By Dr Emma Gardner Department of Strategy and International Business, University of Birmingham With over 370 stores in 12 countries, Primark has secured its position as a leading fashion retailer… Recent years have been tumultuous for the British high street. Numerous firms, such as New Look, Oasis and Warehouse have entered into administration, while … Continue reading “Primark’s recipe for success has become its Achilles heel”
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How to pay for the (COVID-19) war
By Professor Andy Mullineux Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Responsible Business, Department of Finance In 1940, Keynes famously published the book How to Pay for the War, which proposed re-assigning industrial production to support the war effort and deferring workers’ pay by issuing credits that would be redeemed after the war. The aim of these … Continue reading “How to pay for the (COVID-19) war”
Providing essential services in lockdown
By Dr Juliet E. Kele, Research Fellow In HRM Department of Management and Lloyds Centre for Responsible Business, University of Birmingham COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on every aspect of life across the UK, including business. For its entrepreneurs and 5.82 million small business owners in particular, these are stressful and uncertain times. And … Continue reading “Providing essential services in lockdown”
Why a new future politics of work is paramount after Covid-19
By Professor Tony Dobbins, Professor of Employment Relations and HR Management President of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association Covid-19 is already having devastating effects on work, both in the UK and globally, with decreased employment and rising unemployment. In the UK, the state Job Retention Scheme is the only thing protecting many people from … Continue reading “Why a new future politics of work is paramount after Covid-19”
How do collective and individualistic societies respond to the challenge of social distancing orders?
By Professor Xiaohui Liu Department of Strategy and International Business, University of Birmingham We have witnessed how coronavirus has spread rapidly and become a global pandemic in just a few months. Governments around the world have taken drastic measures to stop the virus transmission and save lives. Following advice from scientists and medical professionals, it … Continue reading “How do collective and individualistic societies respond to the challenge of social distancing orders?”
How COVID-19 has made the invisible silent killer of air pollution visible
By Dr Nana Osei Bonsu, Research Fellow Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Responsible Business, University of Birmingham In the battle to slow the spread of COVID-19, countries around the world are restricting social gatherings, encouraging working from home, closing schools and restricting public events. As a result, this brutal pandemic has inadvertently made the invisible … Continue reading “How COVID-19 has made the invisible silent killer of air pollution visible”
The Maths Behind Lockdown Nation and the Social Distancing Exit Strategy
By Professor John Bryson Department of Strategy and International Business, University of Birmingham How does one forecast the future? The answer is that the future is too often unpredictable, but it might not be unexpected. On Thursday 26 March 2020, I wrote the following and left this text to one side. This was a ‘forecast’ … Continue reading “The Maths Behind Lockdown Nation and the Social Distancing Exit Strategy”
COVID-19: Where to go for reliable and accurate data
By Dr Agnieszka Chidlow The Department of Strategy and International Business As strict lockdown measures are being put in place in countries around the world to minimise the spread and impact of COVID-19 on both health and economic systems, we all closely monitor, compare and contrast the data around the number of deaths, as well as … Continue reading “COVID-19: Where to go for reliable and accurate data”
Struggling for trust: banks and government grants
By Professor Andy Mullineux Department of Finance, Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Responsible Business The government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic provides the UK’s banks with a real opportunity to re-build their reputations. The 2007-9 financial crisis and subsequent miss-selling and market-rigging scandals, like PPI and Libor, did enormous damage to the industry. But by … Continue reading “Struggling for trust: banks and government grants”
The ‘Nationalisation’ of Labour
By Professor John Bryson Department of Strategy and International Business, University of Birmingham Something astonishing has happened that will go down in British history as an example of an inflection moment in British governance. I have already argued that the Covid-19 pandemic represents an inflection point producing radical and long-lasting social, cultural, economic, political and … Continue reading “The ‘Nationalisation’ of Labour”