For immediate release - 3rd April 2007
The Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM) has awarded seven Innovation Fellowships as part of two new initiatives funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Why Innovation? Innovation is key to exploit new ideas and therefore critical to business success. Gone is the traditional linear model of innovation and the move to global innovation processes is here. Employment and business prosperity in the UK depend on these processes being successful.
Key areas that will be researched include:
- Innovation in Context - can the rate of innovation be balanced with the need to achieve environmentally and socially sustainable levels of innovation?
- Innovation Processes - enhance understanding of how innovations are triggered and subsequently identified, and ultimately absorbed by firms especially in the context of the emerging global economy.
- Service Innovation - with over 75% of employment in the UK now being located in services, we need to enhance our understanding of service innovation.
- Innovation and Value Added - measurement of intellectual capital and intangible resources including the relationship to accounting, planning and control can have major effects on the innovation process.
Professor Robin Wensley, Director of AIM Research comments, "AIM is one of the most exciting initiatives on management research anywhere in the world. We are delighted to welcome such a strong group of scholars focusing on Innovation. This group will be a valuable contribution to the existing AIM network which now includes some 250 scholars from over 50 different universities around the world".
The seven Innovation Fellows are:
Michelle Lowe is Professor of Retail management and Leader of the Retail Management subject group in the School of Management. Currently her research focuses on issues of retail-led urban regeneration, managing growth - retail development, housing growth and sustainable communities; customer service and competitive advantage in retail; and landscapes of consumption. Michelle will be taking the position of Lead Innovation Fellow.
Zella King joined the University of Reading Business School as a Lecturer in Human Resource Management (HRM) in September 2002. Since 2005, she has been a Research Fellow in the Business School, and the Director of the Centre for Career Management Skills. Her research interests include Employability, employment outcomes and HRM in the IT industry.
Jaideep Prabhu is a Professor of Marketing at Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London. Professor Prabhu's main research interests are in marketing strategy. In particular, he studies various issues concerning the antecedents and consequences of radical innovation in high-technology contexts such as e-commerce, banking, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
Gerry George is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Strategy at London Business School. Gerry is an active entrepreneur in technology start-ups. He is an expert on innovation and how technology shapes new opportunities in start-ups and established companies. His current research is on the global business impact of human embryonic stem cells.
Luciana D'Adderio is a Senior Research Fellow at the Research Centre for Social Sciences (RCSS) and Institute for Studies of Science, Technology and Innovation, University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include; micro-dynamics of organisational knowledge, learning and problem-solving, evolution of organisational routines and capabilities, dependable innovation and organisations, implementation and use of ICTs for Product/Process Design and Manufacturing, ethnographical observation at leading manufacturing organisations.
Mike Chiasson is a Senior Lecturer of Information Systems in Management Science at Lancaster University Management School. Mike's research examines how social context affects IS development and implementation, using a range of social theories (actor network theory, structuration theory, critical social theory, ethnomethodology, communicative action, power-knowledge, deconstruction, and institutional theory).
Jonathan Sapsed is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Innovation Management at the University of Brighton as well as a Research Fellow of the Advanced Institute of Management (AIM) at Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London. He is working as part of the AIM programme on Discontinuous Innovation and therefore works closely with Professor John Bessant at Imperial College as well as Professor Robert DeFillippi, AIM International Visiting Fellow from Suffolk University, Boston.
The new Innovation Fellows will complement the existing AIM Fellows both in terms of their individual disciplines and increasing research coverage of relevant issues in the area of innovation.
For more information contact:
- Professor Andy Neely, Deputy Director, AIM, email: aneely@london.edu, Tel: 0870 734 3000 or 07711 140198
- Claire Fitzpatrick, Press and Communications, AIM, email: cfitzpatrick@london.edu, Tel: 020 7000 0517 or 07703 725927
Notes for Editors
- AIM Research is funded by the ESRC and EPSRC and was launched in November 2002. AIM's mission is to improve understanding of management's contribution to organizational performance, and thus UK well-being. AIM's more specific objectives are: (i) to conduct research that will identify actions to enhance the UK's international competitiveness; (ii) to raise the scientific quality and international standing of UK research on international competitiveness; (iii) to expand the size and capacity of the active research base for UK research on management; and (iv) to develop the engagement of that capacity with world-class research outside the UK and with practitioners as co-producers of knowledge about management and other users of research within the UK. For more information on AIM visit www.aimresearch.org
- The ESRC is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It provides independent, high quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and Government. The ESRC's planned total expenditure in 2006/7 is £169 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and research policy institutes. More at www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk
- The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK's main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. The EPSRC invests more than £500 million a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone's health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC also actively promotes public awareness of science and engineering. EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK. Website address for more information on EPSRC: www.epsrc.ac.uk