The following research groups are situated within the MSM group:

• MICE - The Cross-border Research Network on Marketing, Innovation and Chinese Economy

• SAMS - The Sales & Account Management Strategy Research Unit

• SOLAR - The Strategy, Organisational Learning and Research Unit

• TIRU - The Technological Innovations Research Unit

MICE - The Cross-border Research Network on Marketing, Innovation and Chinese Economy

The MICE network is led by Dr Qing Wang, Reader in Marketing and Innovation, from the Marketing & Strategic Management (MSM) group. It explores key issues at the interface of marketing and innovation, in the context of fast growing economies like China. It engages academics, practitioners, and policy makers in the various activities from research idea generation, funding support to dissemination of research findings.

Technological innovations are an important source of growth for firms and economies worldwide. Firms at the leading edge of innovation tend to dominate world markets and promote the international competitiveness of their home economy.

Fast growing economies like China and India have so far relied mostly on their cost advantages and abundance of natural and human resources, instead of sophisticated technological and marketing skills and capabilities. The latter has been the main weakness of these countries for historical reasons. Yet most existing studies on firm's innovation capabilities have been conducted in western firms, only a few studies have addressed innovation capabilities of Chinese firms, and even fewer studies have linked technological capabilities to marketing capabilities of these firms. Against this background, the aim of MICE network is to:

• raise the awareness of the intersection of marketing and innovation as a significant area of research
• investigate the influence of contextual and country-level factors on this critical interface in fast growing economies like China
• explore and establish key issues in this field through themed workshops and conferences
• engage practitioners and policy makers and seek funding from multiple national funding sources to conduct empirical and state-of-art research on these issues. The Sales & Account Management Strategy Research Unit (SAMS) is a centre for research in the area of the strategic choices faced by companies in managing buyer-seller relationships.

For more information on MICE, go to the dedicated website here.

SAMS - The Sales & Account Management Strategy Research Unit

The Sales & Account Management Strategy Research Unit (SAMS) is a centre for research in the area of the strategic choices faced by companies in managing buyer-seller relationships.

We are particularly interested in the strategic development of sales organisations, and the use of new approaches like key and global account management structures to manage critical relationships with major customers.

SAMS is linked to an international grouping of academic research partners with whom we conduct research studies. It is building a network of business partners to participate in extending and applying our research to the world of practice in the form of a research club.

The goals of the SAMS research unit are:

• To be a centre of excellence in the area of sales management strategy and key/strategic account management
• To disseminate research findings through conferences, web-based communications, management workshops, and regular practitioner events
• To challenge conventional approaches to the strategic management of buyer-seller relationships in business-to-business marketing
• To create a network of academic partners and company associates involved in new research
• To publish our research in leading international journals, as well as high-impact managerial outlets
• To develop research grant applications around new projects and attract doctoral students to the study of sales strategy and key account management.

Further information about the activities of SAMS can be found on the dedicated SAMS web site.

SOLAR - The Strategy, Organisational Learning and Research Unit

The Unit has attracted funding from the ESRC and other sources(such as the Leverhulme Trust) to further research and develop a deep theoretical and empirical understanding of aspects of strategy and organisation. The Unit aims to investigate issues at theoretical, empirical and applied levels.

The Unit is currently concentrating on five broad areas of research which have relevance for scholars and practitioners:

• Strategic decision making, particularly understanding the characteristics of decision processes and how these might be associated with greater or lesser strategic decision performance.
• Inter-organisational relationships between business schools and corporate MBA sponsoring organisations. The research aims to uncover patterns, themes, and characteristics of strategy and learning in an educational context.
• Governance structures and processes. Research is looking at the development of codes of practice for Boards (in the UK and elsewhere) and is examining how Boards put such codes of practice into action across the organisation. Current research is examining how risk and control are managed across UK Multi-national Companies.
• Developing and assessing theoretical perspectives on examining strategy as practice.
• Examining how organisations deal with uncertainty and risk, in particular looking at how organisations both interpret and act upon uncertainties from the threat of terrorism.

Further information about the activities of SOLAR can be found at: SOLAR

TIRU - The Technological Innovations Research Unit

The Technological Innovations Research Unit (TIRU) is a small research group directed by Professor Paul Stoneman. It undertakes externally funded research upon innovation and technological change, mainly using economic and econometric methodologies.There are a number of doctoral students associated with the Unit. Previous work has explored organisational innovation, the impact of European financial restructuring on innovation and the impact of technology adoption on firm performance.

See the dedicated website: TIRU.

For details about the research interests, projects and publications of individuals, go to the list of group members at: 'people'