Professor Heather Tarbert, Professor Reza Kouhy, Dr Labaran Lawal and Dr Ayodele Asekomeh are internationally recognised experts in this critically important area. The team has a very strong history of research projects and publications in high quality journals on such issues as corporate disclosures on environmental issues; abandonment problems associated with oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea and Nigeria and the implications for UK governmental policy; environmental factors affecting contractors take in emerging countries; energy taxation; and legitimacy and environmental disclosures.
Current projects cover gas flaring and oil spillage, the efficiency and performance of oil companies in the stock markets, oil price volatility, and the resource curse.
The team has found that some corporations disclose environmental information (including oil and gas related information) so as to either legitimise their activities or to report a more favourable set of accounts. The team intends to build on this work by studying the link between environmental disclosures and corporate performance; environmental responsibilities and governmental control; legitimacy and regulation; internationalisation of standards and corporate accountability, and oil and gas reserves valuation and global economic implications.
This research will focus more on developing countries where oil and gas production and environmental issues are more serious, asking questions such as “What does global environmental change mean for oil and gas producing developing countries?” and “How does rapid economic and social change, including falling trade barriers and the extension of the global markets, interact with issues relating to environmental change?”.
Abertay’s Scottish Economic Research unit has a track record of supporting policy formulation at national level with important work on local impacts. SER’s research into migrant workers in Tayside has influenced the development of better support services and mechanisms.
The pressure on public finances often leaves arts and cultural organisations struggling to justify their grant funding. Demonstrating their socio-economic impact with hard figures is one way, which is why the Pitlochry Festival Theatre approached tourism economics researchers at Abertay for help. Neil McGregor and the Scottish Economic Research unit demonstrated that the theatre is worth some £13 million per annum to the Scottish economy, with the vast bulk of that going directly to businesses in and around Pitlochry itself. Furthermore, they found that the impact has been growing fast in recent years, with the theatre now contributing a significantly bigger local economic benefit than the typical urban theatre.
Dr Yi Ying Chang is exploring many aspects of the operation of small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), teasing out the factors that influence competitiveness and innovative capacity. The work includes a detailed study of differing knowledge transfer strategies within SMEs; measuring the absorptive capacity of SMEs – their ability to absorb and utilize new knowledge either from internal or external sources to improve their knowledge, skill and motivation; and their performance management strategies to facilitate better knowledge transfer.
Meanwhile, Dr Sabine Hotho is looking at the innovation capacity of SMEs, especially with regard to leadership and change management. How do companies adjust to fast-changing economic climates that pose challenges not just from competitors but also from all other stakeholders such as employees and the local community? How best to manage and empower effective leadership and innovation down through all levels of a modern organisation, so as to optimize the conditions for sustainable growth? Dr Hotho is focussing particularly on young businesses in the new and rapidly-evolving digital media sector, which are generally much less hierarchical and more informal and experimental than more traditional industries.
These characteristics of creative industry businesses are also being studied by other researchers in Abertay’s Dundee Business School and Institute of Arts, Media and Computer Games (IAMCG). Abertay plays a key role in the Institute for Capitalising on Creativity in Digital Media (involving a number of Scottish higher education institutions) which aims to improve management and leadership skills in the creative industries.
Managers in the arts and creative industries often tend to be converted practitioners who have found themselves in management roles almost by accident, without the benefit of the recognised development routes found in other industries. Gregor White from IAMCG is studying how such individuals can be helped to apply the benefits of more structured and effective management to their organisations, without stifling or hampering the vital creative spark on which their businesses rely.
Innovation in smaller businesses is also the theme of Abertay research in the area of retailing. Dr Jason Turner is studying the impact and operation of the Tesco Clubcard loyalty scheme, not just in the UK but in eastern Europe and southeast Asia as well. His particular interest is in how smaller businesses with far less resources than the likes of Tesco can nonetheless develop and run successful customer loyalty schemes of their own.
Professor Mohamed Branine is researching the challenges posed in managing staff from different geographical and cultural backgrounds. Developing international managers does not depend solely on transferable skills and knowledge of management, but also knowledge of history, geography including environmental science, and faiths. Just as local employees have to be managed globally, global managers have to be managed locally, creating a balance between global integration and local responsiveness.
Professor Branine is particularly interested in the role of further and higher education in producing graduates with the right attributes to be such managers.
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