Inaugural lectures in People, Management and Organisations division

The People, Management and Organisations (PMO) division will be hosting two special lectures on June 20^th as part of a cross-school AMBS inaugural lecture series this summer.

The lectures provide an opportunity for new or recently promoted professors to celebrate their achievements, and present an overview of their own contribution to their field of cutting-edge research and highlight the latest developments in a particular discipline.

Mario Kafouros, Professor of International Business and Innovation, will introduce the PMO lectures with a talk on ‘Innovation, Value Creation and Competitiveness in the Global Economy’, providing an overview of his research findings about recent changes in international business and global innovation.

He says one of the most important challenges in the global economy concerns the development and implementation of effective strategies for enhancing innovation, value creation and competitiveness. “Recent developments in the global landscape, including the emergence of developing countries as innovators and the rise of protectionism, create entirely new dynamics, change the rules of the game and influence how organisations should respond to these challenges. They also have important implications for societies around the world.”

State capitalism

Pei Sun, Professor of International Business, will then present his lecture on ‘State Capitalism and International Business: Managing Socio-political Challenges and Institutional Complexity’. He adds: “While international business scholarship has long been concerned with the interactions between firms and their socio-political environments/stakeholders, the latest political and anti-globalisation events such as Brexit and the looming trade war between China and the US have highlighted the need to better understand how firms navigate a variety of local, national, and cross-border institutional complexities.”

In his lecture he will draw upon his own research over the last decade to demonstrate the relevance of corporate political activity and strategy research in the state capitalism context to the scholarly community, reflective practitioners and policy makers.

The discussant for the lectures will be Mike Wright, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Imperial College, London. He is also Director of the Centre for Management Buyout Research, and Chair of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.

Timings

4pm – Inaugural lectures

6.30pm – Drinks reception