About
I am Dean of the Management School here at the University of Liverpool. Prior to taking up my role at ULMS in 2015, I was Associate Dean Research and Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Bath School of Management. Previously I was Associate Dean Postgraduate and Director of the Graduate Management School at Lancaster University Management School, where I also held the Professor Sir Roland Smith Chair in Strategic Management and was Director of the Centre for Strategic Management. Following a career as a consultant, I started my academic life at Cranfield as an ESRC teaching fellow in 1992, from where I obtained my PhD. I subsequently spent time at Cass Business School. I was first promoted to a personal Chair in Strategic Management at Cass in 2005.
As a Professor in Strategic Management, I am best known for my research on processes of strategy development and strategic change. I have a particular interest is how large corporations can be transformed to both retain and regain competitive advantage, focussing on the nature of the practices, actions and activities of senior executives engaged in corporate renewal, organization transformation and radical restructuring. Building on this research I am also a member of the growing international Strategy-as-Practice research field. I utilise my prior experience as a consultant to work collaboratively with organisations and senior executives on issues of strategic change, to enable my research to advance practitioner as well as theoretical knowledge about strategy and strategic change. My research has been published in top ranked international journals, such as the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of International Business, Journal of Management Studies and Organization Studies. I also serve on the editorial boards of Organization Science, Journal of Management Studies and Organization Studies and have served on the editorial board of Academy of Management Journal and as a co-editor for the British Journal of Management.
I am a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and of the British Academy of Management
I was a member of the Business and Management REF 2021 Panel
Prizes or Honours
- Distinguished Scholar Award (Organization Development and Change Division, Academy of Management, 2021)
- Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (2018)
- Fellow, British Academy of Management (British Academy of Management, 2016)
- Best Development Paper Award (British Academy of Management, Organisational Transformation , Change & Development track, 2019)
- Best Student Paper Award (with supervised PhD student) (Strategizing, Activities & Practices Interest Group, Academy of Management, 2016)
- Best Student Paper Award (with supervised PhD Student) (Strategizing Activities and Practices Interest Group, Academy of Management Conference Vancouver, 2015)
- Visiting Professor University of Sydney (2012)
- Visiting Professor NHH Bergen from 2011 - 2016 (2011)
- Best Paper Award Organizational Development and Change Division (Academy of Management Conference Montreal, 2010)
- Outstanding Reviewer Award 2007-2008 (Academy of Management Journal, 2008)
- Outstanding Reviewer Award 2006-2007 (Academy of Management Journal, 2007)
- Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Best Paper Award, Manager and Organizational Cognition Division (Academy of Management Conference Washington, 2001)
Funded Fellowships
- AIM (Advanced Institute for Management) Ghoshal Fellow (AIM and ESRC, EPSRC, 2006)