Dr Ziko Konwar is joined by Dr Christopher Hassall and Professor Ulf Andersson to discuss the intricate linkages between biodiversity and business strategies, with an emphasis on operations of multinational enterprises. As part of the conversation, they explore questions such as how can businesses co-create value when it comes to preserving biological resources and mitigating the pace of biodiversity loss. And what are some of the major challenges for multinational companies integrating nature-based solutions into their business models?

This episode was recorded on 3rd October 2024. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Dr Ziko Konwar is an Assistant Professor of International Business at Leeds University Business School, and is the Director of Internationalization for the International Business Department. His research interests are in global strategy of multinational enterprises, with an emphasis on cross-national institutional and systemic challenges. He is the Leeds University Business School Research Lead for the 24-26 Cheney Fellowship project (see below), University of Leeds.

Dr Christopher Hassall is an Associate Professor of Animal Biology in the School of Biology at the University of Leeds. He co-directs the Leverhulme Extinction Studies Doctoral Training Programme and co-leads the Aeroecology Research Group, which focuses on using radar for biodiversity monitoring. His research interests span fundamental ecology and biodiversity conservation, with a particular emphasis on interdisciplinary solutions to biodiversity challenges.

Professor Ulf Andersson is a Professor of Business Studies in Mälardalen University, Sweden. Ulf is a research leader and expert on subsidiary management strategy of multinational enterprises, and is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business and European International Business Academy. Ulf is the first Cheney Fellow to be hosted at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds.

About the project:

The Cheney fellowship project will utilize inter-disciplinary research expertise to address the role of global strategy of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in biodiversity loss (e.g. species/habitat extinction and MNE global innovation). The research team comprises Professor Ulf Andersson (incoming Cheney Fellow), Dr Ziko Konwar, Professor Yingqi (Annie) Wei and Professor Frank McDonald (Leeds University Business School), Dr Christopher Hassall (Faculty of Biological Sciences,) and Professor George Holmes (School of Earth and Environment). Over the past ten years, the Cheney Fellowship programme has established fruitful and high-impact research partnerships in areas such as water security, molecular biology, medicine and materials science. This programme has been made possible through a $4 million gift from Bacteriology and Biochemistry graduate Peter Cheney and his wife Susan.

Professor Aristeidis Theotokis speaks to special guest, Rashik Parmar, MBE, about AI and the implications it could have on both business and society as a whole. In the episode, they discuss AI’s potential and limitations; people’s perceptions of AI; who the winners and losers are when it comes to creating value from AI; and what the biggest risks are when it comes to AI.

Both Aristeidis and Rashik presented at Leeds University Business School’s “The Business of AI” event as part of Leeds Digital Festival in September.

The HBR article Rashik referenced in this episode is “What is responsible computing?”

This episode was recorded on 11th October 2024. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Aristeidis Theotokis is Professor of Marketing at Leeds University Business School. He conducts research in the areas of shopper psychology, retail technology and prosocial behaviour. He examines theories and phenomena in the areas of consumer psychology, behavioural economics and social psychology. His current research includes exploring how consumers understand and interact with AI.

Rashik Parmar, MBE is a member of Leeds University Business School’s Research International Advisory Board. Rashik is Group CEO of British Computer Society (BCS) where he is responsible for realising the BCS mission to make IT good for society. He is focused on inspiring the programmes that the BCS colleagues, members and partners that help us deliver the BCS strategy. Previously he was the IBM Fellow and Vice President responsible for creating and driving IBM’s European technical strategy. Rashik is a member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Council and also chairs the Employment and Skills Panel at the Leeds City Region LEP and the Board of Trustees for We are IVE.

Dr Jo Cutter speaks to Hunter Moskowitz and Dr Mijin Cha from UC Santa Cruz about their case study, exploring the key themes in just transition in the US. The team discuss the roles of unions, coalitions, and policy priorities.

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2. Visit the project webpage.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in May 2024. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk.

A transcript of this episode is available.

You can listen to the rest of the episodes in this series.

About the speakers:

Dr Jo Cutter is a lecturer in Work and Employment Relations at Leeds University Business School. Her research focuses on employment relations, social dialogue and the regulation of work with a core focus on skills, education and training. She is currently researching these themes in relation to two contexts: workers and the just transition and labour mobility.

Hunter Moskowitz is a doctoral candidate in World History at Northeastern with a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. He also works as a research specialist, examining climate and labor policy and just transitions at the University of California Santa Cruz.

Dr Mijin Cha is an assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz and a fellow at the Climate Jobs Institute, Cornell University. Dr Cha’s research focuses on labour/climate coalitions and how to actualize just transitions.

Drs Gabriella Alberti and Jo Cutter are joined by Caroline Keohane and Tanya Barringer from the Food and Drink Federation to discuss how the workforce in the UK food and drink sector has been affected since the end of the free movement of labour from the EU, and other subsequent crises.

This episode has been recorded as part of the Labour Mobility in Transition (LIMITS) project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Visit the project webpage.

You can read the manifesto discussed in the episode here, and the LIMITS project Employer Survey report here.

This episode was recorded on 11 June 2024. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Dr Gabriella Alberti is an Associate Professor in Work and Employment Relations. Her research interests revolve around the conditions of workers at the bottom end of the labour market, whether on non-standard contracts, engaged in gig/platform work, excluded from social protections, migrants and minorities workers facing multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination and exclusion.

Dr Jo Cutter is a lecturer in Work and Employment Relations. Her research focuses on employment relations, social dialogue and the regulation of work with a core focus on skills formation and training. She is currently researching these themes in relation to two contexts: workers and the just transition and labour mobility.

Caroline Keohane is Head of Industry Growth at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) which is the voice of the UK’s largest manufacturing sector. Caroline leads FDF’s policy work on growth, productivity and investment and works closely with senior government officials within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). She is also a Non-Executive Board member of the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink.

Tanya Barringer is a Senior Industry Growth Policy Executive at the Food and Drink Federation. Her areas of focus include skills (apprenticeships and...

Professor Vera Trappmann, Dr Janina Myrczik and Dr Justyna Kajta discuss their paper - “Becoming a young radical right activist, biographical pathways of the members of radical right organizations in Poland and Germany”.

Read the paper here.

“Becoming a young radical right activist, biographical pathways of the members of radical right organizations in Poland and Germany.”, Current Sociology, Janina Myrczik, Justyna Kajta, Arthur Buckenleib, Mateusz Karolak, Marius Liedtke, Adam Mrozowicki and Vera Trappmann.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in May 2024. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available. 

About the speakers:

Vera Trappmann is Professor of Comparative Employment Relations at Leeds University Business School. Her research engages with the comparison of labour relations across Europe, focusing on the dynamics of economic and organisational restructuring and its impact on working biographies, and organized labour.

Justyna Kajta is a Professor Assistant at the Institute of Social Sciences, SWPS University (Warsaw, Poland). Her main research interests concern youth, social movements, class (im)mobilities, and social and political changes in Central and Eastern Europe. She is the author of several publications, including the book (in Polish) Young Radicals? On the Identity of the Polish Nationalist Movement and Its Participants (Nomos, 2020).

Janina Myrczik is a Lecturer in Qualitative Methods and a Researcher at Medical School Berlin. Her research centres on rehabilitation, ageing, and the radical right. She is particularly interested in qualitative research, social inequality and political sociology.

Dr Olga Ustyuzhantseva speaks to Mattia Dessì about Russia’s energy situation and the state's views on it; the ecological impact of coal in Russia; and the role of the labour movement in Russia's coal industry.

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2.

Visit the project webpage. business.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/dir-re…s-11-countries

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in May 2023. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available. business.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/down…al-exploration

About the speakers: Mattia Dessì is a Postgraduate Researcher at Leeds University Business School. His PhD research focuses on new technologies and the future of work in the South African mining industry.

Dr Olga Ustyuzhantseva is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa). Her recent research focuses on the sociotechnical transition to the sustainable development of coal-mining countries (South Africa and Russia), particularly climate, energy, and just transition policies and their impact on the coal phase-out trajectory.

Dr Jo Cutter is joined by Sam Perry, Green Bargaining Officer for Yorkshire and the Humber Trades Union Congress (TUC) to discuss the work the TUC is doing in the region to support a Just Transition for workers.

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2.

Visit the project webpage.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in November 2023. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. To find out more about the TUC’s Just Transition work, or to join the Yorkshire and Humber Just Transition Network, email Sam Perry sperry@tuc.org.uk.

A transcript of this episode is available.

You can listen to the rest of the episodes in this series.

About the speakers:

Dr Jo Cutter is a lecturer in Work and Employment Relations at Leeds University Business School. Her research focuses on employment relations, social dialogue and the regulation of work with a core focus on skills, education and training. She is currently researching these themes concerning two contexts: workers and the just transition and labour mobility.

Sam Perry is the Green Bargaining Officer for Yorkshire and the Humber TUC. He is focused on raising the profile of environmental action within the labour movement and building capacity in trade unions to bargain for justice as organisations adapt to the need to decarbonise. His special interest is in making the case for a massive growth of energy efficiency retrofits to homes across Yorkshire and the Humber, where he brings together a background in social housing and political and union activism.

Lena Jaspersen and Tony Morgan talk about their pedagogical research on the development of employability skills in students engaged in challenge-based learning in diverse teams. Drawing on assignments produced for their own module “Innovation, Thinking and Practice”, Tony and Lena analysed reflective diaries that the students wrote throughout the module. Findings provided useful insights into how team-based learning can be designed to improve inclusivity and enhance learning outcomes, including employability skills. Lena and Tony discuss how pedagogical research can connect research and teaching activities in mutually beneficial ways.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in December 2023. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact  research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available. 

Useful resources:

• LITE Research Project: https://teachingexcellence.leeds.ac.uk/research/fellowships/i-de-es-project/
• Diverging and Converging for Team-Based Learning: https://teachingexcellence.leeds.ac.uk/diverging-and-converging-for-team-based-learning/
• Design Thinking for Student Projects book: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/design-thinking-for-student-projects/book276875

About the speakers:

Lena Jaspersen is an early-career researcher with a multidisciplinary background in international sociology and organisation studies. Lena’s overarching research interests are in collaborative innovation processes, in particular in the context of global development, and qualitative research methods.

Tony Morgan (FHEA) is an Associate Professor in Innovation Management Practice at the University of Leeds in the UK, where he teaches interdisciplinary and team-based innovation modules. He previously held senior innovation and technology roles at IBM. Tony's primary interests include design thinking, innovation and innovation management, emerging technology, pedagogy and student skills development.