Global Economy and Business Research Unit (Gebru) s1

GLOBAL ECONOMY AND BUSINESS RESEARCH UNIT (GEBRU)

Description

The Global Economy and Business Research Unit (GEBRU) is focused on issues that face economies, businesses and communities in the context of globalisation. The group undertakes both empirical and policy work, as well as engaging in the theoretical and methodological debates that underpin them. Members of the group are actively engaged with a range of stakeholders which include businesses, trade unions and NGOs. The approach of the group is interdisciplinary drawing on economics, political economy and international business. Members of the group comprise experienced and early years researchers.

Head of the unit

Professor Jane Hardy

Key Unit Members

Graham Hollinshead

Dr Hulya Dagdeviran

Dr Ya Ping Yin

Dr Moira Calveley

Aims of the unit

The unit aims to:

 To address current debates that face economies, businesses and communities in the context of globalisation  To produce high quality research and publications for the academic and practitioner communities  To engage with a range of stakeholders such as government, NGOs, trade unions and businesses  To continue to build and develop networks with national and international scholars and organisations

Research themes

The unit’s research themes include:

 Restructuring emerging markets The group are actively engaged in issues that face post-communist and developing economies. There is a particular interest in privatisation, poverty and the provision of public services. Expertise exists in a diverse range of economies which includes for example, on economies such as Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Zambia and Bangladesh.

 Competitiveness, growth and innovation This theme is focused on a comparative approach to competitiveness, growth and innovation and is focused on both core economies and emerging markets such as China. The ongoing research is quantitative and concerned with examining different methodologies.

 Migration and labour market mobility This includes a focus on the dynamics of European East-West migration and the intervention of stakeholders such as states and trade unions. In addition there is an interest in the specific micro and macro issues related to migration from developing economies.  Foreign direct investment and outsourcing business services This examines new divisions of labour as the businesses increasingly outsource and offshore part of their value chains. Projects include new divisions of labour as Eastern European are recipients of investment in high and low value service sector functions.

 Cross border transfer of managerial practices This is concerned with how management practices and the institutions of work are transferred across national boundaries through foreign investment.

The unit will be led by Professor Jane Hardy, Dr Hulya Dagdeviren (Reader in Economics) and Graham Hollinshead (Reader in International HRM).

Indicative Research and Consultancy Projects

Project funded by International Visegrad Fund What Kind of Competitiveness for the Visegrad Four ? (Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary) (2006-2009).

ESRC funded project on Cross Border Collaboration: UK Trade Unions and Polish Migrant Workers (2007-2009).

CWU funded project on Migrant Workers and Trade Union Learning (March-December 2009).

Regional Studies Association Funded network on Outsourcing and Offshoring Business Services (with the Jagiellonian University, Krakow and Sheffield Hallam University (2008- 2010).

Symposium at the University of Hertfordshire on Twenty Years since Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe contributors from six European countries (Poland, Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Finland) (2009).

Indicative publications

Jane Hardy (Professor of Political Economy)

Hardy, J. (2009) Poland’s New Capitalism, Pluto Press, London.

Hardy, J., Stenning, A. and Kozek W. (2008) ‘In the front line: women, work and new spaces of labour politics in Poland’, Gender, Place and Culture, 15, 2: 99-116.

Hardy, J. (2007) ‘Learning’ or ‘coercive’ firms? Foreign investment, restructuring transforming economies and the case of ABB Poland’, Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2, 1.

Dr Hulya Dagdeviren (Reader in Economics )

Research interests are related to the issues of development policy. The themes of her research include poverty alleviation, privatisation, public services and industrial development. She has acted as a consultant for a range of organizations such as the United Nations development Programme (UNDP) and Department for International Development (DfID). Her publications include the following:

Dagdeviren, H. (2009) “Market failures and effectiveness of regulation in the power sector” Annals of Public and Co-operative Economics, forthcoming

Dagdeviren, H. (2008) “Waiting for Miracles: Commercialization of Urban Water Services in Zambia” Development and Change, 39 (1), pp. 101-121

Dagdeviren H, Van der Hoeven R, Weeks J (2004) “Redistribution does matter: Growth and redistribution for poverty reduction” Growth, Inequality and Poverty – Prospects for Pro-poor Economic Development, R. van der Hoeven and A. Shorrocks (eds.) Oxford University Press Dr Graham Hollinshead (Reader in Human Resource Management)

Graham Hollinshead’s major areas of research interest are power and politics in Multinational Corporations, transference of management practices and ideas across national and regional borders, the organisational and employment effects of offshoring software and financial services, and critical approaches to international and comparative human resource management.

He is currently researching and co-authoring a chapter for a volume to be published by Cambridge University Press ‘Power and Politics in the Multinational Corporation’ (eds. C. Dorrenbacher and M. Geppert).

Hollinshead, G. and Michailova, x.(2009) ‘Western management training in Eastern Europe: trends and developments over a decade’ Human Resource Development International, 12(2)

Hollinshead, G. and Maclean, M. (2009) ‘Transition and organizational dissonance, Human Relations, 60 (10).