Interdisciplinary Thematic Areas

Energy and the Environment

This research area is supported by Aberdeen Centre for Research in Energy Economics and Finance (ACREEF) and draws on all business school disciplines as well as on broader collaborative networks across the University including the National Decommissioning Centre (NDC) and to the Centre for Energy Transition (CET).

Research in this area:

• Focuses on oil and gas, including financial simulation and econometric modelling of activity levels, the effects of taxation changes and third-party access to infrastructure (Kemp, Abdul-Salam).
• Contributes to policy debates on energy transition from oil and gas to address issues such as the adoption and design of financial support schemes for renewable energy, capacity market design, emissions trading schemes and markets for carbon offsets and the economics of CO₂ capture and storage (Kiso, Rouaix).
• Studies incentives behind international environmental policy coordination (Montagna, Vlassis).
• Develops interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research exploring interrelationships such as between access to energy, food production, governance of common resources, land degradation and access to water in developing countries (Phimister).
• Investigates the importance of, and reasons behind, corporate, social and environmental sustainability accounting and reporting (Islam, Sales de Aguiar, Whittington, Makarem, Osman).

Work, Society and Wellbeing

Research in this area draws on a long history of labour economics and business management research within the School and examines important public policy challenges facing contemporary societies. Our researchers benefit from the Centre for Labour Market Research (CeLMR).

There are three overlapping sub-areas:

Labour Markets research focussing on:

• inequality and the labour market (Battu, Bender, Skåtun, Theodossiou);
• macroeconomic and labour market effects of globalisation, shocks and austerity policies (Montagna, Theodossiou);
• the incidence, causes and effects of educational mismatch in the labour market (Battu, Bender, Montagna, Theodossiou);
• the impact of firm-specific factors on mismatch and other labour market outcomes (Bender, Montagna);
• the impact of labour market institutions on labour market outcomes and workers’ wellbeing (Bender, Montagna, Zangelidis);
• corporate accountability and modern slavery within the global supply chain (Islam, supported by AHRC and GCRF grants).

Health research focussing on:

• Education policies and migrants’ wellbeing (Aoki);
• The impact of labour and management practices on workers’ health and well-being (Bender, Montagna, Skåtun, Theodossiou, Zangelidis),

Industrial Organisation and Technology focusing on:

• Industry decision-making in health and the environment (Phimister);
• Workers’ use of new technologies (Hislop)

Finance, Organisation and Governance

Researchers in this theme investigate a broad range of topics both in traditional disciplines of finance, accountancy, and governance, but also with an eye to sustainability.  Interdisciplinary research in these areas are supported by the School's two newest research centres: Africa-Asia Centre on Sustainability (AACS) and the Centre for Governance, Accountability and Sustainability (GAS).

Our researchers work on theoretical and empirical aspects of:

• Corporate Finance, with research focusing on financial constraints due to capital market imperfections (Da Silva Fernandes, Gymiah, McCann), financial inclusion (Kling), sovereign risks, credit ratings, and the role of financial services (Vu, Jiang) and behavioural finance (Hvide).
• Asset Pricing, with researchers (Papadimitriou) exploring links between financial markets and the real economy, the performance of US sector-specific and international mutual funds (Schulz), and the impact of Covid-19 on US stock returns through its impact on supply chains (Jiang).
• Banking, with work is on financial stability (Da Silva Fernandes, Jiang, Liu); green finance, shadow banking in China and financing issues in China's Belt and Road initiative (Jiang); the collapse of Scottish banks (Canales).
• Organisation, with research including the utilisation of contingent labour (Hislop); performance management and resourcing strategies (Boyne).

Research that takes an external, “looking in”, perspective on the strategic management of organisations focuses on the strategy process, innovation, spin-offs and technology adoption and diffusion (Akhtar, Cai, Canales, Hu, Meyer, Shi). An internal, “looking out”, perspective, focuses instead on technology, work and AI (Hislop); and analysis of science and technology and their interrelationship (Meyer).

The sub-theme of Governance contributes to agency theory, managerial power theory, elites, social networks, and disclosure and covers both private and public sectors (Whittington, Makarem, Kling, Jiang, Bayat, Hu, Meyer, Hvide).  Research on public sector governance has focused on strategy content, performance and improvement in public sector institutions (Boyne); the failure of regulations (Sales de Aguiar and Liu, supported by a Carnegie Trust grant); accounting, governance and transparency within the public sector (Paterson, Jackson).

Fast-expanding is the area of entrepreneurship, which includes work on innovation, commercialisation and academic entrepreneurship (Khan, Hvide, Meyer, Shi, Parker, Wu); ‘born global’ (Khan, Wu); international alliances and joint ventures; the effects of risk preferences and beliefs on entrepreneurship performance (Hvide, Parker) and finance (Hvide, Parker, Wu).

Real Estate

Research in Real Estate is delivered through the Centre for Real Estate Research (CRER) with work focusing on:

• Interconnectedness of asset markets, the pricing of real estate securities and performance evaluation of managed funds (Hoesli, Schulz) including: US real estate mutual funds and US global real estate mutual funds (Schulz); university building programmes and loan funding (Hutchison and McCann)
• Analysis of housing markets and statistical modelling of house prices, producing the quarterly Aberdeen Housing Market Report, based on listing and transaction data provided by the Aberdeen Solicitors Property Centre (ASPC) which offers quality-controlled prices, information on mark-ups, listing and transaction volumes and automated valuation service (AVS)   (Hoesli, Schulz, Wersing); effect of government invention on transparency in housing markets (Liu).