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Research undertaken by Starkey and colleagues has informed the development of a particular philosophy and practice of research. This has informed policy debates about the nature of effective management research for engaging with practice — now widely referred to as co-production — and led to new insights into the practice of policymaking in government. The research informed (1) the development of a new approach to policymaking adopted by the previous administration in work conducted for and with the Cabinet Office with senior civil servants and representation from the House of Lords; (2) collaborative work on the development of low carbon communities which was conducted with the Department of The Environment and Climate Change.
Developing sustainable consumption and production policies and practices in industry requires analysis of technical, environmental, economic and social performance of supply chains delivering goods and services. In a programme covering the 20 years since its foundation, the University of Surrey's Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) has played a major role in developing a systematic "whole system" approach to assessing and managing supply chains, starting from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Management (LCM) and progressing to sustainability analysis.
This approach underpins current national and international standards and policy and is embodied in the corporate strategies of a number of major companies (for example Unilever and M&S); the approach is also starting to be adopted in guiding the development of new consumer products.
This case study focuses upon research surrounding knowledge management (KM) practice and implementation (organisational change). The case study utilises research and impact from the Systems Thinking and Organisational Change Research Group (SYTOC), which existed in Derby Business School between 2007 and 2012.
Impact included enhanced business process and practice for many organisations through the significant dissemination of the research. The core group of SYTOC includes Longbottom, Dexter, Marshall and Seddon, visiting professor and a leading authority on change in the public sector.
Research at the University of Sheffield has led to the development of a Reverse Logistics Toolkit that enables companies in the retail sector, together with members of their supply chain, to improve management of the flow of surplus or unwanted products returned by customers. Companies using the toolkit have seen a reduction in returns of up to 40%, a significant figure given that total UK retail returns have been valued at around £6 billion per annum. The toolkit has enabled companies to reduce costs, improve service provision and reduce transport movements.
This interdisciplinary research work in the areas of Knowledge Management (KM), e-Business, enterprise systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Supply Chain Management resulted in socio economic impact through improved organisational performance in 90 companies in the North West, resulting in process improvements, enhanced productivity, marketability, increased revenues, employment, reduced costs, enhanced knowledge capital, profitability, and sustainability. This positive regional impact included an ERDF funded project (£1.4m), 5 KTPs (£500,000), an ESRC project, and other bespoke collaborative company projects. This research work in collaboration with industry encompassed a knowledge sharing regional network that included BAE Systems, Daimler, Northwest Aerospace Alliance, APPH Group — BBA Aviation, Hyquip Limited, Alliance Learning Limited, Darts Corner Limited etc.
Development of the UK construction industry was hampered by a focus on individual projects, with two drawbacks: limited transfer of lessons learned from one project to the next, and limited focus on systemic innovation and wider commercial opportunities.
Drawing on their research, our Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group helped construction companies — including Laing O'Rourke (LOR), Arup, and Mace — overcome these obstacles by adopting a `systems integration' model to capture and utilise lessons learned, and by developing Executive Education programmes to make project engineers aware of wider commercial and innovation issues. These improvements enhanced delivery of major projects such as the Olympic Park and Crossrail.
The Group changed firm behaviour, re-orientated project management practices, and translated lessons learned into organisational capabilities at LOR, Arup, and Mace.
Beneficiaries were the UK construction and consulting engineering sector, who as a result were better equipped to innovate and compete globally, and their clients, such as the UK Olympic Delivery Authority and Crossrail.
Performance measurement research at the University of Strathclyde has directly led to major economic and social improvements in over 170 companies, and indirectly to over 1000 companies through intermediaries such as Scottish Enterprise between 2008 and 2013. These benefits were achieved as a result of novel performance measurement and management practices and supporting ICT systems that integrated shop-floor, operational and strategic performance information in real time. The result was substantial productivity and growth benefits for international and UK companies, for example a 150% increase in turnover and 80% increase in employment at Highland Spring. The European wide FP7 FutureSME project (2009-2013) led by the Strathclyde team developed and delivered a €6M programme to improve the competitive capabilities of European Manufacturing SMEs. In 2012, the associated training programme developed at Strathclyde was awarded the European Training Programme of the Year Medal by the Polish Chamber of Commerce.
Brunel researchers assisted practitioners within the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to develop and explore a range of climate change policy scenarios in agriculture as part of the UK government's climate change strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) CO2 emissions by 3 million tonnes to 2020. This led to:
Environmental and Policy Impact through:
- the novel application of the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) technique, to enable effective scenario modelling at DEFRA in pursuit of improved management of environmental risks;
- enhanced capacity and capability within and across climate change mitigation project teams and experts, allowing DEFRA practitioners to add the FCM technique to their repertoire of futures modelling.
Practitioner Impact through:
- Improved professional standards, guidelines and training — along with the development of DEFRA resources to enhance their professional practice.
Sea lice are the principal disease constraint for world Atlantic salmon culture and cost >€33m yearly in the UK and >€305m globally in terms of control measures and lost production. Research conducted by the University of Stirling's Institute of Aquaculture (IoA) has provided tools and strategies for sea louse control in farmed salmon worldwide. Impacts have been delivered through an integrated pest management approach which involves
(1) introduction of management tools including fallowing, single year-class stocking and area management
(2) screening, development, licensing and monitoring of veterinary medicines
(3) development of alternative strategies such as use of cleaner fish (wrasse) and sea louse resistant salmon
(4) incorporation of integrated pest management principles into public policy and legislation.
These tools and approaches are now being used by the U.K. and global Atlantic salmon industries.
Since 1994 the university's Agriculture and Environment Research Unit has undertaken an extensive programme of research on the environmental impacts of agriculture. This has been instrumental in providing agricultural practitioners, policy makers and researchers from around the world with a range of tools that have helped to deliver agri-environmental policy objectives on farms. These tools have aided farmers in improving their environmental performance, provided evidence to support policy objectives, and helped improve the accuracy and comparability of environmental risk assessments.