Below is a selection of projects taking place under the theme of Business, Enterprise and Management.
Lead by researchers primarily from Staffordshire Business School, these projects will give you an insight into the wide range of research that takes place, and the impact it has both in our local community and across the globe.
The policy framework provides empirical insights to policy makers in the ethnic minority and border areas in Southwest region of China to develop sound and evidence-based strategies and policies to improve sustainable livelihoods and achieve sustainable development of the targeted poverty alleviation in China.
A longitudinal evaluation, funded by BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants 2024 – 2025. For further details contact Joe Hazzam, joe.hazzam@staffs.ac.uk.
The project takes an integrative approach to investigate the economic and socio-cultural implications of coworking trend for smart cities, their ecosystems and the use of urban public spaces.
A new opportunity for a second-order post-industrial city, a study of the emergent digital sector in Stoke-on-Trent, funded by The Productivity Institute, 2023-2025.
The project investigates and analyses a range of disruptions of Covid-19 to urban development and the changing scenarios of smart cities in the wake of Covid-19. The project identifies the opportunities as well as the challenges for businesses, city councils and universities to take Covid-19 as a catalyst for change. The project develops evidence-based strategies for such change and business transformation.
Empowering the voices of young people in policymaking, a community research partnership with Staffordshire Council of Voluntary Youth Services and Staffordshire County Council, funded by the Young Foundation and UKRI, 2024-2029. For further details, contact ryan.fox@staffs.ac.uk.
Much of what we know about modern leadership derives from traditional understandings of how titular leaders operate within fixed organisational forms and how they manage planned change. But what about the more fluid and informal networks and partnerships where business, public agencies, communities and universities come together to get things done? This suite of writing and research attempts to make sense of the highly complex nature and processes adopted by these little known discursive communities, explaining for the first time, how they come to impact socially on the world around them by enacting their preferred types of leadership.
Funded collaboration with the Association for Public Service Excellence and the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, 2024-2026. For further details, contact steven.griggs@staffs.ac.uk.
Implementing novel operation and marketing strategies, funded by Innovate UK, 2025-2027, For further details contact Joe Hazzam, joe.hazzam@staffs.ac.uk or Craig Hodlcroft, craig.holdcroft@staffs.ac.uk
A project that ran in 2020-2021 to help small businesses both adjust to the pandemic but also to improve leadership and management. The project featured examples of local businesses and how they had pivoted during the pandemic. It also provided a good venue for leaders to vent and swap ideas on how to deal with the pandemic. Delivery was by Entrepreneurs in Residence and academics within the Business School. Over 80 local leaders benefitted from the programme.
For further details, contact david.etherington@staffs.ac.uk.
Advanced information and communication technologies have changed the way teaching and learning are conceptualized and conducted in higher education.
Our research will investigate the specific challenges that BAME business owners faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, the strategies that they used to keep their businesses afloat, and how they engaged with financial and regional support.