Christian Hicks

1. Christian Hicks Professor of Operations Management Disclaimer: The views expressed in this presentation are my personal views and are not necessarily shared by Newcastle University or Newcastle University Business School.

2. What is engagement? EQUIS accreditation considers corporate links in terms of consulting, executive education, board membership and use of practicing managers in teaching and exposure of faculty to the corporate world. A broader view could be to consider engagement with external stakeholders, including companies, professional institutions, charities, Government, regional development agencies, NHS, local councils etc. For many areas of Operations Management research engagement is not optional – research is not possible without access to data, companies, managers etc. Teaching is enriched by research-led modules that directly relate to practice.

3. What is research? “‘Research’ for the purpose of the RAE is to be understood as original investigation undertaken in order to gain knowledge and understanding. It includes work of direct relevance to the needs of commerce, industry, and to the public and voluntary sectors; scholarship*; the invention and generation of ideas, images, performances, artefacts including design, where these lead to new or substantially improved insights; and the use of existing knowledge in experimental development to produce new or substantially improved materials, devices, products and processes, including design and construction. It excludes routine testing and routine analysis of materials, components and processes such as for the maintenance of national standards, as distinct from the development of new analytical techniques. It also excludes the development of teaching materials that do not embody original research” (RAE, 2008) .

4. What is research? • Carrying out empirical work that has not been done before. • Making a synthesis that has not been made before. • Using already known material but with a new interpretation. • Trying out something in this country that has previously only been done in other countries. • Taking a particular technique and applying it in a new area. • Bringing new evidence to bear on an old issue. • Engaging in cross-disciplinary research and using different methodologies. • Looking at areas that people in the discipline have not looked at before. • Adding to knowledge in a way that has not been done before. • Setting down a major piece of new information in writing for the first time. • Continuing a previously original piece of work. • Carrying out original work designed by the supervisor; • Providing a single original technique, observation, or result in an otherwise unoriginal but competent piece of research. • Showing originality in testing somebody else’s idea. Phillip and Pugh (2005) Research ‘quality’ is measured in terms of ‘originality’, ‘significance’ and ‘rigour’

5. What are the drivers for Business Schools? (RAE,2008) Research Assessment Exercise – grades units of assessment to produce quality profiles that shows the proportion of staff in each quality category. Quality of Research (QR) income per year per staff member: 4* - £56k; 3* - £24k; 2* - £8k; 1*/0 - £0. Over a 5 year assessment period a 4* colleague is worth £280k in QR income alone. Accreditations: research output and number of ‘academically qualified’ staff important, as well as internationalisation, engagement, quality systems etc. Prestige: ranking an league tables - research output and income generation important.

6. (RAE, 2008) Focused upon publication

7. My experiences of engagement. Nearly all of my research has involved engagement of some sort. Using industrial data from Parsons– planning, scheduling, layout optimisation, simulation etc. Teaching Company Programmes – three programmes involving implementation of IT solutions. Case studies: manufacturing strategy, supply chain management, specifications, Lean, design management. Working with One NorthEast – Lean manufacturing European Interreg project – network of Innovative Productivity Centres (each comprising a University, an RDA and an exemplar company) throughout the North Sea Region of Europe. Work with National Health Service – consultancy NE NHS; SDO research grant.

8. Challenges To engage in projects that lead to high quality research in terms of originality, significance and rigour. To publish in ‘high quality’ journals (in terms of the Association of Business School list). In Operations Management this has implications in terms of research methods i.e. JOM is the only 4* journal on the ABS list it has a strong preference for large surveys rather than case studies. Major rankings use more restrictive lists of journals such as the FT or Dallas lists. “Full Economic Cost” (FEC) makes research expensive. Sources of funding that don’t provide full FEC are problematic. Many organisations can’t afford to pay full FEC or find it uneconomic. “Buy out” arrangements are based upon FEC, which makes it difficult to recover the time spent on engagement projects. The incentive to do some types of engagement activity are poor or negative. Research based upon engagement is particularly difficult for overseas Phd students. It takes a long time to write proposals; the outcome is uncertain; sometimes the process is to slow and uncertain to meet stakeholders’ requirements.

9. Opportunities I personally enjoy working with practitioners and learn a lot from them! Research becomes more relevant to stakeholders. Research-led teaching that ‘goes beyond the texts’ is more interesting for students and helps them develop higher level cogitative skills. Shift from RAE to Research Excellence Framework – ‘Impact’ will be assessed rather than ‘esteem’; weightings of publications likely to reduce slightly. Engagement can often make taught courses more relevant to industry and more stimulating for students. Research councils’ funding is likely to become more competitive, which will encourage ‘third strand’ activity. Working in large networks e.g. ERIP provides a mechanism for engaging and publishing work amenable to high ranked journals, undertaking comparative work etc. Working in different sectors at the same time e.g. manufacturing and health, provides an opportunity for cross sector research.