Research Projects

Research Projects


Explore our current and previous Research Projects

HEED-Africa is a cooperation and mobility programme in the area of higher education, implemented by the European Commission aimed at building the capabilities of higher educational institutions in Africa to embrace and implement greater mobility of students and staffs, thereby help to drive economic and social development of the region.

Period: 2017-2022

Funder: European Commission – European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EECEA)

Principal investigator: Dr Paschal Anosike leads this project and collaborates with Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), Makerere University (Uganda), Kyambogo University (Uganda), Milpark Education (South Africa), University of Ghana (Ghana), Ministry of Education and Sport (Uganda), and Private Sector Foundation (Uganda).

This is a knowledge exchange programme in the area of higher education, implemented by the British Council aimed at enabling effective UK-Africa University Partnerships.

Period: 2019-2022

Funder: British Council

Principal investigator: Dr Paschal Anosike leads this project and collaborates with Covenant University (Nigeria) and Kwara State University (Nigeria).

Period: 2019-2022

Funder: Chinese National Social Science Research Funding Council

Co-investigator: Prof Yong Wang collaborates with colleagues of Hebei University of Technology (Principal Investigator)

Period: 2019-2022

Funder: Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, China

Co-investigator: Prof Yong Wang works with colleagues from Hebei University of Technology (Principal Investigator)

Period: 2021-2022

Funder: Brunel Research Initiative & Enterprise Fund (BRIEF)

Co-investigator: Dr Samia Mahmood with colleagues from Brunel University London (Principal Investigator) and University of Birmingham

The research project enabled family business researchers from the UK, Italy and China to collaborate with University of Western Australia (UWA) Business School to host a symposium, student and business masterclass to discuss “Family Business Identity and Sustainability in the Information Age”. Scholars from the UWA Family Business Studies Group, the UWA region (i.e. Malaysia, Indonesia and China), and WA family businesses attended. Outputs included the UWA Family Business Symposium (25th-27th Sep. 2018), book chapters in Family Firms and Institutional Contexts: Business Models, Innovation and Competitive Advantage (Edward Elgar Publishing; Chapter 14).

(https://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Firms-Institutional-Contexts-Competitive/dp/1788970179) and Innovation, Growth, and Succession in Asian Family Enterprises (Edward Elgar Publishing; Chapter 6) (https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/innovation-growth-and-succession-in-asian-family-enterprises-9781839104329.html), a bid for the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE, EU), and meetings between academics, students and industry representatives to develop joint and complementary proposals.

The research carried out here demonstrates that Leicester Cathedral makes an overall economic impact of £8.7 million per annum.  Of this impact, £6.0 million is directly related to the work of Leicester Cathedral and £2.7 million to indirect and induced effects per annum.

Revealed: How much Leicester Cathedral contributes to local economy

Co-funded by the Midlands Engine, this project addresses the regional dimension of women in business leadership. We will build an up-to-date and comprehensive picture of women on boards and women-owned businesses in the Midlands region, taking into account intra-regional variations, the national context and firm-specific characteristics. We will review and document the most up-to-date evidence base for the benefits and impacts of greater gender diversity in leadership, paying attention to different types of impacts and at various levels such as individual, organisational, and regional. Finally, the project will map and discuss the range of interventions to improve gender diversity in leadership. Through a combination of desk research, secondary data and primary data collection with regional stakeholders, we will provide a series of contextually grounded policy and practice recommendations for ‘what works’ at an individual, organisational and regional level to help promote women into leadership.’

The Project PI is Dr Samia Mahmood. Samia is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance and leads the Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management (ESBM) research cluster at Wolverhampton Business School. Her research focus is women entrepreneurship and empowerment, microfinance and SME financing. Her broad areas of research in women’s entrepreneurship include Constraints to access finance; Contextual embeddedness of women's entrepreneurship; Women empowerment and entrepreneurship. Moreover, she is interested in the impact of microfinance/SME finance on entrepreneurship development, poverty reduction and women’s empowerment.

The Project CI is Professor Silke Machold. Silke is the Dean of Research and Professor of Corporate Governance at the University of Wolverhampton. Her research interests are in behavioural aspects of boards of directors, board diversity and feminist ethics. She has led the research stream on a large EU Justice grant that focused on changing gender balance in boards in South-Eastern Europe, and contributed to the West Midlands Leadership Commission with work on regional dimensions of diversity and inclusion in boards of directors. In her role as Dean of Research, she has promoted initiatives to create and support inclusive research and research communities.

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