Professor Jill MacBryde (Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship) and Professor Colin Lindsay of the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation and the Scottish Centre for Employment Research (SCER) ran a Summer School as part of their ESRC funded InterAct Project.
Thirty PGR students and early career academics came together at ATU, Letterkenny for five days and heard presentations from Jill and Colin as well as Professor Vania Sena (Sheffield), Professor George Onofrei (ATU) and Professor Jan Godsell (Loughborough) around their research on manufacturing ecosystems, the future of manufacturing work and the future of the economy linked to manufacturing. They also visited manufacturing and related organisations including Coca-Cola, Tata Consulting and Bushmills.
Professor Emma Macdonald, Director of the Stephen Young Institute, is a member of the judging panel for the 2023 IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) Effectiveness Accreditation. The IPA is the professional body for the UK advertising industry, a sector worth £34 Billion (Statista 2023).
The IPA’s biennial Effectiveness Accreditation process provides an opportunity for agencies large and small to demonstrate how they provide value to their clients through their culture and creativity, as well as via use of data and analytics. Successful agencies receive an effectiveness kite-mark and all agencies that attempt the accreditation process benefit from detailed feedback.
Emma joined SBS in April 2023 as the Director of the new Stephen Young Institute. She previously held the position of Professor of Marketing at both Warwick Business School and at Cranfield School of Management.
Scots continue to lack the confidence to start their own businesses, with a survey showing a drop in youth entrepreneurship, nascent entrepreneurial activity and a reduction in interest in entrepreneurship as a career option.
The survey for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2022/23, carried out by researchers at Strathclyde Business School, showed that total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) – the sum of the nascent entrepreneurship rate and the new business owner-manager rate – in Scotland was 8.8% against a UK average of 11% in 2022.
This is down from 9.5% in 2021, which is not statistically significant, meaning TEA rates in Scotland have remained broadly the same between 2020 and 2022.
At the same time, while female to male TEA ratio in Scotland remains unchanged from 2021 at 68%, the UK ratio increased from 73% to 79%, suggesting that more women are starting businesses in the rest of the UK compared to Scotland.
Ethnic minorities continue to show a stronger association, with TEA rates double that of the white population at 17% compared to 8.5% in 2022 – and the growth in non-white rate means Scotland is now on a par with the UK non-white average.
TEA rates continue to be driven by younger people in the 18-24 age group, despite a three-point drop from 13.3% in 2021 to 10.4% in 2022.
The survey also found that low confidence continues to be a barrier amongst non-entrepreneurial adults in Scotland with six in ten indicating fear of failure as a reason for not striking out on their own. Only four out of ten people in Scotland believe they have the skills, knowledge and experience to start a business, with only the North East region of England lower at 30%.
Sreevas Sahasranamam, Associate Professor at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship and co-author of the report, said, “We are seeing emerging gaps in the entrepreneurial pipeline with a drop in youth entrepreneurship, drop in nascent entrepreneurial activity and reduction in interest for entrepreneurship as a career option among the non-entrepreneurially active, which are areas for significant attention both from the side of universities and the entrepreneurship ecosystem in general in Scotland”.
Three Strathclyde students have been awarded an Internship as an Analyst Financial Adviser with Ofgem. This is a pilot programme which launched in 2023 and if successful will roll out for future academic years. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to enhance their CV and expand on their knowledge with the possibility of full time employment on completion.
Ofgem works on behalf of energy consumers to ensure that every household and business in the UK can rely on a safe, affordable and environmentally sustainable energy supply. They play a vital part in accelerating the transition to Net Zero and a carbon neutral energy system – a goal that everyone wants to achieve. At Ofgem, the students will be helping create new energy solutions that are great for customers, and great for the environment.
Ofgem met students earlier in the year to help with the application process and have offered them the opportunity to:
Professor Andrew Marshall was instrumental in bringing this opportunity to Strathclyde Business School and said, “This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to engage with the UK energy regulator with sustainability being the forefront of future plans within the University. The opportunity for our students to earn a salary of £25,000 (pro rata) during their studies is unprecedented and a welcome initiative to the Department.”
Six Strathclyde postgraduate students from the Department of Accounting and Finance have been awarded Scholarships to complete the Financial Risk Management (FRM) Exam with The Global Association of Risk Professional (GARP). GARP is a non-partisan, not-for-profit membership organization serving the risk management industry. Founded in 1996, GARP advances the profession through education, research and promotion of best practices through the GARP Risk Institute, GARP Benchmarking Initiative and an array of informational and certification programs. GARP has 200,000 members in more than 190 countries and territories and has certified more than 50,000 professionals.
These scholarships will cover the FRM Part II Exam, including the exam fee and e-books. The FRM Exam Part I is a 100-question multiple choice exam emphasizing the tools used to assess financial risk: foundations of risk management, quantitative analysis, financial markets and products, and valuation and risk models. Part I is offered via computer-based testing (CBT) in May, August, and November 2023. On completion of this students would then go on to complete the part II exam.
The FRM is the true standard for educational excellence in risk management and a gateway to achieving new career heights in the risk profession. It has an elite network that spans over 80,000 individuals employed at the world’s top banks, asset management firms, consulting firms, and regulators.
When the FRM launched 25 years ago risk management was more of a loosely defined function than a profession. From the beginning GARP made sure the program was shaped by top risk minds, guaranteeing it would evolve to meet the real-world needs of both practitioners and their firms. Risk management took a leap forward following the Global Financial Crisis, and the FRM cemented its status as the gold standard of risk certifications by preparing candidates to succeed in this newly prominent field.
Professor Andrew Marshall brought these scholarships to SBS and has successfully awarded these to the benefit of students for a number of years now.
Seven Strathclyde postgraduate students from the MSc in Finance and the MSc Investment and Finance have been awarded scholarships to complete level 1 of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). The Department is an Affiliate Institution to the CFA and this allows students to achieve one of the highest distinctions in the investment management profession. The CFA charter gives students expertise and real-world skills in investment analysis. There are more than 190,000 professionals which have been recognised globally for their commitment to ethics and professionalism.
These scholarships will pay for the students to undertake the level 1 CFA exam.
Our MSc programmes in Finance and Investment & Finance will ensure that most Level I candidates have already mastered many introductory financial concepts as part of their studies.
Six scholarships for the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) have been awarded to undergraduate Finance students who recently completed their third year in the Department of Accounting and Finance.
The University is an IMC Advantage University. The IMC is the benchmark entry-level qualification into the UK investment profession. It delivers the threshold competency knowledge required by investment professionals involved in portfolio management, research analysis, and other front office investment activities. The qualification is developed, delivered and awarded by CFA UK.
Jai Geelal, a Postgraduate Research student from the Department of Accounting and Finance, was successful in his application for a scholarship to attend the Advanced Risk and Portfolio Management (ARPM) Quant Bootcamp. This opportunity has arisen from our association with The Global Association of Risk Professional (GARP)’s Academic Partnership Programs.
A small number of scholarships are awarded to select individuals to attend the ARPM Quant Bootcamp, the most comprehensive overview course in advanced data science with applications to quantitative finance. The Quant Bootcamp was delivered live at New York University from July 17 to 20.
Now in its 16th year, the Quant Bootcamp is taught by Dr Attilio Meucci, CFA, the Founder of ARPM, and Author of Risk and Asset Allocation. The audience will include hundreds of portfolio managers, risk managers, applied statisticians, sell-side professionals, and academics from around the world.
Professor Andrew Marshall, who is responsible for the partnership programme with GARP congratulated Jai on his success and noted that this only strengthens our partnership with GARP.
Strathclyde Business School's Scottish Centre for Employment Research (SCER) and partners have been awarded £400,000 by UK Research and Innovation/ESRC to take forward additional work building upon the past two years of the ESRC 'PrOPEL Hub'.
'PrOPEL' - or 'Productivity Outcomes of Workplace Practice, Engagement and Learning' - provides a Hub bringing together cutting-edge workplace research on employee engagement, wellbeing and productivity. It has developed a range of online and in-person tools and services helping researchers to maximise the impact of their research and knowledge exchange to inform improved management practice in the workplace.
SCER at Strathclyde Business School will lead the ESRC PrOPEL Hub partnership, which includes colleagues from nine universities across all four nations of the UK.
Principal Investigator Professor Colin Lindsay welcomed the opportunity to build upon PrOPEL Hub's impressive track record of engagement with business and policy stakeholders, which has seen more 3,000 business and policy stakeholders connect with researchers through more than 70 online and in-person events since 2020.
You can find out more about the work of ESRC PrOPEL Hub and sign up for the newsletter at: www.propelhub.org
Strathclyde Business School was the venue for a successful stakeholder symposium focused on the cost-of-living crisis. The symposium forms part of a larger project led by Professor Kathy Hamilton (Marketing) and Professor Thomas Boysen Anker (University of Dundee), funded by the Scottish Universities Insight Institute.
The broader project is titled “Consumer resilience and coping strategies during the cost-of-living crisis: What consumers can do and where stakeholder interventions are needed.”
It aims to harness research and stakeholder insights to develop emergency-response solutions to support consumers through the cost-of-living crisis.
The research phase of the project involved interviews with consumers and representatives from third sector organisations. Findings from the research were used to inform the stakeholder symposium. Held in June 2023, it brought diverse stakeholders together from a variety of sectors and disciplines to share knowledge, pool ideas and brainstorm new solutions to the cost-of-living crisis. Stakeholders included participants from academia, business and the third sector, for example, representatives from Consumer Scotland, the Poverty Alliance, Glasgow Centre for Population Health, Scottish Retail Consortium, the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, Money Advice Scotland, CILIP Scotland, Action for Children and The National Social Marketing Centre CIC.
The symposium was based on a hive approach to facilitate interaction. The visual minutes below capture key themes from the discussions that will form the basis of our report.
The Association of MBAs (AMBA) held a member-focused, evening event designed to bring together student and graduate members from their ever-growing network of MBAs, MBMs and DBAs around the world on July 4.
Strathclyde took 50 of our MBA students/alumni to the Edinburgh event where our students met with peers from the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh Essex, Kent, Nottingham and Liverpool.
The discussion topic centred on entrepreneurial thinking and how it is for everyone all the time: how it can benefit society, the economy, and the environment and how we can recognise examples of entrepreneurship in unexpected places and at unexpected times that all too often go unacknowledged and not celebrated.
Dr Marisa Smith, Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, secured ESRC funding for an interdisciplinary project “Manufacturing a Better Future – exploring inclusive digital manufacturing” in which she is Principal Investigator.
The project will examine how disabled people can be included in manufacturing. It is worth £106,184 over nine months and involves partners from multiple universities including Cambridge, York, Wolverhampton and London Met.
The project is part of the UKRI Made Smarter Innovation Challenge and funded by the ESRC through InterAct.
The Department of Marketing held its annual prize giving for the Class of 2023. This was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate students with the highest grade from core Marketing classes.
Niamh Casey won the 1st Year award for ‘Introduction to Marketing & Entrepreneurship’. Both Katie Hislop and Chizulum Ifezulike won prizes for 2nd Year class ‘Understanding Consumers & Markets’, whilst Louise Masson won the prize for 2nd Year class ‘Services & Retail Marketing’. Amy O’Donnell won the 3rd Year prize for ‘Marketing Communications in a Digital Age’. Prizes were awarded by Elizabeth McKee and Jane Johnstone.
Congratulations to all winners for their fantastic achievements.
The full time MBA class held the Mini Consulting Client Challenge in July as part of an optional external engagement activity designed and led by Global Practitioner Gavin Marley. As part of the value-add opportunities for the students, MBA External Engagement Officer Camila Zrein worked with Gavin to give students a chance to practice their consulting skills with a real UK based SME.
After the session concluded, Gavin noted, “The MBA cohort were engaged and enthusiastic throughout the two-day session which created a wonderful environment for learning and the practical application of Consulting skills.”
The client in question was Enjoy the Air and the class welcomed CEO Kate Barnard and her senior team to join the session whereby Kate provided in-depth information and insight to the class on her business. Our MBA students were tasked with focusing on how Enjoy The Air can establish a robust UK Business Plan looking at the existing business model and the sourcing of investors to help develop growth and expansion for business.
Kate summed up the two-day challenge as: “An intensive two days in which the MBA students totally grasped my business. All were engaging, curious and providing some ideas and connections we hadn’t considered. A brilliant opportunity returning benefits to students and company alike. They have helped and impacted a small business - such a fabulous event.”
The Department of Marketing is delighted to welcome Professor Tiziano Vescovi as a visiting scholar. Professor Vescovi is Director of the School of Management at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice and Co-Director of the International Management Asia-lab, a major international network of Italian, Chinese and Japanese academic institutions.
Drawing on his expertise in cross-cultural marketing and digital transformation, Professor Vescovi led a series of events and held one-to-one engagement sessions with Marketing and SBS colleagues. Over his two-week long stay the Department enjoyed a Research Seminar on ‘Cross-Cultural Marketing: the Disregarded Globalization’, a Workshop titled ‘Developing International Networks: Working with “the others”’, and a Keynote Lecture on Business Models in an Integrated Vision.
As the Department of Marketing has enjoyed a long-term partnership with Ca’ Foscari University, Professor Vescovi’s visit was a great opportunity to further collaborations and extend relationships.
Dr Sreevas Sahasranamam, Associate Professor at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, co-chaired the task force on sustainability at the G20 Startup Summit at Gurugram, India on July 3-4. The startup policy communique was showcased by the taskforce chair along with Hon. Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and chair of Startup20 Chintan Vaishnav during the Startup20 summit.
Under G20, a first-of-its-kind official engagement group was initiated under the Indian presidency of the G20 2023 to focus on startups called Startup20. It acts as a dialogue forum with the global startup ecosystem stakeholders and intends to represent the global startup ecosystem to raise the macroeconomic concerns and challenges faced by entrepreneurs with G20 leaders.
Startup20 has five main task forces – Foundation, Alliances, Finance, Inclusion, and Sustainability. The task forces are structured to develop key priorities and bring forward the topics in which recommendations would be formulated to support the startup ecosystems globally. Through multiple deliberations, the task forces developed a policy communique for global startup ecosystem development and received feedback from startup ecosystem stakeholders from G20 nations. These recommendations were to be finalised at the Startup20 Summit in Gurugram in July 2023 to be handed over to the G20 leaders at the 18th G20 Heads of State and Government Summit in New Delhi in September 2023.
On working on the task force and attending the Startup20 summit, Dr Sahasranamam said, “It was a wonderful opportunity to engage in policy development at the intersection of entrepreneurship and SDGs and share the platform with some of the stalwarts at the intersection of industry and policy. My research and teaching have been entirely in this space and I am glad to be given this opportunity by the Startup20 team to engage in the translation of research to policy and impact through this task force.”
As a part of the Sustainability taskforce at G20 Startup20 Sreevas has developed a policy paper that fed into the overall communique, details available here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7084818264693846018/ and he features in a video discussing his experience: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7086621022682046465
A number of Economics Honours students have been awarded prizes from the Department of Economics:
The students are pictured with Joseph Byrne (Head of Department), Lauren McInally (Honours Convenor) and Nikos Danias (Director of Teaching & Learning).
The Department of Accounting and Finance held a recent Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) Colloquium. The event took place on May 19 across the full day. There were 24 full paper presentations from students in year 2 onwards and five outline/pitch presentations from the first-year cohort.
