Professor of Sustainable SME Growth

Interview Date: Wednesday 05 January 2022

Located in a modern £300M campus in the heart of Birmingham City Centre, Birmingham City Business School is a thriving, vibrant, and inspiring learning community committed to excellence in research, high quality teaching and impactful industrial engagement. Building on continuous success in student growth and in sustained advancement of research activities, the School has embarked on a programme of extensive expansion funded by substantial long-term investments. This professorial appointment will support Business School research and our SME engagement, which is funded from a variety of sources, including BEIS (e.g. Help to Grow) and the ERDF.

The objective of this role is to provide strategic leadership and expertise in the field of sustainable SME growth, though our Centre for Enterprise, Innovation and Growth (CEIG). The Business School has a track record of research in this area and recently submitted 23 FTE staff for REF 2021 (many of whom research in the SME field). This represented a substantial increase in staff returned, relative to 2014, with the CABS ranking of outputs returned also rising steeply. In January 2021, we secured our Small Business Charter re-accreditation, and received an exemplar for our use of diagnostics in supporting SMEs. This growth has made the Business School an exciting and dynamic place to work, and the ambition is to grow research further.

The appointed professor will support impacts in the West Midlands economy, achieved through high calibre research and external funding. They will take ideas for research and enterprise initiatives from feasibility through to implementation, working with the School’s Research Committee, other senior academics in the CEIG, as well as the School’s Senior Management Team, Associate Deans and the Research, Innovation, Enterprise and Employability (RIEE) central services unit. The successful candidate will look for collaborations with STEAMHouse, which is the University’s innovation centre, aimed at encouraging the collaboration of the arts, science, technology, engineering and maths (STEAM) sectors, in the West Midlands and beyond.

The appointed professor will be responsible for:

• Collaborating in ensuring that the Centre for Enterprise, Innovation and Growth functions as an effective conduit for Business School research. 
• Leading, and contributing to significant external funding applications including preparing bids, providing appropriate reports and dissemination strategies. Developing and maintaining a successful track-record of attracting and sustaining funding through applications to external agencies regionally, nationally and internationally.
• Continuously developing and maintaining an international research profile and striving to publish in high impact, peer reviewed journals in the field of Business and Management (UoA17).
• Making a significant and leading contribution to maximise the School’s REF submission, including impact.
• Contributing to the development of undergraduate and postgraduate provision and playing an integral role in teaching quality monitoring and enhancement.
• Making a significant contribution to enterprise and engagement activities.
• Being a mentor and guide for early career researchers, post-doctoral and doctoral students and other academic colleagues.

The role requires experience of research, producing high ranking publications and research leadership, which will support the School’s ambition for a high-calibre REF-return in the business and management subject area (i.e. UoA17). The following are commensurate with this: 

• PhD in the field of business and management, interpreted broadly in terms of REF UoA17; 
• International and national reputation as an outstanding scholar;
• Professorial status or eligibility to be awarded Professorial status;
• A well-developed research plan with published research of international excellence, for example as evidenced by journals listed at 3* and 4* on the CABS AJG. 
• Research interests which fit within the clusters of the Business School’s Centre for Enterprise, Innovation and Growth (CEIG).
• Established and current track-record of leadership in research and research governance.
• Ability to write strong research bids and able to evidence a record in attracting external research funding commensurate with stage of career.
• Able to evidence ability to successfully supervise PhDs
• Excellent teaching and presentation skills with the ability to enthuse listeners.

The University has an enviable reputation for providing quality, student-focused education in a professional and friendly environment. Our superb courses, state-of-the-art facilities, first-rate staff, and focus on practical skills and professional relevance is producing some of the country’s most employable graduates. Added to this, the University has grown its research and business-engagement activity, providing a broad range of activities, commensurate with a full-service Business School.

We inject £270 million into the regional economy and support thousands of jobs in the area. We are investing £260 million in our estate, including a major expansion of our city centre campus at Eastside, providing students with an enviable range of facilities. 

Our staff and student community is defined by our core values, which outline who we are as a University and how we will work with each other. Our core values are Excellence, People focused, Partnership working and Fairness and integrity.

For an informal discussion of the post, please contact the Director of the Business School, Professor Deborah Lock ([email protected] ), or the Associate Director (Research and Enterprise), Dr Bruce Philp ([email protected] ). 

Further details:

The University is committed to internationalism and diversity and welcomes applications from all countries, faiths and backgrounds.

It is each individual successful applicants responsibility to ensure that they have permission to work in the UK. Some applicants may require sponsorship from the University and a visa from UKVI to take up the role if successful. More information on this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa

Some roles are not capable of sponsorship because they do not meet the UKVI criteria relating to skill and salary level. If you are unsure as to whether you would require sponsorship if successful, or whether the role is capable of sponsorship, please contact us: [email protected]

Please note on occasions where we receive a large number of applications, we may close the advert ahead of the publicised closing date. If this does happen, we will contact all candidates via email who have started but not yet completed their application, giving 48 hours’ notice.  We would therefore advise that you submit your completed application as soon as possible.

At Birmingham City University we are proud to be an equal opportunities employer.  All staff are expected to understand and enact the University’s commitment to ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion in our employment practice and in all that we do . This commitment is enshrined in our Core Values and is detailed in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Employment Policy. The University values and celebrates the diversity of our staff and students; we welcome people from the many  different backgrounds and life experiences that reflect the students and the citizens we serve.  We are committed to equality of opportunity for all staff and actively encourage unique contributions, in particular from under-represented groups in respect of age, disability, sex, gender or gender identity, ethnicity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or transgender status

Birmingham City University ('BCU') is committed to protecting your personal data and being transparent about what we do with your personal data. One of the ways we do this is through our privacy notices. For further information please click here .