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International Business and Interactive Decisions Research Network

Unit(s) of assessment: Business and Management Studies

Research theme(s): Safety and Sustainability | Digital, Technology and Creative

School: Nottingham Business School; School of Social Sciences

Overview

The International Business and Interactive Decisions Research Network (IBID) investigates research phenomena of international importance for individuals, groups, organisations, cultures, and nations. Global challenges and opportunities ask for interdisciplinary international collaborations to find solutions regarding global sustainability, cultural challenges (migration, cultural adaptation, decision-making), multinational corporate strategies and transnational entrepreneurship decisions. Our Research Network explores new avenues with a diverse set of theories and methods (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed) to identify configurations and reconfigurations in international business, global sustainability and geo-political settings.

The Research Network focuses on the following:

  1. International Business Theory and Applications
  2. Interactive Decisions (Decision Analysis, Decision Science, Game Theory)
  3. Global Sustainable Solutions
  4. Multinational Enterprises, International Small and Medium Sized Firms and Transnational Entrepreneurs as part of Global Networks
  5. International Negotiations and Conflict Resolution
  6. Research Methods Hub for Cross-Cultural Analysis: Research Design, Data Collection and Analysis – qualitative and quantitative methods from ethnography to experiments.

PhD Funding

Find out everything you need to know about funding your doctoral studies – from tuition fees and loans, to studentships and external funding.

IBID aims

  • To work jointly on research projects with a common theme (global disorder, sustainable futures, and cultures for instance)
  • To publish high-quality output
  • To provide a research platform for discussions of active researchers and PGRs to lead to publications and successful PhD outcomes
  • To have an impact in business, society and policy
  • To provide a research hub for global data and research collaborations.

The Research Network welcomes PhD students fitting into our Research Themes.

Related Staff

  • Prof. Ursula F. Ott

    • (International Business; Cultural Profiling, Migration and Adaptation, Strategy, International Collaborations and Decisions, Global Mindsets)

  • Dr. Darryl Dixon

  • Hanh Nguyen: Corruption in International Business Negotiations
  • Duarte Pitta Ferraz: How leaders manage directive-participative duality in interpersonal interactions
  • Haoxin Zhen: Assessing the deterrence effect of Anti-bribery laws on corruption in China’s SOEs

PhD topics are aligned to the research themes of the Research Network and interested candidates are welcome.

Programme of Research

Our programme of research distinguishes themes with theoretical and empirical investigations.

International Business:

  • International Business Strategies: International Strategic Alliances, International Negotiations strategies and conflict resolution, Market Entry strategies; Supply Chain approaches to strategy and operation of international business-to-business relationships
    • Interactive decisions: Human Decision-making, Decision-making in MNEs, SMEs and Entrepreneurship, Heuristics, Rationality assumptions (game theoretical, boundedly rational, irrational behaviour); decision analysis and decision science.

Research Methods Hub for Cross-Cultural Analysis:

  • Research Design, Data Collection and Analysis – qualitative and quantitative methods from oral histories to experiments; Cultures: Cultural Profiles and Adaptation; Migration: Diaspora research, Global heritage; Experimental Research into cultural behaviour, Behavioural Science and corruption and trust.

The research benefits from links to industry, academia, and policy makers.

Academic Collaborations:

  • Prof. Nathaniel Boso, (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)
  • Prof. Maria Elo (University of Southern Denmark)
  • Prof. Pervez Ghauri (University of Birmingham)
  • Prof. Marina Papanastasiou (University of Leeds)
  • Prof. Ana Romero-Martinez (Complutense University of Madrid)
  • Prof. Noemi Sinkovics (University of Newcastle)
  • Prof. Stewart Miller (University of Durham)
  • Prof.  Paul  J. A. Robson (Royal Holloway University of London)
  • Dr. Endrit Kromidha (University of Birmingham)

Academic Collaborations - Centres and Platforms

  • Academy of International Business with focus on Research Methods in the AIB Research Methods SIG
  • Cross Cultural Research Platform: with insights into cultural intelligence, emotional intelligence, international business characteristics (X-culture platform and industry collaborations)
  • Migration Platform collaborations (Dr. Maria Elo, University of Southern Denmark)
  • Centre for the Future of Work, University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Postcolonial Studies Centre (NTU)

Industry Collaborations:

  • Michael Gates CrossCulture – Managing Director and Associate Fellow of Said Business School, University of Oxford
  • Birkman International
  • Richard Lewis Communications Ltd
  • Cultural Intelligence Group, Houston, USA
  • Dr. Samantha Macro – Mestag Therapeutics, Vice President of Finance

Policy Collaborations:

  • Geo-political Narratives of Global Disorder (British Academy and Carnegie and Endowment of International Peace) Think Tank
  • Global Sustainability: UN75 Dialogue Platform – 75th Anniversary for the UN, partner universities
  • EU-UK Future Relationship – Post Brexit Relationships

Publications by IBID Members

LYU, J., Kromidha, E., & Robson, P. J. A. (2025). Internationalisation as a human capital adaptation journey: The case of returnee entrepreneurs in China. International Small Business Journal,

MACRO, S. AND OTT, U.F. 2024. The evolution of the ability to effectively innovate in a transnational organization – A configurational analysis, Journal of International Management, forthcoming (ABS3)

UMORU, U., UDIE, J., & UDEOZOR, V. (2024). Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and the Role of Telecom Multinationals in Achieving SDG 9 in Developing Economies. In Innovation, Entrepreneurship   and the Informal Economy in Sub–Saharan Africa: A Sustainable Development Agenda (pp. 171-196). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.

OGUNDANA, O. M., SIMBA, A., & UMORU, U. (2023). Gender perspectives of African SMEs: The role of formal and informal institutional contexts. In The future of entrepreneurship in Africa (pp.121-134). Productivity Press.

OGUNDANA, O. M., IGWE, P. A., SIMBA, A., & UMORU, U. (2023). Entrepreneurial Networks and Women Entrepreneurship: A Social Feminist Perspective of Social Capital. International Review of Entrepreneurship, 21(1).

SIWALE, J., GURĂU, C., ALUKO, O., DANA, L.P. AND OJO, S., 2023. Toward understanding the dynamics of the relationship between religion, entrepreneurship and social change: empirical findings from technology-savvy African immigrants in UK. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 186, p.122153. (ABS 3*)

SIWALE, J., OTT, U.F. AND ALUKO, O. 2023. African transnational diaspora entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom, in Research Handbook on Transnational Diaspora Entrepreneurship (Eds Sternberg,R.,Elo, M., Levie, J. and Amoros, J.E) Chapter 10.

ALUKO, O., OTT, U.F., SIWALE, J., and ODUSANYA, K., 2022. Overcoming the liability of outsidership: A fsQCA analysis of African transnational entrepreneurs in the UK in Journal of Business Research  (ABS 3*)

BISHT, N., TRUSSON, C., SIWALE, J. and RAVISHANKAR, M., 2021. Enhanced job satisfaction under tighter technological control: the paradoxical outcomes of digitalisation. New Technology, Work and Employment. (ABS 3*)

SIWALE, J. and GODFROID, C., 2021. Digitising microfinance: on the route to losing the traditional ‘human face’ of microfinance institutions. Oxford Development Studies. ISSN 1360-0818

SIWALE, J., KIMMITT, J., and AMANKWAH-AMOAH, J. (2021). The Failure of Hybrid Organizations: A Legitimation Perspective. Management and Organization Review, 1-34. (ABS 3*)

VUKICEVIC, J., FALLON, G. and OTT, U., 2021. A theoretical and empirical investigation into investment activities of technologically intensive Chinese state-owned enterprises in the UK, International Business Review

SIWALE, J. and KIMMITT, J. 2020. The Failure of Hybrid Organizations: A Legitimation Perspective, Management Organization Review ABS 3*

ODUSANYA, K., ALUKO, O. and LAL, B., 2020. Building consumers’ trust in electronic retail platforms in the Sub-Saharan context: an exploratory study on drivers and impact on continuance intention. Information Systems Frontiers: Journal of Research and Innovation. ISSN 1387-3326

OTT, U.F. and GHAURI, P.N., 2019. Brexit negotiations: from negotiation space to agreement zones. Journal of International Business Studies. ISSN 0047-2506

JANSEN, N., BARINHA, A, GLENCROSS, A, HESTERMEYER, H., OTT, U.F., SARI, A. AND WEBB, P. 2023. The Role of Geopolitical Narratives in the Process of Global Ordering and Disordering, Policy Document, Working Paper published in the Series of the Centre for International Governance and Development (CIGAD), King’s College London, Dickson School of Law, SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4366812

Flagship projects

The Research Network works in line with the Research Themes and the projects and collaborations consider aspects of the research directions in their funding bids. For collaborations, please have a look at the topics below:

  • British Academy: Geopolitical Narratives of Global (Dis)order: Prof. Ursula F. Ott secured together with partners from University of Exeter, Kings College London, University of Bath, University of Cardiff and Aston University on Geopolitical Narratives of Global (Dis)order. Deep dive on Migration and Integration
  • British Academy and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • GCRF funding: Entrepreneurship education and youth unemployment and poverty: How are African universities making a difference? Dr. Olu Aluko and Dr. Juliana Siwale secured GCRF funding titled: Entrepreneurship education and youth unemployment and poverty: How are African universities making a difference? The project centres on the UN SDG goals 1, 2 and 4 which are No poverty, zero hunger, Quality education respectively, to reduce poverty and inequalities through university entrepreneurship education in Zambia and Nigeria.
  • GCRF funding – Entrepreneurship education and youth unemployment and poverty: How are African universities making a difference?: Dr. Olu Aluko and Dr. Juliana Siwale secured
  • GCRF funding titled: Entrepreneurship education and youth unemployment and poverty: How are African universities making a difference? Dr. Olu Aluko and Dr. Juliana Siwale secured. The project centres on the UN SDG goals 1, 2 and 4 which are No poverty, zero hunger, Quality education respectively, to reduce poverty and inequalities through university entrepreneurship education in Zambia and Nigeria.

Related Projects:

  • Sustainable Cultures, Migration and Integration: Prof. Ursula F. Ott addresses Cultural Adaptation of Global Managers which was funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Grant and is currently enlarged into Sustainable Cultures, Migration and Integration. Furthermore, EU-UK Future Relationship is based on the Brexit Negotiation publications and collaborations and this strand of research focuses on the future agreements and negotiations.

Research Seminars, Clinics, Workshops and Webinars

IBID members continue with internal seminars for staff research as the Research Method Hub.

  • Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Analysis (Dr. Sulaimon Adebiyi)
  • Structural Equation Modelling SEM (Dr. Victor Udeozor, Dr. Anh Luong, Dr. Olu Aluko)
  • Configurational Analysis - Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) (Prof. Ursula F. Ott).
  • Doctoral Seminars with presentations of PGRs
  • UN75 Platform.

  • The UN75+3 session on Sustainable Global Levelling Up: The role of Technology, Policy and Communities in Reducing Inequalities, on 29th February 2024. Annual Virtual Research Conference. The following topic were chosen for this year: Embedding Local Communities in our Global Village – Reducing inequalities through digitalization and community engagement. It was a Roundtable discussion with a Workshop character to identify ideas aligned to the topic for further collaborations with communities, policymakers, and academic collaborators. Internal speakers: Professor Ursula F. Ott, International Business and Interactive Decisions Research Network (IBID), Dr Anh Luong, IBID, Dr Juliana Siwale, IBID and Dr Ugbede Umoru, IBID. External speakers: Professor Marina Papanastasiou, Leeds University, Professor Roberta Aguzzoli, University of Durham and Dr Noemi Sinkovics, University of Glasgow.
  • UN75+2 Platform as Virtual Conference: two sessions from the IBID network, on November 22nd 2023 Decision-making of globally sustainable FDI and global value chains and on November 24thMigrant Spaces with colleagues from across the NTU disciplines (Art and Design, Art and Humanities), national (Universities of Glasgow and Leeds) and international (University of Texas, University of West Indies, University of Southern Denmark, Brescia and ESSC Clermont) were each a huge success with collaborators now identified for future projects into globally sustainable FDI and GVC as a well as Migration Space.
  • CIBSD Migration Workshop chaired by Prof. Ursula Ott. External speaker: Dr. Maria Elo (University of Southern Denmark), an internationally recognised Migration and Diaspora expert. Internal presenters: Dr. Olu Aluko and Dr. Juliana Siwale. The workshop attracted colleagues from across the School and also the University. This was also a trial for our workshop with the British Academy. April 29th 2021, online (Ms Teams).
  • The UN75+1 at NTU event with international collaborators (University of Auckland, Southern Denmark and University of West Indies) and IBID members (Aluko, Siwale, Umoru, Ott) presenting their research in a very well received event with further collaborations envisaged for joint research into Migration and Culture. November 30th-Dec 2nd 2021 (online).
  • The UN75 at NTU event with international collaborators (University of Auckland, Vienna University of Business and Economics, Complutense University Madrid and ICESI Columbia) and IBSD members (Aluko, Siwale, Akanda, Galallage, Ott) presenting their research in a very well received event with further collaborations envisaged for joint research into Migration, Sustainable Futures and Culture. November 24th-26th 2020 (online).