Business school logo Aston University - Birmingham
Research and Impact
Economics, Finance & Entrepreneurship
Aston Business School Aston Business School Research Research Departments
Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship Group at Aston Business School
The Economics, Finance & Entrepreneurship Department carries out a wide range of research and teaching activities in the general fields of economics, entrepreneurship, finance and international business.
Research within the Department is generally of an applied nature, often cutting across research areas, and is designed to be directly relevant to business.
Department Members have high visibility within the academic community, and publish in leading academic journals.
Department Members have also been successful in attracting extensive research funding over the past several years. This includes small and large research council grants, first grants for junior researchers, as well as placement fellowships and CASE studentships offered by ESRC. It co-hosts a ESRC-funded Enterprise Research Centre with the University of Warwick.
The Department is split into four Research Themes:
Innovation andEntrepreneurship
Research Grants and Projects
Seforїs
Prof Ute Stephan, Dr Emma Folmer
Seforїs stands for "Social Entrepreneurship as a Force for more Inclusive and Innovative Societies". It is a multi-disciplinary research programme, funded by the European Commission (2014-2017), that investigates the potential of social enterprise in the EU and beyond to enhance the inclusiveness of societies through greater stakeholder engagement, promotion of civic capitalism and changes to social service provision. Seforїs combines insights from policy makers and social enterprise practitioners with cutting-edge academic research to build robust and novel evidence on social entrepreneurship. Through the generation of robust evidence and internationally leading research, SEFORÏS aims to better understand the role that social enterprises play in the EU and beyond in the development and evolution of inclusive and innovative societies. The Aston University research team consists of Professor Ute Stephan (PI) and Dr. Emma Folmer. To learn more about the project pleasevisit: www.seforis.eu
The State in Africa and the Obsolescing Bargain
The State in Africa and the Obsolescing Bargain: the case of the aluminium industry in Ghana, 1959-2004
Dr Stephanie Decker
Business in independent Africa has generally faced a higher level of political risk than in other regions, which has led to poor level of economic and social development on the continent. In International Business and International Political Economy, Africa's problematic management of its economic capacity has been explained either as a result of an Obsolescing Bargain (OB) or as a resource curse. The OB model holds that bargaining power will shift from the investor to the host country once investment has been sunk, allowing poor countries to hold international investors ransom. In the 1990s, the OB model has fallen out of favour in business studies because it is generally perceived to explain investor-government relations until the 1980s, but then the dynamics are no longer as frequently observable. According to its critics, the OB model ceases to be relevant because developing country governments accepted a neo-liberal global investment environment. This research project focuses on the aluminium industry in Ghana as a longitudinal case study of negotiations between a powerful foreign investor with the unstable and changing government of an African state over a period of forty years. The shifts in bargaining power between investor and government over this time period allow a reassessment of the OB model and opens up alternative explanations of why the there are some recent cases of obsolescing bargain dynamics in Africa (for example in the building of the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline.
Privatisation, foreign investment and firm performance in China
Dr Jun Du, 2008 / 2011
China's continuing economic growth in the last decade has been largely paralleled with its ownership reform and industrial restructuring. As one of the financing channels, FDI (Foreign direct investment) has played an increasingly important role in the very process. However, very little is known about the nature of these investments, the performance of the firms that are entering the Chinese economy in this way, or the costs and benefits to the home economy.
The project charts China's recent rapid progress in industrial restructuring in the last decade, examines the results of ownership changes on firm performance in the context of foreign investment, and evaluates the actual gains of inward investors who took part in this process. The aspects investigated in the study include multinationals' productivity, profitability, export performance and survival opportunity. Drawing on a comprehensive firm-level dataset compiled by the National Statistics Bureau (NSB) of China for the period of 1998-2005, the project to be conducted takes into account political factors in the process of privatization, and adopts methodologies dealing with firm heterogeneity and potential reverse causality problem that is beset the analysis of privatization.
Evaluation of Regional and National Selective Assistance Schemes
Professor Mark Hart & Professor Nigel Driffield
In a series of studies, Prof. Mark Hart, Prof Nigel Driffield from ABS (together with colleagues Stephen Roper and Kevin Mole from University of Warwick) have evaluated the Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) schemes and their replacement national assistance schemes (e.g. Selective Finance Assistance in England (SFiE)).
The studies analysed the beneficiaries of these schemes, together with their impact e.g. on business behaviour, in terms of addionality, employment and operation.
The overall conclusion of these studies was that both the RSA and SFIE Schemes are delivering benefits to the UK economy through net additional employment, higher value added and a set of wider benefits that demonstrate linkage into other regional priorities such as regeneration, skill enhancement, supplier networks and broader environmental agenda. 2008-2009.
Ref: http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file45548.pdf
Considering the benefits of Inwards Investment
1) Driffield, N. Love, JH and Taylor, K. (2009)Productivity and Labour Demand Effects of Inward and Outward FDI on UK Industry. Manchester School, forthcoming. (Nominated for best paper award, AIB 2008)
2) Driffield, N. and Love, J. (2007) Linking FDI motivation and host economy productivity effects: conceptual and empirical analysis, Journal of International Business Studies, vol 38 (2) 460-473.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Phase 2
Professor Mark Hart
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a not-for-profit academic research consortium that has as its goal making high quality international research data on entrepreneurial activity readily available to as wide an audience as possible. GEM is the largest single study of entrepreneurial activity in the world.
The United Kingdom was a founding GEM nation. The first GEM UK report was produced in 1999 with 10 countries. Additional GEM reports for Scotland and Wales began in 2000. In 2002, the year of the first study for Northern Ireland and for some of the English regions, we decided to merge our data and create an integrated GEM UK project that incorporated Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and some English regions. This immediately gave us a bigger study overall and our 2002 report was based on a survey of some 16,000 adults of working age across the UK. Since 2002 the project has grown in terms of size and scope. By 2006 it was based on a sample size of 43,000 adults and, in addition to the separate national and 7 regional reports, also produced special topic reports on women and social entrepreneurship. GEM 2009 conducted research in 54 countries.
High Growth Firms and the Skills Agenda
High Growth Firms and the Skills Agenda: Linking NESS/SESS Surveys to the BSD in the ONS VML
The overall aim of this project for UKCES is to link their skills data with firm-level data in order to examine the relationship between employment growth and: the recruitment of young people; skills gaps; and product market strategy.
Professor Mark Hart, 2009 - Ongoing
The PRIME Initiative provides free information, events and training to help older people get back into work by starting their own business - also known as "becoming self-employed".
The charity's activities are needed because the over-50s face huge problems of unemployment and age discrimination in the conventional job market. HRH The Prince of Wales recognised this huge labour-market failure - which is common to all developed countries, when he founded PRIME (the Prince's Initiative for Mature Enterprise).
In the UK almost one person in three aged between 50 and state pension age is workless. Of these less than 10 per cent are retired on adequate incomes. The remaining 90 per cent are on incapacity benefit, registered unemployed, caring, made redundant or retired with an inadequate pension.
PRIME was set up to assist older entrepreneurs across the whole of the UK. It is currently active on the ground in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Wales it works through PRIME Cymru, PRIME's sister organisation, with whom PRIME works closely under our joint President, Prince Charles.
PRIME seeks to help anyone aged over 50 in the UK who wants to start their own business or set up a social enterprise with other people. It can only provide the vital work of giving people back their financial independence, self-reliance and dignity with your support, help and donations.
The Impact of the Business Cycle on Productivity and its Drivers
Innovative Places
Innovative Places: Best Practice in International Knowledge Sourcing – National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA)
Dr Hiro Izushi
Drawing knowledge from external – especially international – sources has become increasingly important to small and medium-sized firms (SMEs). As these firms cannot generate all they need to know to develop new products and processes within their own companies, they need to look elsewhere for new ideas and expertise. Being able to effectively access knowledge from external sources is increasingly recognised as a key factor in a firm's competitiveness. Analysing results from a survey of approximately 400 UK companies, the project provides a detailed review of patterns of knowledge sourcing, and the key factors influencing these patterns, particularly from a small business perspective. It also highlights case studies of UK SMEs that work closely with overseas partners and agents to widen their own knowledge. The project was undertaken in collaboration with a team led by Professor Robert Huggins at University of Wales Institute, Cardiff.
The Concentration of Innovation-Related Resources in Leading Regions
The Concentration of Innovation-Related Resources in Leading Regions – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
The uneven distribution of production resources across space has been a key issue concerning both academics and policy makers engaged in regional economic development. Although the literature concerning inter-regional convergence examines the trends of output indicators of wealth creation, there is a remaining gap about the convergence or divergence of resources related to innovation, the hallmark of the knowledge economy. This project aims to provide an understanding of the extent to which innovation-related resources are becoming more concentrated or diluted across the globe's most productive regions, using datasets compiled by the Centre for International Competitiveness' World Knowledge Competitiveness Index initiative, which covers 145 economically leading regions across the globe. The findings suggest that there has been a clear rebalancing of resources with a West-to-East shift.
Taking Risks in the face of Uncertainty
Taking Risks in the face of Uncertainty: The Impact of Perceived Uncertainty on Small and Medium-sized Firms' (SMEs) Investments in 'Green' Innovation
Professor Roper (WBS) and Dr Efstathios Tapinos
The aim of this project is to examine the relationship between Perceived Uncertainty (PU) and the extent to which small firms' are willing to invest in developing risky 'green' innovations, i.e. innovations in product or process which might have benefits in terms of sustainability. Small firms in two sectors with contrasting technological profiles will be considered in survey: food manufacturing and biotechnology. Funded by the British Academy. 2008-2009
Asymmetric Pricing and Concentration in European Fuel Retail Markets
Osama Al Sabbagh, PhD candidate
There has been rising concern among consumers in the recent years that pump prices go up faster than they come down. For the public, this is often associated with the higher concentration in the oil industry due to the wave of mergers of the late 90s. Indeed, the merged oil giants have been very profitable since 1999 and even after the economic slowdown which started in 2008. In fact the debate is also due to the long-term increase in oil price which is raising the prices of commodities as well the fuel budget of businesses and households.
However market share data for France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK do not show any sign of dramatic increase in fuel retail market concentration. Only positions between big oil companies, independent dealers and supermarkets really change; we do not see a real domination of Big Oil companies anywhere and note a dramatic increase in supermarkets' volume share in France and in the UK. Meanwhile the investigation on pump prices asymmetries confirms that fuel prices go up faster than they come down in all of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and in the Dutch diesel market. There is no evidence of asymmetric pricing in the UK fuel market as well as in the Dutch petrol market, with a full pass-through of prices in about two weeks. There seems to be a link between asymmetries and market concentration as the UK and the Netherlands present the lowest measures of concentration and of asymmetries. Finally, even in the markets with the highest level of asymmetries (French and German diesel markets), the cost of asymmetries for the typical household is quite marginal and becomes really significant only for high volumes of fuel. We conclude that fuel retail markets are quite competitive and that the oil companies' huge profits mainly come from refining and other "upstream" activities.
SUPER aims to equip HEIs with business incubation and entrepreneurship support systems while empowering HE students to turn ideas into action and practically establish companies. The project is hence about the development of basic and transversal skills of sense of initiative, entrepreneurial spirit in an innovative way: the innovation is in the "equipping" and "empowering" approach.
This is the dual mission of SUPER that works on the one hand on the support system at HEI level with the SUPER ToolKit to establish effective and efficient business incubation (i.e. the "infrastructure" to nurture the entrepreneurial talent of students); on the other, SUPER works with the students through the practical SUPER Training on how to set up and run a business.
Contribution of High Growth Firms to the economy of Birmingham
Innovative Places: Best Practice in International Knowledge Sourcing (NESTA)
The Concentration of Innovation-Related Resources in Leading Regions (OECD)
Applying strategic Management Education in Practice: Patterns and Drivers of Adoption in UK Business Schools Alumni
Taking Risks in the face of Uncertainty: The Impact of Perceived Uncertainty on SME's Investments in 'Green' Innovation
Department members teach on a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
Department members teach on all the major undergraduate programmes offered by Aston Business School as well as been course directors for the following:
BSc in Economics and Management
BSc in International Business and Economics
BSc in International Business & Management
BSc Finance
Politics and Economics (joint honours, Languages and Social Sciences)
Aston Business School students receive prestigious Birmingham Stock Exchange Scholarships.
Postgraduate MBA/MSc:
We teach on both the MBA and several MSc programmes and again are course directors for:
MSc International Business
MSc Strategy & International Business
MSc Entrepreneurship
MSc Business Economics and Finance
MSc Investment Analysis
Research Degree/PhD:
All academic staff are actively engaged in research and their range of research interest spans over all areas of applied economics, innovation, entrepreneurship, international business and strategic management.
Browse the main research themes for ESG, individual research profiles and PhD supervision interests.
Current PhD supervision topics
Bettina Becker
Determinants and effects of R&D and innovation
Determinants and effects of FDI
SME growth
Firm and industry performance
Rakesh Bissoondeeal
Specification of money demand functions
Stock market & demand for money and the economy
FDI & macroeconomic variables
Modelling and forecasting of macroeconomic variables
Stephanie Decker
MNCs in less developed countries
Historical, archival and documentary research methods in management studies
Chinese investment in sub-Saharan Africa
Qualitative longitudinal research in international business strategy
Agelos Delis
FDI & Firm Performance
Jun Du
Quantitative/micro-econometric analysis on:
Productivity, resource allocation and inclusive growth
Ownership change and privatisation
Firm level industrial dynamics and growth
Topics related to the economics of business organisation
Mark Hart
UK Business Demography & economic performance
Determinants of Entrepreneurial Activity
Effectiveness of public policy for SME development
Small firm growth and competitiveness
Hiro Izushi
Innovation, Business Network, Knowledge-Based Economic Development, Video Game Industry
Economic Growth, Trade and FDI in developing countries (Africa)
Michail Karoglou
Time series econometrics, quantitative risk management
Josie Kelly
Business and Government Relations
Tomasz Mickiewicz
Comparative entrepreneurship
High growth aspiration entrepreneurship
Informal economy, tax avoidance
Social capital in business
Matthew Olczak
Vertical restraints
Recommended retail prices
Merger policy
Tacit and explicit collusion
Using technology to enhance learning and teaching
Ute Stephan
Culture and entrepreneurship/innovation
Social capital and entrepreneurship/innovation
Strategic entrepreneurial leadership
Entrepreneurial motivation
Yama Temouri
International economics and trade (economics of multinational enterprises & its impacts on host and home economies)
Productivity, outsourcing/offshoring activities & employment dynamics
Links between institutional quality, FDI and firm performance
Kirit Vaidya
Technology transfer, learning and industrial development in China and other emerging economies
Technology-based collaborations between Western and Chinese and other emerging economy firms
Learning and capability development of industrial enterprises as latecomers in China and other emerging economies
Public works programmes in developing countries, wage rates, labour supply, asset creation and social protection
Competitive strategies of emerging economy companies
Economics, Finances and Entrepreneurship Department
UK B4 7ET
Mrs Lynne Woolley (Department Administrator)
View full list of department members
Other research projects
Privatisation, foregin investment and firm performance in China
Taking Risks in the face of Uncertainty: The Impact of Perceived Uncertainty on SME's Investments in 'Green' Innovation
Aston Law
ESRC seminar series organizational history
Strengthen Higher education through Innovative Financial Tools (SHIFT)
Marketing & Strategy
Operations & Information Management
Work & Organisational Psychology