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Find out more about the team behind the Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Business Prosperity.
Antonis Ballis is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship at Aston Business School. His main research areas are Behavioural Finance, Cryptocurrency/DEFI Economics, and Financial Technology (FinTech).
Antonis Ballis holds a Doctoral degree in Finance (Athens University of Economics and Business), and a Master’s degree in Applied Economics and Data Analysis (University of Patras). In 2018 he was awarded a 3-year funding for his research on cryptocurrencies, from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (IKY). Parts of his work are published in highly respectable academic field journals.
Zheng (Chris) Cao is Lecturer in Economics at Aston Business School. He joined the school in September 2018. Prior to that, he worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at University of Surrey and a research assistant at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He holds a Ph.D. in Tourism Economics, an M.Sc. in Economics and a B.Econ. in Finance.
Chris’ expertise lies in tourism demand analysis, economic development, economic impact analysis and globalisation. He has extensive experience in carrying out applied economics research and has been involved in a number of externally funded projects, including ‘Analysis and forecast of socio-economic impact of Clean Sky’, ‘Economic impact of Watts Gallery’, ‘Economic impact and travel patterns of accessible tourism in Europe’ and ‘The economic effects of visa regulations on the demand for China’s tourism’. He has published a number of articles in top-tier internationally refereed journals, including Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Jocelyne Fleming joined the Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship Group at Aston Business School as Senior Teaching Fellow in 2020. She has previously held posts at The University of Gloucestershire and was the Subject Lead for Business Management, Entrepreneurship and Finance.
In 2006, Jocelyne joint authored the textbook ‘Organizational Change’ published by Pearsons. She has experience working with SME’s and larger corporate entities focusing on support in leadership, change and strategy. Most recent publications:
Recently, she is involved with the Help to grow Leadership Programme for entrepreneurs and current areas of interest focuses on entrepreneurship development within the UK.
Dylan’s research and teaching spans business innovation, digital and government policy. He is particularly interested in the spatial dynamics of business activities and strategy development within the regional context. His research is currently examining the role of actors, organisations and institutions in regional innovation strategies, with a particular focus on new forms of policy and ecosystem dynamics. In a separate strand of research, he is looking at the deployment of broadband and mobile technologies in urban and rural regions and their impacts.
His research has been published in a range of leading journals and policy publications and has conducted research for organisations such as the European Commission, UK Government, Welsh Government, regional development agencies and universities across Europe.
Simone Grabner is an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Economics at the Department of Economic Policy at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy. She is a member of the Digital Economy and Innovation theme at the Centre for Business Prosperity and coordinates the Urban and Regional Economic Working Group of the Young Scholars Initiative. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Gran Sasso Science Institute in L’Aquila and was previously a postdoctoral researcher at Bocconi University.
Simone’s research focuses on innovation, industrial evolution and economic geography, with a strong emphasis on the green transition. She has worked on topics such as regional economic resilience and growth; the labour market and teleworkability; industrial and technological diversification.
Emmanouil is a Reader in Quantitative Human Geography at the University of Bristol. His research has been exposing the spatial dimensions of digital technologies and the digital economy from their early stages until today. He has published on issues related to the geography of the internet infrastructure, the economic impacts that such digital infrastructure can generate on cities and regions and the position of cities within spatial, complex networks. He has a strong interest and expertise on the use of new sources of big data, such as data from mobile phone operators, to better understand the complexities of smart cities and urban systems.
Using such data and relevant computational methods, his research has explored the interplay between geography, spatial structure and social networks and how they support knowledge transfer and creation. Together with his collaborators, he has explored how access to digital tools can intervene with some key dimensions of spatial structure including commuting and the role of distance. Recently, he has been exploring the geography and the evolution of the creation of online content and its interrelation with cities and spatial structure using web data and digital archives. This approach enables us to access how early engagement with digital technologies may intervene with future regional productivity pathways.
Dr. Alcino Azevedo is a Senior Lecturer in Finance at Aston Business School and a former Research Director of the Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship Department. He has a Ph.D. in Finance from Alliance Manchester Business School, an MSc in Finance from Portuguese Catholic University, gained with a First, and a degree in Engineering from University of Minho, gained with a Distinction.
Before joining Aston Business School, he worked at the Hull University, where he was involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, and taught in MBA Programs in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bahrain. Prior to his Ph.D. in Finance, he worked for about seven years in the manufacturing sector in several management positions.
His academic research has been published at well ranked academic journals such as the European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Finance and Economics, Energy economics, Journal of International Financial Markets, Journal of Business Research, Economic Letters, Omega: International Journal of Management Science, Institutions & Money, among others, and presented at numerous international conferences, including the European Financial Management Association, Applied Financial Economics, and International Finance and Banking Society.
Dr. Alcino Azevedo is ad hoc referee for various well ranked academic journals such as RAND Journal of Economics, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Journal of Management and Organization, Omega – International Journal of Management Science, European Journal of Finance, Journal of the Operational Research Society, among others.
His current preferred research interests are theoretical or empirical research on corporate finance topics involving real options, as well as Renewable Energy investments, Financial Derivatives, and Risk Management.
Jason Evans has been a member of the EFE group since 2013 and is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Entrepreneurship. He has a business background in international management, having worked in Asia for a decade, and is a fluent Japanese speaker.
His academic interests centre on Entrepreneurship and Strategy. He has recently completed work on a large-scale European research project centred on incubation and entrepreneurship education across the EU (super-project.eu) and an EEUK funded research project on student engagement in entrepreneurship in universities. His work has taken him on a number of foreign adventures, recently leading workshops on “Training of Trainers in Business Incubation Management for Higher Learning Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa” in Tanzania and similar programmes in Armenia as part of a British Council funded project.
He is currently a member of the author team for the 13th edition of Exploring Strategy and has recently had 3 chapters published in the book ‘Games, Simulations and Playful Learning in Business Education’.
Adam is a behavioural economist and joined Aston University in October 2020. His primary research interests lie within the area of charitable giving and philanthropy, with a focus on donor behaviour. He is currently reading for his PhD within this field.
With research interests within behavioural economics and experimental economics, his current PhD research focuses on the non-profit sector, where he is investigating the motives that underpin the decision to donate. Specifically, he is interested in how information pertaining to the financial performance of charities and its framing affects the behaviour of donors.
Dr Matthew Olczak is a Senior Lecturer in the Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship Department at Aston University. His research focuses on industrial organization and competition policy. He is also interested in sports economics, in particular the football industry.
His recent research has modelled firms’ incentives, with the aims of explaining real-world collusive behaviour and improving competition policy to regulate collusion and cartels. His research has been widely published in leading economics and competition law journals. He is also a co-author of a book on hub-and-spoke cartels published by MIT Press.
Eugenie joined the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) at Aston University in August 2020. She is working on the evaluation of the Small Business Forward Programme for the JPMorgan Chase Foundation in the EMEA region.
Eugenie has over 10 years of work experience in evaluation, research and surveying from all sectors: private, public and non-profit
Jon Guest joined the Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship Department at Aston Business School as a Senior Teaching Fellow in September 2017. He previously taught at Warwick Business School, Nottingham Trent University and Coventry University. He is a National Teaching Fellow of Advance Higher Education and a member of the Executive Group of the Economics Network.
Jon is also the co-author of the leading UK textbooks ‘Economics’ and the ‘Economics for Business’. He is on the editorial board of the Economic Review and makes regular contributions to this publication. Recent articles have focused on the regulation of digital markets. His research on innovative teaching, learning and assessment has been published in academic journals such as Higher Education Research and Development and the International Review of Economic Education.
Johan joined the Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship Group at Aston Business School as an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Economics in 2016. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Leicester graduating in 2014.
Johan’s research broadly stems two main areas: development finance and sports economics and finance. He has published his research in the Journal of Banking and Finance, Economics Letters, the Journal of Sports Economics, and the Journal of Sport Management.
He is currently supervising five full-time PhD students and one part-time student, in various applied economics subjects, ranging from financial development and growth to competitive balance in English football.
Anastasia is a Research Fellow at Enterprise Research Centre, Aston Business School. She is an applied economist with expertise in financial and economic development and efficiency and productivity analysis. Her unique perspective is a product of a diverse background and understanding of macroeconomics, finance, and small business sector.
Having joined ERC in 2018 and recently become a member of the GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) UK team, Anastasia’s current focus is small business economics and entrepreneurship investigating firms’ financial constraints, digital and net zero transition, and entrepreneurial attitudes and aspirations. Anastasia has received funding from the European Investment Bank and the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
Dr Liu joined the Department of Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship in 2019. He has previously worked at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany after obtaining PhD in economics from Toulouse School of Economics, France.
His research area is applied microeconomics and behavioural economics, with a focus on industrial organisation. He currently works on topics on competition and regulation, digital economy, and vertical relationships. Dr Liu has research published in internationally reputable journals such as the International Journal of Industrial Organization, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Economics Letters. He has also served as an ad hoc reviewer for journals such as Management Science, Transportation Research, and Journal of Economics & Management Strategy.
Vahid Jafari-Sadeghi is a Lecturer in International Business at Aston Business School. Before joining Aston University, Vahid was a Senior Lecturer in International Entrepreneurship at the Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, and Lecturer in Business Strategy at the School of Strategy and Leadership at Coventry University. He is an active researcher in the field of international entrepreneurship, particularly in the area of SME internationalisation.
Vahid has published papers in leading international journals such as International Business Review, Journal of Business Research, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of International Entrepreneurship, etc. Dr Jafari-Sadeghi is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, International Journal of Business and Globalisation, and British Food Journal. He has served as the lead guest editor for the special issues at the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, and British Food Journal. Vahid has edited various books in Springer and Routledge and performed as track chair and presenter for several international conferences.
Building on the wealth of international entrepreneurship, Vahid is focusing on the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). His main research interests are:
Drivers of successful internationalisation in different contexts.
External and internal factors toward de-internationalisation of entrepreneurial firms (e.g., born globals).
Knowledge management practices and inter-organisational arrangements among small internationalisers.
Digital technology transformation, and new business models for international business venturing in the ear of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0).
Anastasios (Tasos) Kitsos is a Lecturer in Economics at the Department of Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship at Aston University and the lead for the Digital Economy and Innovation theme at the Centre for Business Prosperity. His research focuses on the spatial manifestation of socio-economic phenomena with an emphasis on regional economic resilience and growth; the digital and creative economies; innovation; entrepreneurship; the impact of universities on their local economies and distributive politics.
He has worked as a researcher, Co-Investigator and Primary Investigator in several projects supported by public and private funders such as the ESRC, AHRC and Facebook. Tasos is a committee member of the Regional Science Association International – British and Irish Section and a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association. He has previously worked in the private and public sector as well as in the London School of Economics, Plymouth University and the University of Birmingham where he remains an associate of City-REDI.
Dr Nguyen is a researcher in the field of small business and entrepreneurship. His main research interest is understanding the economics and management of new ventures and small businesses.
His research interest lies in several aspects of small businesses, including entrepreneurial financing, investment decisions, human resource management, and institutional settings on firm performance. Before joining academia, he spent several years in financial industry as a professional data analyst. Dr Nguyen has research published in Regional Studies, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business. He is serving as an Editor of the Journal of Asian Business and Economic Studies (Emerald). He also has several papers presented at Academy of Management Annual Meetings and has been an ad hoc reviewer for Small Business Economics and Regional Studies.
Tim Burnett is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Business Economics & Strategy.
Further details to follow shortly.
Sajid Chaudhry is a Senior Lecturer in Finance at Aston Business School since 2018. Before joining Aston Business School, he was a lecturer in finance at Birmingham Business School and at School of Management, Swansea University.
Sajid holds a PhD in Banking and Finance from Maastricht University, The Netherlands. His current research interests focus on climate/green finance, Fintech, financial stability, and dynamics of corporate loan market.
Aya ghalayini is a Teaching Fellow in Finance.
Further details to follow shortly.
Secil Danakol is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship.
Further details to follow shortly.
Jocelyne Fleming is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Business Economics & Strategy.
Further details to follow shortly.
Chris Jones is Professor of International Business and Economics at Aston Business School, UK. His research concerns international financial flows such as foreign direct investment, international trade, foreign aid and migrant remittances. He is particularly interested in profit-shifting activities of multinational enterprises and how they utilize tax havens.
Professor Jones has published articles in journals such as the Journal of World Business, British Journal of Management, International Journal of Management Reviews and World Development and has received funding from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust.
Maria Kozlovskaya is a Senior Lecturer in Economics.
Further details to follow shortly.
Neha Prashar is a Research Fellow for the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) at Aston University.
Further details to follow shortly.
Christos Ioannidis joined the Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship Group at Aston Business School as Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance in 2016. He has previously held posts at The University of Bath, Cardiff Business School, University of Liverpool and Brunel University.
Recently he is involved with externally funded research projects that deal with the economics of information security. He has undertaken research as consultant for private financial institutions and government organisations (ONS, City of London Corporation, WDA etc).
He has successfully supervised eight doctoral students and currently supervising three full-time students, reading in credit market derivatives and their effects on systemic stability, modelling the term structure in fixed income security assets and the effectiveness of forecast combinations in financial markets and one part-time student researching the impact of the introduction of the common currency in European equity markets.
Meng Song is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship. Her main research interests include understanding the driving force of firm innovation and growth, internationalisation strategies and impacts, and the interplay between firm behaviour, industry and institutions.
Her research plan for the next few years is to investigate topics related to trade, global value chain and economic development in the UK. Meng has worked in University of Birmingham and Cardiff University before re-joining Aston in 2019. Her previous research involved regional economic development in Wales and SMEs performance in the UK.
Tomasz Mickiewicz is the 50th Anniversary Professor of Economics at Aston University, Birmingham; honorary research fellow at University College London; and associate editor of Regional Studies.
His research is on how formal and informal institutions affect performance and entrepreneurship. Recent publications include papers in Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of World Business and others.
Oleksandr Shepotylo has recently joined the Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship at Aston Business School as a Lecturer in Economics.
His specialisms include trade policy, productivity and applied study of firm behaviour.
Hiro Izushi has a PhD from University of California at Berkeley and international experience in research and consultancy in innovation and regional economic development. Clients of his past research projects include OECD, NESTA, DTI, Scottish Enterprise, and South East England Development Agency, among others.
Hiro has co-authored and co-edited three books, including Competition, Competitive Advantage, and Clusters: The Ideas of Michael Porter (Oxford University Press), Competing for Knowledge: Creating, Connecting, and Growing (Routledge), and The Global Competitiveness of Regions (Routledge).
Yama Temouri (PhD, Aston University, UK) is an Associate Professor in International Business at the University of Wollongong in Dubai, UAE and is also affiliated with the University of Aston in the UK.
His research focuses on the links between institutional quality across countries, Foreign Direct Investment and firm performance. With regards to FDI, he is particularly interested in the determinants of FDI in tax haven locations. Other work looks at the impact of agility, resilience and dynamic capabilities on firm performance. His papers have been published in the Journal of World Business, Journal of International Management, Corporate Governance: An International Review, Journal of Comparative Economics, among others. He also has extensive consultancy experience, including projects for the OECD, European Commission and several UK Government Departments.
Arash joined Aston Business School as a Lecturer in International Business and Strategy in September 2018. He completed his PhD in the Department of Management at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His primary research interest lies in the field of international business and strategy.
In particular, he is interested in studying the dynamics of international development of SMEs and the strategies for SMEs’ healthy, rapid growth. In his doctoral research he explored the consequences of adopting different international growth strategies. Specifically, his research examined the performance implications of rapid internationalisation among SMEs. Arash holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s in Industrial Management and Operations Research. Due to his diverse educational background, he has carried out some interdisciplinary research jointly with academics in the fields of Urban Planning, Energy Management, and Economics, which resulted in publications in these areas. Arash also has practical experience of working in different organisations, including small business consulting companies.
Michail is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship at Aston Business School.
His expertise lie in the areas of applied macroeconometrics, financial econometrics and advanced time series analysis.
I joined Aston Business School in September 2011, having spent the previous two years as Visiting Lecturer at the University of Cyprus.
Prior to that, I was for two and a half years Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy (GEP), University of Nottingham.
Jun Du is currently a Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship, Aston Business School, UK. She is an applied economist with her main research interest in understanding the driving forces and impediments of economic growth and development. Her research endeavour covers multi-level dimensions of individuals, firms, industries, regions, governments and their interplays, based on the observations drawn from different contexts of emerging countries as well as mature economies.
Jun received PhD degree in Economics from the Economics Department in University of Leicester. She held a visiting research fellowship in Stockholm School of Economics and is linked with Chinese Social Science Academy. She is also a research fellow in Advanced Institute of Management, and member of several professional bodies. Jun previously published in International Journal of Industrial Organization, Kyklos, Journal of Business Venturing, Research Policy, Empirical Economics, Journal of Productivity Analysis, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, International Journal of Business Studies, etc. Her research has received external funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), NESTA foundation, Leverhulme and various UK government agencies including UKTI, DTI and BIS, as well as local governments (Manchester and Birmingham).
As the Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Business Prosperity Manager, Lynne oversees the daily operations associated with the Centre. Having 20 years experience in Higher Education, Lynne has previously worked as a Lead Coordinator for an Erasmus+ funded project, Aston University being the beneficiary institution.
Susan Schwarz is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Strategic Entrepreneurship at King’s College London; and editorial board member of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.
Her research is on how human capital, social networks and psychological resources affect enterprise. Recent publications include papers in Journal of Vocational Behavior, International Small Business Journal, and AOM ‘Best Paper’ Proceedings.
Mustapha Douch is Research Fellow of the LBP. He graduated from the Universities of Modena & R.E., Bologna, KU Leuven and received his PhD degree from Loughborough.
Apart from being a highly skilled econometrician, Mustapha has research experience and expertise in International economics, macroeconomics, and applied econometrics.
Nduka Uzoamaka joined the Aston Business School as a research student in July 2018, having received the Aston Prize scholarship funded by Aston University and Lloyds Banking Group.
She holds a Masters Degree in Econometrics from the University of Nottingham and her research interest is in the areas of International Economics, Trade and Applied Microeconometrics.
Xiaocan is currently a PhD student in the Department of Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship, Aston Business School, UK.
Her research focuses on how management practices and managers’ capabilities affect companies’ performance and productivity.
Enrico is a fellow in economic geography at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research focuses on international economics, firms’ internationalization, innovation, trade policy and regional economics.
He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Birmingham and he has previously worked as a research fellow at the Enterprise Research Centre and collaborated as a consultant on several research projects focusing on the EU trade policies, international economics and development.
I joined Aston Business School in 2014, after completing my thesis at the University of Sheffield.
I teach quantitative methods courses at both MSc and undergraduate level, as well as some introduction to business economics courses. I have recently been engaged in consultancy for the ILO and research in labour economics and applied micro econometrics.
Ruoying Zhou is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Leicester since 2017.
She received her PhD in Economics from Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship Group at Aston University. Her research interests are in innovation, firm internationalisation, firm growth, and regional development.
Sandra Lancheros is Lecturer in Economics at the University of Leeds since 2015. Her research interests are in the areas of international economics and industrial organisation, focusing on the effects of globalisation on firms’ performance.
She pays special attention to the activities of multinational companies, including their foreign direct investments, exporting and innovation. Her work has been published in international peer review journals, such as the Journal of International Economics, the Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation, the Journal of Development Studies, and the World Economy.
Sourafel Girma is a Professor of Industrial Economics at the University of Nottingham.
His research interests lie in microeconometric policy evaluation and the impact of globalisation on firms’ performance.
From June 2013 George has been the Executive Dean of Aston Business School, returning to the academic world, in which he began his professional career. From 2003 to May 2013 George was the founder and CEO of Contango Capital Advisors, a wealth management firm in San Francisco.
George has also been a Director of McKinsey & Co, working in the US and the UK, the Global Head of Investment Banking for SBC Warburg, the Global Head of Onshore Private Banking for Swiss Bank Corporation and then for UBS and a member of the Group Management Boards of both Swiss Bank Corporation and UBS. George has also been involved in a variety of venture capital activities.
He has been a frequent commentator on economic and financial topics in a variety of media. George was a Lecturer in Economics at Harvard and then Assistant and Associate Professor of Finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in the 1970s. George holds a B.Econ (Hons) from Monash University and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University. He was also a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard.
Mark is Deputy Director of the ERC, Associate Director in the Aston Centre for Growth and Professor of Small Business and Entrepreneurship at Aston Business School. At the Centre he is responsible for the research theme focusing on Business Demography, Productivity, Local Growth and Business Support.
At Aston University he is also one of the Programme Directors and Academic Lead for the national Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme and has worked and published extensively in the areas of entrepreneurship, enterprise and small business development and policy. A 2014 recipient of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion, he has played a national role in promoting enterprise skills and supporting entrepreneurs as well as advising government on small business and entrepreneurship matters. He also manages the GEM UK national team for GEM Global which is the only international source of annual evidence on entrepreneurial attitudes, activity and aspiration (www.gemconsortium.org).
Jim Love Is Professor of International Business in Leeds University Business School. He previously held Chairs in international business and economics at Aston, Birmingham and Warwick Universities, and a World class expert in the field of international business and innovation.
Jim has acted as a consultant on aspects of inward investment and innovation policy for a number of organizations including the OECD, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), Advantage West Midlands, the Manchester Independent Economic Review, the Scottish Executive, Scottish Enterprise, Invest Northern Ireland, and Forfas (Dublin). He has held visiting chairs and fellowships at Copenhagen Business School and Wolfson College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and of the Higher Education Academy, and is a former member of the Research Committee of the ESRC.
