Research at the Business School

Research at the University of Wolverhampton Business School is based within the Management Research Centre (MRC) - a specialist research centre focussed on providing solutions to current managerial issues relevant to specific professions and/or types of organisations.

Recent highlights

• An Ernst & Young-funded investigation into the dynamic capabilities of family firms in the UK and China
• A research project into BME workers in local government, funded by Unison
• A study of the impact of livestock disease outbreaks on farmers and farming enterprises funded by The Oldacre Foundation
• A report on communicating corporate governance and shareholder value, commissioned by Jones & Palmer Ltd

Impacts

Research at the Management Research Centre is focussed on:

• Improving the capability of small and family businesses
• Fostering and developing entrepreneurial and innovative activities in local and national firms
• Promoting knowledge transfer into SMEs 
• Improving board efficiency and effectiveness
• Promoting good governance
• Applying business ethics for business success
• Improving labour relations in the public and private sectors
• Causes and consequences of labour management and change
• Public sector management
• Encouraging better employment practices

Research areas

There are five key themes to the MRC’s work:

• Entrepreneurship and small business management – specialises in research on family business, entrepreneurial learning and knowledge transfer and rural entrepreneurship.
• Corporate governance and ethics – centred on research on board effectiveness, corporate governance systems, normative foundations of corporate governance and firm idiosyncratic risk.
• HRM and industrial relations - focuses on employee relations in the UK’s public sector, comparative industrial relations, pay and pay determination, and human resource development.
• International business - with an interest in inequalities in the global economy and foreign investment in the UK.
• Marketing research hub

Find out more about the Management Research Centre (MRC).