top Australian, European and American universities, Kaplan offers students programmes that range from diplomas to degrees and MBAs. The Kaplan City Campuses – in Orchard and Wilkie Edge – are one of the largest private education institutions in Singapore.

University of Bedfordshire Business School offers BA (Hons) Accounting and BA (Hons) Business Management in Kaplan, and have just started recruiting students for BA Advertising and Marketing Communications and BSc Human Resource Management courses.

One of our Kaplan BA (Hons) Business Management graduates, Best Performance in Special Studies and Best Overall Performance Student Award Winner, Adeline Huang, shared her experience: “Studying at the University of Bedfordshire was not just about getting a recognised degree.

For me, it was developing a whole new skill set.

I have improved my analytical and presentation skills, developed critical reasoning and communication abilities inside and outside of the business world.

As a mature student I have appreciated the convenience of part-time class room based studies, affordable fees and exchanging ideas and experience with lecturers.

I have experienced a different education culture, perfected my language skills, increased the level of my language proficiency, learnt to research more effectively and opened up my career prospects.”

Having had experience in a few private and government organisations, Adeline now works in the Civil Service College as a Personal Assistant.

Source: www.edvantage.com http://www.edvantage.com.sg/edvantage/news/ schoolnews/1211284/Practical_BAs_to_meet_evolving_ market_demands.html

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Talking Business PR students grab the opportunity A University Governor, Tabitha Aldrich-Smith, who is also the founder of Vespr Communications came to speak to third year BA (Hons) PR students and one BA (Hons) Advertising and Marketing Communications student in November.

It was a very valuable session, as judged by the students and BA (Hons) PR course leader, Neville Hunt. “In the session Tabitha invited students to apply for one of a number of internships in her fledgling PR start-up company and as a direct result, a number of students were interviewed by phone on the following Friday, leading to six of them being offered placements�, said Neville.

In parallel, Tabitha has Skype-interviewed a UoB BA (Hons) PR alumni who graduated a couple of years ago and is considering her for a full-time permanent position.

Her presentation covered how she got into PR and how her career in PR (specifically corporate communications) has developed, what's involved in corporate communications and internal communications and what qualities students need to exhibit to get a break in, and get on in PR. She also answered student questions.

Leisure and Tourism Employability Conference On 14 November the Business Pods got filled with tourism and hospitality students wishing to find out more about employability in the sector. It was their chance to meet employers and find out what they are looking for in an ideal candidate/application, get feedback on their CV from experts and learn about graduate, placement and volunteering opportunities.

The conference organised by Faye Taylor and the team attracted over 60 undergraduate and postgraduate students. Speakers included Ruth Spalding of easyJet

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talking about Employability within the service sector industry, Tony Giauna of Ramada, Sarah Burnham of Park Inn, people from University Careers and Employment Service a few graduates and students talking about their graduate job and placement experiences.

Click here to watch the short clip from the Conference.

The next Employability Conference will take place on the on the 6 February 2013 and will feature speakers from Thomas Cook, Whitbread/Premier Inn, Access and more. In fact, Thomas Cook held a Recruitment Event at the University in December and talked to students about overseas roles within the company and their recruitment process. The February Employability Conference will be another chance for students to dig deeper into the real world.

The Research Pod Significant new research in the utilisation of ‘alternative’ investments Dr Martin Elger is the Head of Financial Analysis and Investments of a Swiss-German company dealing with projects in the insurance sector and a part-time Lecturer and Head of Business Simulation Games at the Centre of Finance at the Cooperative State University Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. As a University of Bedfordshire Business School PhD student he presented his research "Alternative investments – The utility of European REITs and real estate stock corporations within the mixture of an investment portfolio of an institutional investor" on 15 October 2012.

Dr Elger explained that the core of his research is about the utilisation of ‘alternative’ investments, especially European REITS and real estate stock corporations, and if there is an advantage to admix them to mixed-asset portfolios of European institutional investors.

During the writing of his thesis Dr Elger was working part-time for a German life insurance company in the capital investment department. He commented: “Working on the practical aspects of a research question means that you get a very good overview

The Big Data event Big data and digital analytics technologies are revamping the way that retailers are generating and using data. By adopting new analytics technologies, firms are able to record and store a substantial amount of data in either numerical or text-based format containing potentially valuable information that they can analyse and use to operate and innovate more effectively. Professor Ram Ramanathan and his team members (Professor Yanqing Duan, Dr Elly Philpott and Dr Guangming Cao) in the University of Bedfordshire Business School carried out a research project to investigate the impact of data and business analytics on the performance of retail firms in the UK by collecting and analysing empirical evidence.

The project was funded by the University under its research investment programme.

of the things that are happening inside and you know where the problems, the gaps and the lack of knowledge is. Doing a practice-oriented PhD on this topic with support of that life insurance company was a win-win situation for both sides. I gained my PhD and widened my knowledge which I am happy to apply to other companies as an advisor now.”

Kristine Anoska, an MSc Investment and Finance student who attended the presentation, said: “I did my undergraduate final year project on a related topic, so I wanted to see how it’s done on a higher level (PhD rather than undergraduate). I got a deeper insight of how insurance companies apply the methods and modules that Martin was working on and I actually got really inspired and probably would like to do a PhD myself.”

The team successfully organised a Big Data event to disseminate the findings of the research project on 11 October 2012 at Putteridge Bury Conference Centre.

The conference was attended by several local and regional businesses. Three speakers from the UK retail industry (Mr Anthony Morris of DSG Inernational, Ms Sarah McVittie of Dressippi and Mr Stuart Wilson of IronmongeryDirect) spoke at the event about their experiences on using the Big Data, followed by a presentation on the results of the project.

The presentations were followed by a questions and answers session as well, with good participation from the speakers as well as the audience.

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News Room New Year: new offices We welcomed the New Year with refurbished staff and student accommodation.

The old building

New staff offices

A book from the Business School Organizational Behaviour: People, Process, Work and Human Resource Management has just been published by Kogan Page.

Edited by Raisa Arvinen-Muondo (one of our PhD students) and Stephen Perkins (former head of the Department of Strategy and HRM); this book is the result of a collaboration between members of the Department of Strategy and HRM (now part of Management and Business Systems). The book aims to bring together organisational behaviour and human resource management

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The Business School Reception

perspectives. Chapters cover topics such as performance management, creativity and strategy from an integrated perspective, making it an exciting addition to current textbooks in the field.

Most exciting, virtually all the chapters are written by UoB staff, including Janice Johnson, Christina Schwabenland, Caroline Bolam, Sarah Jones, Qi Wei, Rod Smith, Samar Baddar, Kostas Kakavelakis, and Pauline Lowenberger. Phil Davies (who retired in autumn 2012) also contributed as did Nahid Rozalin, another current PhD student. There are plans to integrate the book into our teaching programme from the next semester.

News Room Business expert shares insights at international conference Innovative use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and entrepreneurship are a “matter of survival” for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who want to succeed online.

That’s the opinion of Professor Yanqing Duan who presented a keynote speech at the International Conference on e-Business Technology and Strategy, in Tianjin, China in September 2012.

Professor Duan, Director of the Business and Information Systems Research Centre (BISC) at the University of Bedfordshire Business School, was invited to speak about her research into why some SMEs are successful in e-Business, whilst others are left behind.

She believes the key is to raise awareness on developing an entrepreneurial culture and to improve ICT skills – especially with today’s worldwide financial and economic turbulence.

“Development and deployment of emerging ICTs are providing new opportunities as well as challenges for e-Business innovation and growth,” she added.

BISC’s extensive research has analysed factors affecting e-Business success from several theoretical and practical perspectives.

And it has been involved in many projects worth some £1.5m over the past 10 years, mainly funded from the European Commission, supporting SMEs’ e-Business adoption and innovation through knowledge transfer and ICT competence development.

At the conference Professor Duan used case studies to demonstrate the role of ICT innovation adoption and entrepreneurship in the e-Business success of SMEs.

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Joiners-Movers-Shakers Joiners

Movers

Faculty:

Accounting and Finance:

Peter Goalby

Graduate Academic Assistant

Prof Chin-Bun Tse

Head of Department

Deyan Hristov

Graduate Academic Assistant

Professor

Petya Koleva

Graduate Academic Assistant

Prof Magdy AbdelKader

Allan Ntata

Graduate Academic Assistant

Prof David Eales

Professor

Emily Sheppard

Graduate Academic Assistant

Dr Walter Mkumbuzi

Senior Lecturer

Lucia Latkova

Admin Assistant

Dr Mohammad Nurunnabi

Lecturer

Sidrah Mahboob

Graduate Intern (Administration)

Peter Patrick

Lecturer

Dr Sudesh Sangray

Lecturer

Accounting and Finance: Dr Sanawar Choudhury

Principal Tutor

Dr George Kapaya

Principal Tutor

Deborah Maguire

Senior Lecturer

Chaoyan Wang

Senior Lecturer

Derek Barnsley

Senior Lecturer

Dr Seun Avoseh

Lecturer

Philip Davies

Senior Lecturer

Dr Beata Coldbeck

Lecturer

Brian Johnston

Senior Lecturer

Sandar Win

Lecturer

Nigel Williams

Senior Lecturer

Desmond Kapofu

Lecturer

Management and Business Systems:

Language and Communication: Nicky Latimer

Language Teacher

Management and Business Systems:

Veronica Garbett

Senior Tutor

Mark Holbourn

Senior Tutor

Dr Sally Everett

Head of Department

Dr Markus Haag

Lecturer

Robert Hadland

Senior Lecturer

Laila Kasem

Lecturer

Dr Maria Palazzo

Lecturer

Muhammad Sameer

Lecturer

Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality: Zubin Sethna

Principal Lecturer

Karl Russell

Senior Lecturer

Augusto Voltres-Dorta

Senior Lecturer

Giuseppe Emanuele Adamo

Lecturer

Dr Ioannis Kostopoulos

Lecturer

Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality:

Shakers Accounting and Finance: Dr Michael Kennedy

from Principal Lecturer to Head of Department

Management and Business Systems: Elizabeth Parkin

from Senior Lecturer to Head of Department

Tim Priestman

from MBA Course Director to Projects Executive

Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality: Dr Markus Haag

from Teaching Fellow to Lecturer

Laila Kasem

from Teaching Fellow to Lecturer