Biography
Dr. Perks has ten years international marketing and consultancy experience with Olivetti (Italy), Acorn Computers, European Commission (Brussels) and PA Consultants. She was appointed to an academic position in 1991 with the University of Salford, where she was Director of the full-time MBA and part-time MSc in Marketing for a number of years. Helen has a PhD from Lancaster University. Helen joined Manchester Business School (formerly School of Management at UMIST) in February 2002. She supervises PhD and DBA students and had divisional responsibility for post-graduate research.
Dr. Perks is an invited member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Product Innovation Management (the leading 4* rated innovation journal), Industrial Marketing Management and International Marketing Review. She regularly publishes in top management journals such as Journal of Product Innovation Management, Industrial Marketing Management, R&D Management, Services Industries Journal, the International Journal of Innovation Management., Creativity and Innovation Management, Journal of Services Marketing. She was co-editor of a special issue of the International Marketing Review on global NPD. She is a member of the major European EIASM International Product Development Management (IPDM) Conference Board and was elected to be conference Chair in 2012 (hosted at MBS). She regularly presents, reviews papers and chairs sessions for the Product Development Management Association (PDMA) (USA), American Marketing Academy conference, IPDM conference, IMP (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing) Group conference, and British Academy of Management conferences
Dr Perks undertakes external collaborative research with academic institutions throughout the world and with major organisations, such as the Corus Group, Jaguar/Land Rover, Astra Zeneca. She is chair of the PDMA UK and Ireland (affiliated to the US) and is on the academic committee of PDMA globally. She has attracted EPSRC and KTP funding to support her work. Helen has operated as a member of the steering group of the British Academy of Management (BAM) Special Interest Group on Inter-organisational Relations, supported by EPSRC funding, and was track chair of the BAM conference 2002.
Dr Perks is Associate Director of the CRIS Research Centre at MBS. She routinely hosts academic and industry-based seminars, inviting major scholars and industry speakers in the field, and is invited to give keynote addresses, seminar papers and lead workshops in the areas of product and service innovation and inter-organizational relations
Research Interests
Helen's research interests lie in two domains: New Product and Service innovation management and Inter-organisational Relations and networks. Within these fields, her current research investigations focus on task & resource partitioning in innovation networks, co-creation in radical service innovation, modes of communication in new service development and in teams, network configurations in medical devices sectors, innovation networks in emerging markets, individual dynamic capabilities associated with new service development, dynamic capabilities and the role of leadership . She has additional research interests in farming sector new business processes, case study and action research methodologies.