University of St Andrews

The accounting, governance and organisations group (AGOG) focuses on the mechanisms of governance in organisations. Research follows the circulation of numbers and discourses through organisational arrangements such as accounting practices, regulatory assemblages and markets. It studies the construction of value in the post-modern world, and the processes of valuation and classification at work. It examines the construction of fact, expertise and managerial agency.

Within a shared intellectual framework, individual group members' research covers a wide range of interests: sustainability, the ethics and governance of management and organisations, markets, marketing and market exchange. It spans empirical sites such as water, waste, incentive systems, corporate accounting and accountability, and financial markets.

AGOG embraces a largely qualitative methodological perspective to construct an anthropology of governance, and is underpinned by a commitment to understanding the ethics of governance and organisation, to responsible and sustainable enterprise. It maintains close links with the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR). This group has much to offer in understanding contemporary crises, whether of truth or politics.

Research staff:

• Julie Brooks: economic development and the provision of business and management education in Russia.
• Dr Anna Brown: processes of learning, embodied ways of knowing, reflexive practice, creativity, craft.
• Professor John Ferguson: accountability and corporate governance, with a particular focus on the social and organisational impact of corporate governance regimes.
• Dr Samuel Mansell: business ethics and political philosophy.
• Dr Francois-Regis Puyou: critical approaches to management accounting practices; social and organisational impacts of accounting tools and practices.
• Dr Philip Roscoe: the role that markets play in contemporary organising; the moral issues that surround markets, and the discourses, valuations and justifications invoked in market settings.
• Dr Shona Russell: governance, accountability and accounting technologies for natural resource management, particularly water; collaborative and interdisciplinary knowledge production in the domain of environmental science and policy; organising sustainability transitions.
• Professor Lorna Stevenson: the social, environmental and economic consequences of accounting, and the implications of these for both wider forms of accountancy and accountants' and managers' education.
• Dr Lucy Wishart: the governance of sustainable development within Scotland; waste and circular economy; policy processes.

The financial institutions and markets group (FIM) has developed its research around three themes:

• Competition, risk and performance of financial institutions (especially banks, credit unions, Islamic banks and microfinance institutions) pre and post the global financial crisis.
• Access to finance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This includes various research projects examining traditional forms of debt-based finance and alternative forms of equity finance such as equity crowdfunding.
• Responsible finance. The group investigates how social and environmental policies impact the performance of corporations and investment funds. For social policies, examples are the impact of pollution and carbon emissions on the cost of capital or firm value. For environmental policies, examples are studies regarding how social, religious or environmental constraints affect portfolio performance.

Members of the group have advised a number of policy institutions including the Scottish and Irish Governments, the Institute for Chartered Accountants Scotland (ICAS), the OECD, the UK Financial Conduct Authority and the European Commission. In 2017, members of the group contributed to an HM Treasury Consultation on financing high growth innovative firms.

Members of the FIM group are also members of the Centre for Responsible Banking and Finance (CRBF) where much of the research on banking and finance within the School of Management takes place.

Research staff:

• Dr Pejman Abedifar: financial intermediation; risk management and stability; diversification in banking; bankruptcy and resolution; Islamic finance and finance-growth nexus.
• Dr Kais Bouslah: investment analysis and portfolio management; asset pricing; risk management; socially responsible investing; link between finance and social responsibility; empirical finance; financial institutions and markets.
• Dr Ross Brown: entrepreneurship; high growth entrepreneurship; entrepreneurship and public policy; funding for SMEs (including alternative forms of funding such as crowdfunding); innovation policy; employee ownership.
• Dr Dimitris Chronopoulos: banking; productivity; empirical asset pricing; mergers and acquisitions.
• Dr Laurence Lasselle: macroeconomics with imperfect competition; general equilibrium models; economic dynamics; heterogeneous beliefs; issues on globalisation and education.
• Dr Linh Nguyen: empirical banking; financial inclusion; financial sector stability.
• Professor Bert Scholtens: corporate social responsibility; socially responsible investing; energy finance; financial institutions (banks, pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, etc.); international finance; financial intermediation; financial systems; environmental economics.
• Professor John Wilson: European banking; credit unions and industrial organization.
• Dr Mao Zhang: corporate finance; corporate governance; banking and issues in emerging markets.

Knowledge and practice is an interdisciplinary research group that focuses on the relationship between knowledge and practice in various areas of work, including technical, creative, professional and policy settings.

The book Knowledge and Practice in Business and Organisation, showcasing member research, was produced collaboratively within the group. Members maintain close links with the Research Unit for Research Utilisation and the Centre for the Study of Philanthropy and Public Good.

Researchers working in diverse areas are linked by common interests in understanding knowledge and practice, informed by a range of theoretical approaches to knowledge in organisational settings.

Particular areas of focus include:

• public policy and the sustainability agenda
• education
• the third sector
• philanthropy and public good
• healthcare
• the music industry
• careers and the professions.

Members of the group also engage actively with practitioners, policy makers and the media.

Research staff:

• Dr Cinla Akinci: decision making; intuition; cognition; top management teams; organisational and managerial learning; organisational change and development.
• Professor Kirstie Ball: surveillance; privacy; employee monitoring.
• Dr Alina Baluch: employment relations in voluntary sector organisations; HRM and employee wellbeing; philanthropy and the voluntary sector.
• Dr Ross Brown: entrepreneurship; high growth entrepreneurship; entrepreneurship and public policy; funding for SMEs (including alternative forms of funding such as crowdfunding); innovation policy; employee ownership.
• Dr Shiona Chillas: graduate labour market; employability; sociology of professions; knowedge work and workers.
• Professor Huw Davies: healthcare policy and management; policy design and implementation; organisational dynamics and performance; public accountability.
• Martin Dowling: organisational change and HR strategy; partnership working in organisations; skill development.
• Professor John Ferguson: accountability and corporate governance, with a particular focus on the social and organisational impact of corporate governance regimes.
• Dr Lisi Gordon: leadership; workplace learning; education; transitions (including educational, life and organisational transitions).
• Dr Gail Greig: how practices produce and reproduce our everyday world and us as practitioners; how organising practices relate to other practices, e.g. in medicine and healthcare, craft / making, and research; practice theory; activity theory; process theory.
• Professor Paul Hibbert: collaborative and relational processes of organising and learning; interpretive and interdisciplinary research; management and leadership education, in theory and practice.
• Professor Jeff Hyman: employee participation, the future of work and work-life balance.
• Dr Tobias Jung: philanthropy, especially foundations and trusts.
• Dr Laurence Lasselle: macroeconomics with imperfect competition; general equilibrium models; economic dynamics; heterogeneous beliefs; issues on globalisation and education.
• Charles Lovatt: social policy; practice of entrepreneurship; marketing; innovation; governance and enrichment.
• Professor Kevin Orr‎: organisational theory; public administration; political studies.
• Dr Francoise-Regis Puyou: critical accounting; visualisation; phenomenology.
• Dr Sandra Romenska: leadership development; collaborative and shared leadership; leading virtual and distributed teams; innovation; complexity.
• Dr Shona Russell: governance, accountability and accounting technologies for natural resource management, particularly water; collaborative and interdisciplinary knowledge production in the domain of environmental science and policy; organising sustainability transitions.
• Professor Lorna Stevenson: the social, environmental and economic consequences of accounting, and the implications of these for both wider forms of accountancy and accountants' and managers' education‎.
• Dr Juliette Summers: the intersection of work, identity and democracy, and in particular on employee ownership and participation, worker and community identity development, and political consultation and participation strategies.
• Dr Vicky Ward: knowledge mobilisation, focusing on how healthcare practitioners, managers and researchers create and share knowledge with one another.
• Dr Lucy Wishart: the governance of sustainable development within Scotland; waste and circular economy; policy processes.

Research within organisations and society focuses on the role of organisations in shaping society and vice versa. This inter-relation is examined from a range of theoretical perspectives in a variety of empirical locations by adopting a range of qualitative and quantitative analytical approaches. Accepted ideas about organisation and orthodoxies of managerial practice are thoroughly interrogated.

At the heart of the group is a concern with the sociological and psychological nature of organisational behaviour, and with the ethical and political context and consequences of organisations.

Research staff:

• Dr Cinla Akinci: decision making; intuition; cognition; top management teams; organisational and managerial learning; organisational change and development.
• Professor Kirstie Ball: surveillance, privacy and security.
• Dr Alina Baluch: employment relations in voluntary organisations; HRM and performance in voluntary and public sector organisations; deviant workplace behaviour.
• William Barlow: creative marketing; advertising and marketing communications.
• Dr Boyka Bratanova: sustainability and the effects of economic conditions on psychology and behaviour; the effect of wealth and inequality on people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
• Dr Ross Brown: entrepreneurship; high growth entrepreneurship; entrepreneurship and public policy; funding for SMEs (including alternative forms of funding such as crowdfunding); innovation policy; employee ownership.
• Dr Eleanor Burt: charities in the 'Information Age'; charities as ethical institutions; charities and the regulation of campaigning; 'democratic voice'.
• Dr Shiona Chillas: graduate labour market; employability; sociology of professions; knowledge work and workers.
• Professor Huw Davies: healthcare policy and management; policy design and implementation; organisational dynamics and performance; public accountability.
• Dr David Dowell: non-profits; services; relationship marketing.
• Martin Dowling: organisational change and HR strategy; partnership working in organisations; skill development.
• Professor John Ferguson: accountability and corporate governance, with a particular focus on the social and organisational impact of corporate governance regimes.
• Dr Lisi Gordon: leadership; workplace learning; education; transitions (including educational, life and organisational transitions).
• Dr Gail Greig: collective knowing and learning in work and organization; activity theory and practice-based approaches; relations between the dialectical and dialogical aspects of practice in musical work settings; craft and craft working practices.
• Professor Paul Hibbert: collaborative and relational processes of organising and learning; interpretive and interdisciplinary research; management and leadership education, in theory and practice.
• Dr Tobias Jung: philanthropy, especially foundations and trusts.
• Dr Mahmoud Khalik: firm internationalisation; base of the pyramid; emerging markets.
• Dr Min Li: export channel selection; export performance; entry mode.
• Professor Brad MacKay: strategy development; execution and implementation; contingency planning; scenario planning; the political economy of strategy-making.
• Dr Samuel Mansell: business ethics and political philosophy.
• Dr Juliette Summers: the intersection of work, identity and democracy, and in particular on employee ownership and participation, worker and community identity development, and political consultation and participation strategies.
• Dr Vicky Ward: knowledge mobilisation, focusing on how healthcare practitioners, managers and researchers create and share knowledge with one another. 
• Professor Ruth Woodfield: gender differences and inequalities in the context of work and education.