Incentivizing an Abu Dhabi Neighborhood to Install Solar Panels: Emirati Youth Research Project

This post is a snap shot of another awesome project by a group of senior Zayed University students who have just recently graduated. They employed the principles of the UAE 2021 and Abu Dhabi 2030 Strategic Plans and a unique research method to develop a plan to incentivize families in neighborhood by neighborhood to install solar panels on their rooftops.

Researchers:

Saeed Al Romaithi, Sorour Al Muhairi, Khalf Al Sowaidi, Mohammed Al Midfa, 

Salim Al Midfa, Khalid Al Harmoudi

Research Problem

The UAE is one of the largest consumers of electricity per capita in the world - due in large part to the high demands of air conditioning and desalination. As part of a drive towards sustainability, the UAE government is investing large resources into research (Masdar Institute for example) and large alternative energy installations (e.g. HHS Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park and Shams 1). However, individuals will also need to contribute to the "greening" of UAE energy and installing solar panels is one way in which families can participate.

Literature Review

Recent research suggests that people are not easily convinced about the long term benefits of installing solar panels (lots of research in Europe about this) - so the students concluded that to persuade people meant making people aware of the long term benefits (in the right way!). Moreover, cost sharing was a successful method used in many countries.

The young researchers concluded, that for Abu Dhabi the best way to move forward with the plan was to provide personalized information and to develop one-on-one relationships with families - something that has been used in China, the US and the UK.

Research Methodology

The students used a mixed method approach - interviews with managers/experts, surveys of 40 young Emirati engineering students and "the majalis approach". We developed the majalis approach as a hybrid of a focus group, tailored to Emirati culture and customs. The findings and analysis were also verified in another majalis setting.

• Majalis Research Method

In the Arab Gulf the majalis is used as a time and place for meeting with family and friends and also for family, tribal and government leaders to listen to issues and problems faced by family/tribe/community members. These majalis are held by both men and women and are generally gender segregated - although government leader majalis are open to both men and women.

My students attended several family majalis to speak about solar panels and to get feedback from different generations. Abu Dhabi was set up in family or tribe neighborhoods - so a large majalis during Ramadan or Eid could have representatives from each house in the neighborhood. Even the daily or weekly majalis by senior tribe members can have dozens of attendees. 

Of course this makes an ideal setting (with informed consent of the person holding the majalis and each person spoken with) for research here. As a qualitative researcher I was very excited with this "innovation" and was happy to see the students excited by it too.

(As a non-Arab speaker it would be impossible for me to conduct research like this without a trained research assistant - but the data and knowledge gained by the students was quite amazing in its depth and richness)

Results

The ten expert/manager interviews of major UAE green energy projects recommended Sharp efficient solar panels and Amonix efficient solar modules - and believed that government and semi-government organisations would need to work together to first raise awareness and also to develop programs to share costs with families wanting to install panels.

There were interesting results with the surveys of young Emirati engineering students and recent graduates and those spoken with in the majalis - Although 94% thought it would be cost effective in the long run, 86% were concerned with how they would make the house look "bad". Results also showed that they would appreciate government programs and that 82% were willing to sacrifice the "look" of the house for green energy.

Recommendations

Based on the literature review of how these projects have been done in other countries and the mixed-method primary research the students came up with several recommendations.

1. As a major concern of the experts and managers (and confirmed in the surveys and visits to majalises) an awareness campaign was needed to explain the benefits and also the best ways and companies to use to install solar panels.
2. They suggest that the government could develop a program to support families through cost reduction of the panels and or installation and hook-up.
3. There is also a concern about the technicalities of the panels, which could be solved with an effective program.

Appendix

Guide for Interested Individuals

Apex Power Concepts

Phone: +971-4-223-1185

Email: info@apexpowerconcepts.com

Panels available: Mono-crystalline type, poly-crystalline type, thin-film type, and flexible

Shams Power Company

Phone: +971-2-653-7200

Email: info@shamspowerco.ae

Panels available: Mono-crystalline type, poly-crystalline type, thin-film type, and flexible

Zenman Energy

Phone: (757)-679-6703

Email: snelson@zenmanenergy.org

Panels available: Mono-crystalline type, poly-crystalline type, thin-film type, and flexible

Joining the Conversation: How to get our voices heard from the Middle East (2/2)

I must admit this second part of a two part report has been somewhat delayed. But September bring back to school and a return to beloved projects.

Part of the caucus was also a discussion of ways and means scholars working in and on the under-studied MENA region could get our voices/research heard by the Academy of Management and the wider scholarly community.

We were blessed with the presence of senior scholars from the region and working in the region - long time members of the Academy and greatly respected for their research and non-academic work. They provided some useful advice which I will share with you here.

The journey, not the destination

Publishing is not the only goal of scholars (although in a publish or perish world it has got to be in the top two at least) - the research process and relevance to regional problems also need to be addressed.

For young scholars and scholars looking to break into the "community" there are many ways to get "noticed" and improve our craft at the same time. Write to the editors of journals you want you publish in and offer to be a reviewer - and then work at writing good reviews when articles are sent to you. Volunteer to review at the AOM Annual Meeting - and at other conferences you would like to attend, and might not have the budget to actually go to. Membership in any community is earned... this is the best way to "earn" it.

Regional problems make for interesting stories

As management scholars (I believe) we have a duty to address the real issues faced by organisations in our community, country and region. These challenges though also offer up some interesting questions that need to be answered, and through relevancy part of the "so what?" of research is covered. As well, these regional problems can offer interesting new angles on existing theories.

Joining, not starting the conversation

Scientific articles can usually only have about 20% "new" - so issues that seem inherently local such as "wasta" and Emiritisation/Saudisation/Qatarisation need to be framed in the language and framework of existing theory. For example wasta as compared to the Chinese concept of influence "guanxi" or social capital and Emiritisation as an example of affirmative action. 

Be proactive!

To be heard at the AOM Meeting means being on the program - and getting on the program is not always easy. However, there are many divisions looking to internationalize (e.g. have more members from outside of North America), so contact them about your PDW and symposium ideas - become a member of different divisions, volunteer at the meeting... attend functions. 

It was a great caucus, and I hope we are able to follow-up on our enthusiasm last month with submissions for the 2014 Annual Meeting. After another photo of the group I will list some links to websites of divisions I know are looking for more international members and divisions that are quite suited to our needs.

Have a great year!

The Management, Spirituality, and Religion (MSR) Interest Group of the Academy of Management (AOM)

The International Management Division of the Academy of Management 

Management History Division of the Academy of Management

Management Education and Development

Joining the Conversation: Emerging Research Directions in the Middle East (1/2)

Wow! It was a wonderful caucus at the Academy of Management this week. We organised the caucus to, in essence, start to push MENA based research into the Academy (and highly rated journals). We also hoped it would act as a catalyst for new research collaborations - across institutions and internationally. We had scholars from numerous schools, representing almost as many countries as scholars!

Beginning our conversations...

Continuing...

Joining the conversation

I think the one common theme that emerged was that we, as management scholars doing research in and about the large Middle East/MENA region, need to join the conversation with our interesting research problems, stories and contributions to existing theories (and developing some of our own in new areas such as the possibilities of social media in education and more, entrepreneurship, the concept of Wasta, Islamic Finance/management/ethics, etc.)

We started the session welcoming the 17 or so scholars gathered and spoke a little of the progress made by regions and countries such as India, China and more recently Africa and Latin America as they continue their process of entering the mainstream of management scholarly research.

Misconceptions in the mainstream

For many Western based scholars, the Middle East is one big melting pot of people of are Arab and Muslim. For people from the Middle East we know that the term "Middle East" comprises of ancient and new countries, many religions, many languages and many different socio-economic and political contexts. In fact, most Western-based theorists tend to put all issues and research problems "in one cultural basket"... So we know we have a big job ahead of us, to find our voice in the larger academic community, and to help firms, organisations and government organisations understand their problems better and hopefully offer up some long-term solutions.

Areas of research interest

There were many research areas that the assembled scholars were currently working on and ideas given on how to best present our research at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting next year. In general the following main areas were mentioned, Culture/Context, Islamic banking/ethics/management/etc., Entrepreneurship, Management Education, Organisational Development and Innovation.

Each topic of course is worthy of a blog post (at least) to speak about past, current and future research. For now I will just provide a few notes that will be developed over the next few months (deadline for the Academy is early January) into special issues, workshops, symposiums and articles.

Culture/Context

There are a number of ways that were mentioned about using the rich and new "context" to do replication studies of existing theories, about doing special issues of journals, and developing the interesting stories that could have theoretical and practical implications to the wider academic and business community.

The point was made several times that MENA is not one culture and to better understand organisations and the socio-political challenges and problems then a better understanding of regional and individual country context in required.

Islamic banking/ethics/management/entrepreneurship

A large stream of emerging research is looking at the new norms, rules and implications of the application of Islamic principles to traditional Western concepts and ways of doing business. This does not just imply the application of Sharia law - but the application of cultural norms and new ways of doing in Western organisation operating in the region and for indigenous organisation.

Entrepreneurship

No, this wasn't just brought up by me :) Entrepreneurship is an important concept in many of the nations and regions of the Middle East - not just because of the huge youth population, and the alarming percentage of unemployed, but entrepreneurship is seen as a means to develop diversified economies, with enhanced opportunities for citizens and residents of the region.

Management Education

Developing case studies for use in the Middle Eastern classroom, developing case studies of wider interest for Western business schools, the use of new media in the classroom and to a wider audience and the emergence/impact of American and Western style business schools are all topics that are being researched. Of course, more needs to be done and there are many questions that need to be asked... and answered.

Organisational Development/HRM

Organisations, both new and more established, develop in processes that are not dissimilar, and yet are rich in new research problems. Human resource management is also an area of current research - in the Gulf in areas of Emiratisation/Saudisation/Qatarisation where many efforts are being made to include more of the local population into the active workforce - but also in more general areas such as managing in organisations with dozens (and more) languages, cultures, religions and ethnicities under one "roof". Under this theme I would also put leadership studies, in particular we have many researchers at Zayed University working on this and there are already interesting results being disseminated and published.

Innovation

Last, but not least is innovation. Regular readers will know this is a subject dear to my heart and we have published a chapter and an article on this. Innovation is at the heart of knowledge industries, which is where governments in the MENA region are targeting for growth. Innovation is also a founding block of entrepreneurship... In fact, there is a special issue being edited by one of our group - not just for the Middle East of course, but it is edited by researchers who are aware of the context of the region.

Special Issue on Technology Business Incubation Mechanisms is for the Journal Technovation - an important journal for innovation researchers.

About half way through this post I realized that I have material for at least two... so I will leave the advice we got from senior scholars at the meeting on how we, as scholars, can join the "conversation" on management research.

Perhaps by raising awareness in the global academic community about research in the Middle East we can raise more regional and local awareness about the need for funding research... not just so that our universities can raise in the global ranks, or that local populations can increase their own research capacity, but for a better understanding of the context in which we live and work - our problems and hopefully to come up with a few solutions.

The gang is all here (I am represented by my ipad cover - I did that on purpose!)

Developing Emirati Leaders - a presentation at the AOM Annual Meeting 2013

Yesterday I attended the discussion paper session "Do Leaders Matter" as a participating author. It was a great session with great participants. Positive feedback and genuine interest shown by all to improve the presented papers and get them ready for publication in a journal.

The Chair (Gina Grandy; Mount Allison U in red), an author and attendees interested in leadership.

The Chair again, more authors and some more attendees. 

Of the four papers presented, ours was the only one to use qualitative methods... but that was OK :) The presented papers, associated authors and abstracts were (copied from the AOM Program website):

OMT: Bean Counter or Co-Leader? A Contingency Perspective on Leadership Delegation to the CFO
Author: Malte Schulmeyer; RWTH Aachen U.;
Author: Malte Brettel; RWTH Aachen U.;

Recently, scholars started to draw attention on forms of co-leadership. Studies so far focused on the CEO/COO duo. We use contingency and power theory to assess, for the first time, factors influencing the CFO’s co-leader role. Specifically, we argue that under conditions of high industry dynamism, organizational complexity, and limited personal experiences CEOs delegate leadership to the CFO which in turn increases CFO power due to higher influence on resource allocation and strategic decision making in the TMT. Using a 6-year pooled sample of 94 German firms we find evidence showing that the CEO’s experiences as well as complexity arising from the firm’s diversification strategy affect leadership delegation to the CFO and CFO power. In addition, we find a positive main effect of the presence of a powerful co-leader CFO on firm performance.


OMT: How Much Do Leaders Matter? Ownership and Governance as Constraints on CEO Discretion
Author: Jonathan Clark; Pennsylvania State U.;
Author: Chad Murphy; Pennsylvania State U.;
Author: Sara J. Singer; Harvard U.;

Leadership and strategic management research suggests that the extent to which CEOs influence performance largely depends on the presence or absence of certain factors. This research suggests that CEO effects may be constrained by the task at hand, subordinates, the organization itself or by the external environment. A fundamental source of constraint that has received little empirical attention is an organization’s ownership and governance structure—that is, who owns and monitors the organization. In this paper, we outline how different ownership and governance structures can constrain leader influence and empirically examine the extent to which leader effects depend on these structures. Examining organizations in the same industry, but with different ownership and governance structures, our results suggest that these structures are closely aligned with the degree to which CEOs influence firm performance. Our findings support the notion that leaders matter most when institutional logics are weak or ambiguous, contributing new insight into the organizational factors that can constrain leader discretion and limit CEO effects on firm performance.


OMT: The Impact of Founder CEOs on Firm Leadership and External Constituents
Author: Nikolaos Kavadis; Erasmus U. Rotterdam;

This paper draws from theory on authority and prior research on founder-CEOs to explain why founder-CEOs are inclined to centralize decision-making authority, and how they materialize such preference. Further, I propose that founder-CEOs have a positive effect to external constituents with whom they closely interact and the source of legitimacy of their authority become most apparent. Based on a panel of large, publicly-traded firms, the results support the paper’s model.

OMT: Developing a Leader-Apprentice Framework Using Grounded Theory in the United Arab Emirates
Author: Sarah Abdulla Alhaj; National Cybersecurity Authority (NCSA);
Author: Constance Van Horne; Zayed U.;

Using grounded theory, this article looks at the role lived-experiences play in developing leaders, as opposed to formal interventions, as well this study seeks to explore the underlying factors that enable young Emiratis to learn how to lead. The findings are illustrated in a Leader Apprenticeship Framework which consists of experiencing influential encounters, dealing and learning from difficult events, and transforming at the heels of a formal-training programme.

This was a discussion paper session, which means that each author (or team of authors) presents a paper that is not their own and suggests ways to improve it so that it will be ready to send to a journal. Often a conference is the first step to present research results to the wider academic community, to get feedback and constructive advice so that when the researcher returns home, he or she or they can work on the paper to improve the chances of publication. (Yes, it is a long process, but it is a process that has developed over centuries and it seems to work!)

In another blog post I will provide a snap-shot of our article (but I can send you a copy if you email me).... I have many notes to go over with Sarah when I get back to Abu Dhabi, and en'shallah we find the time to get it ready for a journal.

The Academy of Management Meeting is not just about getting a line on your CV, it is about the research process and making our research in academia more robust - and hopefully more helpful to one another and for the communities we belong to.

AOM Caucus preview: Emerging Research Directions in the Middle East - Developing Meaningful and Relevant Research Topics

The Academy of Management Annual Meeting is fast approaching! As I catch up reading some super interesting papers that are going to be presented, preparing my own presentation on Emirati Leadership Development, first author a wonderfully brilliant Zayed University Alumni Sarah Al Haj (blog post to follow in the coming days), and sending out email invitations to the caucus we have organised - I thought it would be a good idea to actually write about what the caucus is about!

First, if you are interested in attending and you are registered for the AOM Meeting, we will see you on Tuesday, Aug 13 2013 1:15PM - 2:45PM at WDW Swan Resort in Teal.

Second, we organised this session to talk about (and raise interest in) management research in, on and about the Middle East, where we work and where our students will be future leaders (en'shallah). We would also like to be a catalyst for new research collaborations - across institutions and internationally.

The Middle East is one of world’s fastest-growing regions and perhaps no other region has attracted so much attention and caused so much concern. For AOM members the ongoing economic and social transformations and changes provide research opportunities for scholars based and interested in the region, additionally, in line with the theme of the Conference “Capitalism in Question”, the Middle East provides a rich research context in which capitalism has always been in question by governments and the general population.

(Please note we define Middle East as a cluster of countries including:  (in alphabetical order): Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.)

This first caucus project aims at promoting interest within the AOM for management research within the Middle East and to foster collaborations across regions and universities. It is hoped that this interest will grow and eventually lead to the formation of the AOM Middle East Initiative.

The sheer intensity of changes occurring in the Middle East underline the importance of the complex intersection of history, culture, politics, and religion as they relate to economic development and technological progress in this strategically vital region, such transitions offer management scholars an unprecedented quasi-experimental setting in which to examine theories and frameworks (Zahra, 2011). As recently scholars began to acknowledge the segregation of knowledge created outside the mainstream and the possible contributions of newcomers to existing theory (Barney & Zhang, 2009; Tsui, 2009). DeNisi (2010) suggests that management as a discipline may be on the verge of an important transformation. This is due in part to the rapidly increasing complexity of the field. Most of this complexity, he argues, comes from the increasing globalization and diversity of the Academy of Management.

The caucus will provide a gathering place for concerned AOM members to meet, discuss common research interests and discuss future collaborations. The caucus will be organised as follows:

1. Interested AOM members in research in the Middle East will be invited to provide a one slide research idea “pitch” to be circulated amongst caucus attendees prior to the AOM 2013 Meeting

a. Ideas can come from researchers in the regions with unique data opportunities or from researchers looking to test their theories in a new and dynamic context

2. The Caucus will begin with a brief presentation of the “AOM Middle East” initiative and the current streams of research most popular in the region

3. Following, interested researchers will “pitch” their ideas in maximum five minute presentation

4. Following the “pitches” researchers will then begin informal discussions

It is hoped that this caucus will be the first in a yearly series of such events to build and nurture a research community in the Middle East – one based on rich and dynamic collaborations with other regions and the growth of a vibrant research community based in this dynamic, turbulent and understudied region.

Of course I will be writing a blog post with some of the conclusions... and if you are interested in the presentation and are unable to attend please email and I will send it after the conference.

Hope to see you in Orlando!

Managing and Managers in the UAE: an Investigation by Zayed University Students in Abu Dhabi

Article written in collaboration with the young women in BUS-309-001 & 002 – Fall Semester 2009 AUH.

 It is that time of year again when the interview assignment is given to my Introduction to Management students. Here are the results from my first attempt with this project three years ago.

There is very little written about managers and managing in the UAE.  This makes it hard for new management professors to use relevant, local examples in class.  However, it makes it even harder for students as they must listen and then try to put into context examples from North America and Europe (and my students have had an even tougher time of it as many of my best examples are from the dreadfully exciting Canadian forest products industry).  As a first step to remedy this situation I asked the students in my two Introduction to Management classes to interview a manager.  Not just interview for interest and curiosity though, interview for research.  Yes, there is a difference, as my students found out.

First, we had to decide on the purpose of the interview.  We wanted to see if what Henry Mintzberg and Henri Fayol wrote about the roles of managers in the West is applicable to managers in the GCC.  (Dr. Mintzberg is a contemporary Canadian management guru who has written many influential books on strategy and the roles of management.  M. Fayol, wrote the Principles of Management when he was the CEO of a mining company at the beginning of the 20 th century in France.)  Then we had to decide on the questions, which actually took a few weeks as we debated the best questions to ask and the best way in which to ask them.  Before we could venture into the “field” though we had to write generic query emails.  Which again took more time than many had thought it would.  Finally, into the field.

Students interviewed by telephone, email and face-to-face (and one by proxy, with follow-up emails to verify the gathered information).  Some students found they had to use more than one method to verify information, and one student used all three!  We soon found out that managers are busy people, but that for the most part are very willing to share their knowledge with students.

The knowledge that was shared with students was priceless.  There were managers from all levels of the organization, CEOs and Board Members of major corporations and senior officials of ZU, senior military officers, senior government officials, owners of SMEs, men, women, Nationals and expats.  However, even with all these differences there were many similarities in their answers.

The first question asked managers what was their greatest challenge managing in the UAE.  There were many diverse answers of course, but the responses fell into four main themes: recruiting skilled Nationals, the great cultural differences of employees, motivating and guiding employees, and managing change.  The drive for Emiratisation was not seen in a negative light, rather it was just the challenge of finding qualified people to fill positions at every level of the organization. Of course, for my students this can only be considered a good thing – there are many challenging and rewarding opportunities out there for them when they graduate.  The challenge of cultural diversity was also not seen as a “problem”, but rather it was considered as a source of competitive advantage in a globalised marketplace to have a global employee base.  However, managers did mention that they had to learn about these different cultures in order to manage effectively.

The follow-up question was to ask what managers had done to overcome these challenges.  Here there was an overwhelming insistence on the importance of training and continuing education, for both the manager and employees.  Training was done in house, through continuing education and through seminars and conferences abroad.  Managers insisted that “learning” can never stop, it is just part of the continuous evolution of the organization and the individual.  The need for communication, open communication based on trust, was also mentioned by several managers.  Some said they had an “open-door” policy, others had regularly scheduled meetings and others used on-site visits.

Managers were then asked what they considered as their most important role.  There were many roles listed here, the most commonly listed were the role of leader and mentor, the role of decision maker, recruiting and supporting qualified employees (both Nationals and expats), creating a positive work environment, creating a culture of continuous improvement and working towards achieving the organization’s mission and goals.

The final question asked about how the role of manager had changed over the years.  The word increased was used a lot.  Increased competition, both global and local, increased focus on innovation, increased work load, increased attention to strategic plans and increased need for continuous training.

The feedback from the students was overwhelmingly positive.  Many said that they wished that they could have followed-up and would like to interview more managers and compare answers.  They even enjoyed analyzing the answers by comparing what their managers’ said to the theory we have covered in class.  And there were some powerful insights made that will help me next semester when I teach the course to another few groups.

Finally, there were a few enterprising students who asked their managers for advice.  They were told to enjoy their jobs, listen, respect, make goals, work hard, challenge yourself, be loyal, don’t take short cuts and to continually develop their skills.  What wonderful advice from generous people.  This valuable new knowledge would not have been possible without the generous support of the fantastic managers interviewed by my students.  So thank you for your time and wisdom, your interviewee learned from the interview, the rest of the class did through each presentation, I did by reading and listening to your words and the general ZU community through this mini-article.

Managing and managers in the UAE… a story to be continued.

Building research communities in non-OECD countries: results from our workshop

Sorry for the delay in blogging about this great workshop on developing research communities… It was great, with insightful experts and an active audience wanting to learn and also share their experiences as academics and scholars working in the “developing world”. (I put quotes around that, because I know there are debates and definitions about developing and under developed… by developing I mean not members of the OECD.) (This blogpost is based on my notes of the workshop and my interpretation of my notes – if you would like to add your interpretation please put them in the comments – I could just end up agreeing with you)

The afternoon started out with discussions from our 5 panelists (Mary F. Sully de Luque; Thunderbird; Carl F. Fey; Nottingham U. Business School China; Akbar Zaheer; U. of Minnesota; Jia Lin Xie; U. of Toronto; and Stephen Mezias; INSEAD Abu Dhabi) about the on-going development of research communities in China, Latin America, the Middle East, Russia and India.

China

The discussion started with Dr. Xie on the development of the IACMR (International Association of Chinese Management Research) which began in August 2000 at the AOM Meeting in Toronto – and has grown to 6,000 members and includes well ranked scholarly journals, partner business schools and a marked increase in the volume and quality of management research from China.

They began with a focus on training and teaching, especially in the fields of research methods, research ethics and developing research papers. The first attendees of these courses at the turn of the century are now becoming Deans and Associate Deans and supporting their young faculty and PhD students to attend advanced training in methodology and international conferences. Developing robust local research capacity takes decades, but when the steps are well thought out and resources invested – scholarly advancements and innovation are more than just a possibility.

Latin America

Dr. Sully de Luque began her introduction by saying that the term Latin America can mislead people into thinking it is a homogenous entity – however, there are many cultures, countries in different phases of development, regions, languages and histories which need to be understood to really grasp the region and the dynamic changes which are taking place. In general though, the quality of education is increasing and there is a shift from simply teaching and consulting in universities and business schools to a focus on research to ensure that their institutions of higher learning can be accredited by organisations such as EQUIS and the AACSB. (Footnote, the College of Business at Zayed University is in the accreditation process for the AACSB).

She spoke about the challenges and the “musts” for research to happen – relationships between scholars need to be developed, data and information needs to be available and shared among scholars and practitioners and scholars, and academics based in the west need to partner with local academics to promote and encourage further exchange and robust research. Scholars, especially those working in non-OECD countries often feel like they are on an island, but through collaboration we can focus on our strengths and wonderful research can take place.

Middle East

Dr. Mezias is the Academic Director for the Abu Dhabi campus of INSEAD. He gave a general overview of where management research is going – from West and North to East and South. Management research is following practise – trade, economic growth and “business” is moving to the East and the South from OECD countries, and research follows practice (OK, there is a scholarly debate on this issue, but as I agree with Dr. Mezias you can look up the debate on your own J).

However, it is not just BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries which are the focus of this shift – it is Africa and the Middle East as well. A reassuring thing for me was when he said that there were opportunities for young scholars in these regions (this is a constant worry for almost all young professors educated in North America and Europe – did we harm our careers by taking a non-traditional path?). He mentioned several directions he sees business going (and thus management research).

·         The base of the pyramid – there is a shift in interest by MNCs (Multi-National Corporations) to the 4 billion consumers who have largely been ignored by corporations. While there is an emerging body of research of these people moving into the middle class (especially in BRIC nations) much more research needs to be done to find market based solutions to critical poverty (e.g. small scale entrepreneurship, micro-financing, etc.)

·         EMMNC – Emerging Markets MNCs are little understood, but gaining ground. An example of course is Tata and its purchase of Jaguar and Range Rover – instead of being less innovative, they are becoming more innovative with a change in ownership… why?

·         Dubai/UAE – becoming a hub and important logistics center to the world through East –South trade (tied to the huge increase in trade amongst non-OECD countries)

·         China beats Africa – China is doing things differently and understand structures (and the time and investment needed to build solid ones)

Russia

Dr. Fey worked in Russia for 13 years and spoke about the importance of building a critical mass of scholars to create a group that is dynamic and viable (e.g. sustainable). As with Latin America, management professors and scholars are moving from large teaching loads and a focus on consulting to a focus on research. However, unlike some other regions the management research community in Russia is still in the early stages. It has grown from informal research seminar series to more formalized groups gathering to present and discuss research. In 2013 there will be a regional meeting of the AIB (Academy of International Business) and with a focus on international ranking and accreditation there is a demand for high quality research. There are many other initiatives going on including a research group that meets at the annual AOM Meetings.

India

Dr. Zaheer spoke of the founding and development of the ISB (Indian School of Business) – a project spearheaded by McKinsey and Company with the collaboration of Wharton, the Kellogg School of Management, and the London Business School – only 13 years after its founding they are ranked in the Top 20 MBAs in the Financial Times.

Of course, this took an enormous investment of resources in local capacity building (human and over US $1 billion) and a commitment to excellence. At first, there was little understanding of the years that it takes from research idea (and needed funds) to the final published paper – and that high quality research requires resources and time and access to high quality data (e.g. support from local business community and government for data).  The largest investments were made with faculty – sending them to international workshops, conferences, seminars, etc. Inserting them into the international research community and giving them opportunities to learn and develop the connections and skills needed to publish in top journals. Incentives were changed for faculty as well, to reward research and generously reward research published in top journals.

Next were the panels discussions and inclusion of the audience. The first question from the audience was “What is a research eco-system?” Of course the easy answer is everything that supports research, but scholars are rarely satisfied with easy answers when the “devil is in the details”. The following is a list of aspects that make up an eco-system:

·         Local culture (university culture)

·         University administration

·         The values of the university (e.g. the incentive and reward system)

·         Resources (library, time, students, research funding, etc.)

·         Infrastructure (physical, technology, granting processes, etc.)

·         Types of business and organizations in countries/regions

o   Industrial environment

·         Government support for scholarly activity and research at different levels (local to Federal to Regional)

 

Next came the biggest challenges to overcome to develop a local research community producing high quality, high impact research. In the Middle East it is a lot about finding each other, learning about each other’s research creating opportunities for interactions to form networks. In Russia it was the shift from rewarding teaching and putting value on that to rewarding and valuing research (results are never automatic). Finding the time for faculty to do all that is now required (a common theme heard from all the panelists). In China it was a shift to learning and creating knowledge with and from each other – not just learning from the West. It was also being relevant for Chinese management research and relevant to the world – making a contribution in both “ponds”. In Latin America a big challenge was also building trust with local researchers and organizations for knowledge exchange and collaboration. Another huge challenge was the lack of understanding about the time, money and resources needed to do high impact research (for both practice and research community).

There are not just challenges of course, there are rewards. There is an increasing interest in research coming from non-OECD countries and the challenge and thrill of being at the forefront of new research fields and building new theory. There is also the interesting research questions and problems that surround us in these dynamic places.

There were other interesting discussions, and the organizing committee of the workshop will be writing a paper on the themes and find commonalities and insight from this experience. A discussion later on in the conference with the President of the AOM Africa group also involved similar themes – and similar challenges and rewards. Also, a similar feeling of optimism and “academic adventure”.  

If we are academics working in non-traditional regions maybe we have to be optimists to survive and thrive J

Research and Teaching Collaborations with Colleagues in Underrepresented Nations: a blogpost

So yesterday was a big day. After our PDW (will blog about later today) I attended a session organized by Dr. Charles Wankel and his colleagues. It was held in a ballroom because there were lots of us!

As the title of the blog post suggests, it was a workshop to get people who are attending the Academy from nations and countries that are not represented at the AOM to as great a degree as Americans and American universities. You can find a full list of participants here (I am not on the list, but I attended anyways).

First, I think we have to define what the Academy of Management means for the global management research community – well, in short the association defines the “global research community”, in that, if your research is published at the Academy or in one of the Academy’s journals there is a big stamp of approval on it. You might not be aware, but the peer review process, even in Management Sciences, is vital – and if active Academy members agree that your research is valid and robust and interesting (at least after a few rounds of corrections) – then the rest of the world can “trust” that it is valid, robust and interesting.

So, the Academy and the Annual Meeting are important – but, it has been dominated by North America… but that is changing to add diversity of topics, diversity of findings and diversity of attendees J

Enough background, the session started with over 200 participants – we all were directed to tables with people we might not know (OK, I might have gone to a table with some people I know and it ended up with 5 of us from the UAE and 4 from Abu Dhabi). Dr. Charles introduced the session and then gave us (the participants at each table) our assignments – talk with one another, see what are commonalities and how you can research together and what are your outcomes – then come back and tell us all in a three minute summary. Well, that was how I interpreted the assignment, I am sure as good academics we all interpreted it in different ways!

My table was diverse and interesting and we represented many “underrepresented nations”. Here are a list of first names and countries we represent:

Alvaro – Mexico

Xu – China – Finland and UAE

Payal – India

Nadia – Greece and England (Manchester for the Abu Dhabi remote link)

Kathy – China, UAE (Dubai)

Florian – Germany, UAE (Abu Dhabi)

Fuazia – India and UAE (Abu Dhabi)

Me – Canada/Quebec and UAE (Abu Dhabi)

We started our discussions with a general introduction around the table and then we said well – what do we talk about. One of our members suggested we “figure out how to change the world”. Remember, we are academics and this is not as outlandish a topic as all that – but we agreed it might be a bit presumptuous and we only had a limited time – so we decided on another subject to guide our discussions.

Someone suggested: “What role can the AOM playing in bridging the gap between underrepresented countries and regions and the global research community?” (yes, I might have had a hand in this suggestions J).

So we started thinking and telling our stories. The first suggestion was to encourage/support/reward West and East/South collaborations as PDW, paper or symposium submissions. This would mean that there could be extra room in the schedule for groups that “fit” this criteria.

Then we really started talking about the “accepted” subjects or the “hot topics” which always seem to guide accepted research – well, these topics which are “hot” in the US or Western Europe are not necessarily important to the local or regional contexts of our universities. Maybe there could be a “stretch” of topics to include more industry specific or local context specific work…

In our local universities, as many of us switch from a teaching focus to a research and teaching focus – local context matters – we, as educators and scholars, need to “matter” to local companies and organizations. Our research needs to be more applied – there is VERY little (if any) funding for fundamental or basic research with practical results in maybe 10 or 20 or 40 years. These underrepresented nations are not underrepresented at the global level because we were not working – we were teaching a heavy course load and many academics use consulting to make ends meet in developing countries – no time for fundamental research.

We then talked about our role as scholars and the debate on whether research follows industry practice or is research meant to guide industry practice – and the tricky balancing act we play to balance being relevant with research.

One example was given from Estonia – Estonian companies have basically adopted Western style HR practices – transferred from Nordic companies (through FDI) and learned from Western trained professors and American textbooks – and it seems to have “worked” – e.g. there are accepted rules that even small companies follow that provide a structure and norms.

We then talked about the importance of bringing our research back into our classrooms – using case studies and practical local research results to bring the book theory to life in a local context (you can read the rest of my blogposts to see what I do in this regard).

Then we ran out of time – and each table presented. I presented for my table and tried to keep it short – there were many commonalities amongst the groups and it was interesting to see how we each interpreted our assignment. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon – thank you Dr. Charles for organizing this – I hope to attend another of your sessions next year.

Then I was off to the entrepreneurship social – which was held on the 50^th floor of the Prudential Centre – and that is another post J

Closing the Gap: Developing Research Communities in Emerging Regions and Nations (Part 2)

Tomorrow is the day we have been planning for - for a long while… it started with a discussion, then a conference, then more discussions, then coffees and dinners and then an idea – why don’t we bring this to the AOM? (If you are looking for something to do tomorrow at the conference it is on Saturday, Aug 4 2012 12:30PM - 2:45PM at Boston Hynes Convention Center in Room 204)

So here we are, looking forward to a rewarding workshop with scholars from around the world to listen to the experience of senior academics from the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India & China) as well as the Middle East – to learn from each other on what are the best practices for building a research ecosystem in emerging market countries.

But our goal isn’t just to talk – it is to come up with ideas as a group of what we can do on an institutional and regional level to promote this development… also, the organizing team intend to write a paper on the “findings” of the workshop – how does it fit with what the “literature” says, where are the gaps, what roadmap do we suggest…

Of course the ultimate goal is to promote a community of scholars interested in developing this community and ecosystem in the Middle East (where less than 1% of published papers originate from).

So what are our panel of experts going to talk about? Well here are the ideas which will guide them and their discussions:

·         Defining excellence & gaps: What is “excellence” and is it the same as in the West?

·         Local perspective: What are the local challenges to building a research community?

·         Bridge between local and global: Once the research community is built, how do we connect the local with the global?

·         Legitimacy in the global research community: Is research from “new” research communities considered “legitimate”? How can we make it more “accepted”?

·         KPIs: Which KPIs should we use or target to measure our success?

·         Young scholar’s careers: How can scholars from emerging markets “make it” in the global community? Are there opportunities for “Western” educated scholars in these emerging scholarly communities? (Or is it a career killer?)

Then we are going to get feedback from the audience about the barriers or challenges to publishing research in top-tier journals… and ways that global academic institutions like the AOM can do to improve this situation….

Exciting – interesting – valuable!

Do not worry – I will let you know what happens!

Closing the Gap: Developing Research Communities in Emerging Regions and Nations (Part 1)

On Saturday August 4th will be a workshop (a professional development workshop) at the Academy of Management Conference 2012 in Boston (Closing the Gap PDW). This workshop is not "about" the UAE - but all the organisers work and live in the UAE at INSEAD Abu Dhabi Campus, Zayed University and the University of Wollongong Dubai and we are actively trying to promote the development of a research community, here in the UAE and the Middle East as a region.

Why do we need a research community in the region? Aren't consultants good enough? Why do we need management research? What is management research? Uhm, what is a research community? Uhm, sounds kind of boring....

No, wait! Management research is not boring for one, it is about learning how and why organisations succeed or not - how we can improve our business processes, our business practices, how we can encourage and support entrepreneurship and innovation, how we can build better strategy (or build better systems for implementing strategy), how we manage people, how we manage resources - really interesting (and important) questions...

And a management research community are the scholars and researching practitioners around the world looking into these questions through the scientific process and publishing their results - incremental steps to better understanding managing organisations and people.... The most important global research community in management is the Academy of Management (AOM website). They started in 1936 and now there are thousands of members from all over the world. I have been a member since I attended my first AOM Annual Meeting in 2008 (where I interviewed for Zayed University) when I presented my pink poster :)

At these meetings (usually 10,000 + attendees) we listen to new research, meet with former colleagues, network with future colleagues, network with future research partners, listen (some more), discuss, debate, and also talk about better ways to teach and new books, and, and, and... 

Why do we need these meetings? Because the problems organisations face in our regions, might have been faced and solved elsewhere (or the opposite might be true) and we can learn from one another... and then apply it, modify it, use it when we get back home. We can also use it in the classroom as case studies and examples.

So, if there is a global research community, why work to develop one in the UAE or the Middle East? Well... because the issues faced here are different and some of our theories and practises might best be modified and adapted to the region - but we need to develop solid research to truly understand how, why and where... and we (the lone nerdy researcher) can't work in a bubble, or in solitude - we are management researchers - and world class research takes a world class research community to develop it.

OK - this might have answered some of your questions... but I didn't really get into what we will be discussing at the PDW on Saturday - I will leave that for the next post :)

And don't worry, I will be blogging the Conference... hopefully I will have photos too :)