Centre

Centre for International Business Strategy and Decisions

Unit(s) of assessment: Business and Management Studies

School: Nottingham Business School; School of Social Sciences

The Centre for IBSD was established in January 2021 after running for two years as IBSD Research Group with publications, research seminars and projects connected to it. The members of the CIBSD investigate research phenomena of international importance for individuals, groups, organisations, cultures, and nations. Global challenges and opportunities ask for interdisciplinary international collaborations to find solutions regarding global sustainability (from nutrition to microfinance), sustainable cultures (migration, cultural adaptation, decision-making), multinational corporate strategies and transnational entrepreneurship decisions. Our Centre explores new avenues with a diverse set of theories and methods (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed) to identify configurations and reconfigurations in international business settings.

The Centre focuses on the following research themes with theoretical and empirical investigations.

International Business Strategies and Decisions (Prof. Ursula F. Ott)
Global Sustainability (Prof. Usha Ramanthan)
Behavioural Science and Culture (Prof. Thorsten Chmura)

Each area is headed by Professors and has academics at various levels of their careers working together from Early Career Researcher to Associate Professors. We integrate Doctoral Studies as an important part of our research.

PhD Funding

Find out everything you need to know about funding your doctoral studies – from tuition fees and loans, to studentships and external funding.

To work jointly on research project with a common theme (global disorder, sustainable futures, and cultures for instance)
To publish high-quality output
To provide a research platform for discussions of active researchers and PGRs to lead to publications and successful PhD outcomes
To have an impact in business, society and policy
To provide a research hub for global data and research collaborations.

The Centre welcomes PhD students interested in and contributing to our Research Themes.

Ursula F. Ott

Professor

Nottingham Business School

Usha Ramanathan

Professor

Nottingham Business School

Thorsten Chmura

Professor

Nottingham Business School

Prof. Ursula F. Ott

Dr. Soumia Nouari (Foreign Direct Investment, China and India)

Meshkat Akanda: International Compensation Schemes (Prof. Ursula F. Ott, Dr. Marco Furlotti)
Emmanuel Aitkins: Global Sustainability (Prof. Usha Ramanthan)
Hanh Nguyen: Corruption in International Business Negotiations (Prof. Ursula F Ott; Prof. Thorsten Chmura)
Kehinde Olafare: Food Waste Sustainability (Prof. Usha Ramanthan)
Duarte Pitta Ferraz: How leaders manage directive-participative duality in interpersonal interactions (Dr. Marco Furlotti, Prof. Ursula F. Ott, Dr. Victtor Izidor)

PhD and DBA Topics are aligned to the research themes of the Centre and interested candidates are welcome.

Juliana Siwale
Ugbede Umoru
Weixi Han
Marco Furlotti
Olu Aluko
Abiodun Adegbile

Our programme of research distinguishes three themes with theoretical and empirical investigations.

International Business Strategies and Decisions (Prof. Ursula F. Ott):

International Business Strategies: International Strategic Alliances, International Negotiations strategies, Market Entry strategies; Supply Chain approaches to strategy and operation of international business-to-business relationships
International Business Decision-Making: Human Decision-making, Decision-making in MNEs, SMEs and Entrepreneurship, Heuristics, Rationality assumptions
Sustainable Cultures: Cultural Profiles and Adaptation; Migration: Diaspora research, Global heritage

Global Sustainability (Prof. Usha Ramanthan):

Waste management, Circular economy value chains, Sustainable production, Food/Nutrition, Climate Change
Sustainable mobility, stakeholder ecosystems
Sustainable Informal Savings groups – Microfinance

Behavioural Science and Culture (Prof. Thorsten Chmura):

Experimental Research into cultural behaviour
Behavioural Science and corruption and trust

The Centre research benefits from links to industry, academia, and policy makers.

Academic Collaborations:

Academy of International Business with focus on Research Methods in the AIB Research Methods SIG
Cross Cultural Research Platform: with insights into cultural intelligence, emotional intelligence, international business characteristics (X-culture platform and industry collaborations)
Migration Platform collaborations (Dr. Maria Elo, University of Southern Denmark)
Centre for the Future of Work, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Prof. Pervez Ghauri, University of Birmingham
Dr. Ana Romero-Martinez, Vice Dean, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Prof. Usha Mohan (IIT, India)
Dr. Lilian A Borges (UNIDAVI, Brazil)

Industry Collaborations:

Michael Gates CrossCulture– Managing Director and Associate Fellow of Said Business School, University of Oxford
Dr. Samantha Macro – Mestag Therapeutics, Vice-president of Finance

Policy Collaborations:

Geo-political Narratives of Global Disorder
Global Sustainability: UN75 Dialogue Platform – 75th Anniversary for the UN, partner universities, CIBSD members present their research to ‘Living Securely: Transnational Experience’ November 24th and 26th 2020
EU-UK Future Relationship – Post Brexit Relationships

SIWALE, J., GURĂU, C., ALUKO, O., DANA, L.P. AND OJO, S., 2023. Toward understanding the dynamics of the relationship between religion, entrepreneurship and social change: empirical findings from technology-savvy African immigrants in UK. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 186, p.122153. (ABS 3*)

KOLADE, O. AND ADEGBILE, A. and SARPONG, D. (2022). Can university-industry-government collaborations drive a 3D printing revolution in Africa? A triple helix model of technological leapfrogging in additive manufacturing. Technology in Society (69) – Accepted/in press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.101960

LUO, X., CAO, D., TJAHJONO, B. and ADEGBILE, A. (2022). Business Model Innovation Themes of Emerging Market Enterprises: Evidence in China. Journal of Business Research (139), 1619-1630. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.10.080(ABS 3*)

ALUKO, O., OTT, U.F., SIWALE, J., and ODUSANYA, K., 2022. Overcoming the liability of outsidership: A fsQCA analysis of African transnational entrepreneurs in the UK in Journal of Business Research (ABS 3*)

ADEGBILE, A.S, SARPONG, D., and KOLADE, O. 2021. Environments for Joint University-Industry Laboratories Development: Micro level Dimensions and Research Implications. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 170, p. 120888. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120888 (ABS 3*)

ADEGBILE, A.S., SARPONG, D. and CAO, D. (2021) Industry – University Collaboration in African Emerging Economies: A Legitimacy Perspective, IEEE Transaction in Engineering Management (Accepted/In-Press) doi: 10.1109/TEM.2021.3050859 (ABS 3*)

BISHT, N., TRUSSON, C., SIWALE, J. and RAVISHANKAR, M., 2021. Enhanced job satisfaction under tighter technological control: the paradoxical outcomes of digitalisation. New Technology, Work and Employment. (ABS 3)

SIWALE, J. and GODFROID, C., 2021. Digitising microfinance: on the route to losing the traditional ‘human face’ of microfinance institutions. Oxford Development Studies. ISSN 1360-0818 (Forthcoming)*)

HAN, W., HUANG, Y., HUGHES, M. and ZHANG, M., 2021. The trade-off between trust and distrust in supply chain collaboration. Industrial Marketing Management, 98, pp. 93-104. ISSN 0019-8501

SIWALE, J., KIMMITT, J., and AMANKWAH-AMOAH, J. (2021). The Failure of Hybrid Organizations: A Legitimation Perspective. Management and Organization Review, 1-34. (ABS 3*)

VUKICEVIC, J., FALLON, G. and OTT, U., 2021. A theoretical and empirical investigation into investment activities of technologically intensive Chinese state-owned enterprises in the UK, International Business Review

AIKINS, E. and RAMANATHAN, U., 2020. Key factors of carbon footprint in the UK food supply chains: a new perspective of life cycle assessment. International Journal of Operations and Production Management. ISSN 0144-3577

GHAURI, P.N., OTT, U.F. and RAMMAL, H.,2020. International Business Negotiations: Theory and Practice, EE Publisher. It

HUANG, Y., HAN, W. and MACBETH, D., 2020. The complexity of collaboration in supply chain networks: an exploratory study of the Chinese automotive sector. Supply Chain Management: an International Journal, 25 (3), pp. 393-410.

ODUSANYA, K., ALUKO, O. and LAL, B., 2020. Building consumers’ trust in electronic retail platforms in the Sub-Saharan context: an exploratory study on drivers and impact on continuance intention. Information Systems Frontiers: Journal of Research and Innovation. ISSN 1387-3326

RAMANATHAN, U., MAZZOLA, E., MOHAN, U., BRUCCOLERI, M., AWASTHI, A. and GARZA-REYES, J.A., 2020. How selection of collaborating partners impact on the green performance of global businesses? An empirical study of green sustainability. Production Planning and Control. ISSN 0953-7287 (forthcoming)

SIWALE, J. and KIMMITT, J. 2020. The Failure of Hybrid Organizations: A Legitimation Perspective, Management Organization Review

DE AVILLEZ, M.M., GREENMAN, A. and MARLOW, S., 2019. Ethical judgments about social entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa: the influence of spatio-cultural meanings. Journal of Business Ethics. ISSN 0167-4544.

OTT, U.F. and GHAURI, P.N., 2019. Brexit negotiations: from negotiation space to agreement zones. Journal of International Business Studies. ISSN 0047-2506

FURLOTTI, M. and SODA, G., 2018. Fit for the task: complementarity, asymmetry, and partner selection in alliances. Organization Science. ISSN 1047-7039

The CIBSD works in line with the Research Themes and the projects and collaborations consider aspects of the research directions in their funding bids. For collaborations, please have a look at the topics below:

British Academy: Geopolitical Narratives of Global (Dis)order: Prof. Ursula F. Ott secured together with partners from University of Exeter, Kings College London, University of Bath, University of Cardiff and Aston University on Geopolitical Narratives of Global (Dis)order.

North West Europe & ERDF Project REAMIT: Prof Ramanathan is representing NTU as a communication lead in Interreg North West Europe & ERDF Project (www.reamit.eu). REAMIT is improving Resource Efficiency of Agribusiness supply chains by Minimising waste using Big Data and Internet of Things Sensors.

GCRF QR fund: Prof Ramanathan has secured funding from GCRF QR fund 2020-21 to run a global sustainability project in India ‘Preparation for Socio-Economic partnerships to achieve the goal of sustainability: Educating and upskilling local community’.

GCRF funding: Entrepreneurship education and youth unemployment and poverty: How are African universities making a difference? Dr. Olu Aluko and Dr. Juliana Siwale secured GCRF funding titled: Entrepreneurship education and youth unemployment and poverty: How are African universities making a difference? The project centres on the UN SDG goals 1, 2 and 4 which are No poverty, zero hunger, Quality education respectively, to reduce poverty and inequalities through university entrepreneurship education in Zambia and Nigeria.

Related Projects:

Food waste management and sustainability in Ghana food supply chains: Mr Emmanuel Aikins secured a seed corn fund from NTU 2020-2021 to conduct a research on food waste management and sustainability in Ghana food supply chains.

Sustainable Cultures, Migration and Integration: Prof. Ursula F. Ott addresses Cultural Adaptation of Global Managers which was funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Grant and is currently enlarged into Sustainable Cultures, Migration and Integration. Furthermore, EU-UK Future Relationship is based on the Brexit Negotiation publications and collaborations and this strand of research focuses on the future agreements and negotiations.

Academy of International Business Best Research Methods Award 2019 – Prof. Ursula F. Ott for the paper: International Negotiations Dance: A cross-cultural and experimental analysis

December 2^nd 2022 - A Swiss-style Brexit deal is unlikely unless things change dramatically within the Conservative Party (Ursula F. Ott and Pervez Ghauri)

October 26^th, 2020 – Why the UK should stop talking tough on a No Deal Brexit, (Ursula F. Ott and Pervez Ghauri)

November 20^th, 2018 – How a ‘Ukraine Plus’ Agreement could solve Theresa May’s problems, (Ursula F. Ott and Pervez Ghauri)

Follow announcements from September 2021

Clinics for Internal Speakers - Every 4th Wednesday of the month

CIBSD Doctoral Seminars - Every 3rd Wednesday of the month

External Speaker Seminars - By invitation

Please contact nbs.cibsd@ntu.ac.uk for more information and signing up.

UN75+2 Platform as Virtual Conference: two sessions from the CIBSD network, on November 22^nd Decision-making of globally sustainable FDI and global value chains and on November 24^thMigrant Spaces with colleagues from across the NTU disciplines (Art and Design, Art and Humanities), national (Universities of Glasgow and Leeds) and international (University of Texas, University of West Indies, University of Southern Denmark, Brescia and ESSC Clermont) were each a huge success with collaborators now identified for future projects into globally sustainable FDI and GVC as a well as Migration Space.

Joint Seminar between CIBSD and the Centre for the Future of Work of the University of Pretoria: Thanks to the GCRF funding of Juliana Siwale and Olu Aluko, the Centre was hosting a joint seminar to explore future collaboration from joint research, field work, grant applications to PhD supervision. It was held on Wednesday November 30^th, and promises to more future seminars.

CIBSD Doctoral Seminars with presentations of Hanh Nguyen (Corruption in International Business Negotiations) and Kehinde Olafare (Food Waste and Agribusiness)

AIB Research Methods SIG Worldwide Webinars:

Simulation in International Business Research (November 16^th) (Dr. Stewart Miller, Dr. Trevis Certo)

External Speaker:

Dr. Christian Bellak (Vienna University of Business and Economics) on ‘Crises and Investor-State Arbitration Disputes’ April 27^th, 2022 (online)

The UN75+1 at NTU event
with international collaborators (University of Auckland, Southern Denmark and University of West Indies) and CIBSD members (Aluko, Siwale, Umoru, Ott) presenting their research in a very well received event with further collaborations envisaged for joint research into Migration and Culture. November 30^th-Dec 2^nd (online)

CIBSD Doctoral Seminars held monthly on the third Wednesday – Presentations on Research Design, Theoretical Underpinning and specific topics of the PGRs

AIB Research Methods SIG Worldwide Webinars:

Ethics in International Business Research (Prof. Stewart Miller, Prof. Lorraine Eden, Prof. Rosalie Tung, Prof. Fiona Moore) January 2022
Responsible Research Methods (Prof. Agnieszka Chidlow, Prof Anne Tsui, Prof. Lorraine Eden, Prof. John McIntyre) March 2022
Templates in Qualitative Research (Prof. Catherine Welch, Prof. Tine Köhler, Prof. Vikram Bhakoo, Prof. Anne Smith) May 2022

External Speakers
Dr. Vas Taras (University of Greensboro)
USA on ‘X-Culture’
October 15^th 2020, online (Ms Teams)

CIBSD Migration Workshop
Chaired by Prof. Ursula Ott
External speaker: Dr. Maria Elo (University of Southern Denmark), an internationally recognised Migration and Diaspora expert
Internal presenters: Dr. Olu Aluko and Dr. Juliana Siwale
The workshop attracted colleagues from across the School and also the University. This was also a trial for our workshop with the British Academy.
April 29^th 2021, online (Ms Teams)

The UN75 at NTU event
With international collaborators (University of Auckland, Vienna University of Business and Economics, Complutense University Madrid and ICESI Columbia) and IBSD members (Aluko, Siwale, Akanda, Galallage, Ott) presenting their research in a very well received event with further collaborations envisaged for joint research into Migration, Sustainable Futures and Culture.
November 24^th-26^th 2020 (online)

Doctoral Seminars organised by CIBSD
On January 27^th, 2020 CIBSD started to host:

‘Theory-Themed’ Webinar Series by Prof. Ursula F. Ott
‘How to publish in Top Journals’ by Prof. Marina Dabic, March 2021
‘How to publish from your PhD’ by Prof. Usha Ramanathan, May 2021

AIB Research Methods SIG Worldwide Webinars

The Academy of International Business Inaugural AIB RM SIG Webinar ‘Doing Research During Covid-19’ organised and moderated by Ursula F. Ott as Vice-President of Webinars and PhD Programmes of the Research Methods.

SIG was attended by 233 attendees from the USA, Brazil, Europe, China, Japan, India, African countries on December 3^rd.

The presentation on Research Design during Covid-19 (speakers: Prof. Melanie Nind, Prof. Ursula F. Ott, and Dr. Amir Qamar) was very well received and NBS/NTU was visible across the field and the globe. NBS colleagues and PhD students attended this event since it was made accessible for non-members of the Academy.

‘Multi-Level Methods’ by AIB Research Methods SIG (sponsored by NBS)
‘Writing a Convincing Methodology Section’ by AIB Research Method SIG Moderated by Prof. Ursula F. Ott (with stellar set-up of AIB community) and a high number of participants of 366 from around the world.

External Speakers
Prof. Mark Casson (Henley Business School)
Talk: ‘Global Business Model’
October 16^th, 2019

Dr. Noemi Sinkovics (University of Manchester; now University of Auckland)
Talk: ‘Pattern Matching’
November 21^st 2019 (13.30–15.00)

IBSD Research Group

Research Seminars, 12.00–13.00

The New Doctoral Training
November, 13^th 2019

Internal speakersProf. David Smith
December, 11^th 2019

Dr. Maria De Avillez
January, 15^th 2020

Dr. Wendy Chapple
February, 12^th 2020

IBSD Research Group

Internal speakers

Dr. Olu Aluko
Talk : ‘Transnational Entrepreneurs’

Dr. Jelena Vukicevic
Talk: ‘Chinese State-Owned-Enterprises’

Dr. Russ Glennon
‘Critical Thinking’

Dr. Marco Furlotti
‘Experiential learning, behavioural competencies, and entrepreneurial intentions'

Clinics
led by Prof. Ursula F. Ott
‘Revise and Resubmit – Advice and Hands-on’
‘Introduction to Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA)’

Seminar Discussion Groups
Topic: ‘Emerging Market Research – Collaboration possibilities’
Topic: ‘Cultural Values, Attitudes and Profiles’
Topic: ‘Strategy and Decision making’

Research workshop
May 14^th, 2019

12.00-13.00: Welcome and Lunch
13.00-14.00: “Publishing in Leading Journals - An Editor's View”, by
Prof. Pervez Ghauri (University of Birmingham),
editor of International Business Review and consulting editor of JIBS.
14.00-15.00: 'A methodological journey into International Interactive Decision Making', by
Prof. Ursula F. Ott(Nottingham Business School)
15.00-16.00: 'Location Choice Decisions of Spanish Hotel Chains - Developing a database', by
Dr. Ana Romero Martinez (Associate Professor and Vice Dean for International and Economic Affairs, Faculty of Commerce and Tourism, Complutense University of Madrid and Visiting Scholar of the IBSD Research Group)

Research workshop for IBSD and PGRs
led by Prof. Ursula F. Ott
‘Fuzzy set QCA an application to research topics in the IBSD research group’
July 2019

Centre for International Business Strategy and Decisions

Overview