Ajay Bhalla

Ajay Bhalla is Professor of Global Innovation and Family Business in the Faculty of Management at Cass. He comes from third generation of a business family with diversified interests. His research and advisory work falls in three areas: (1) Family Business: What practices enable family firms to sustain family ownership across multiple generations (2) Employee Ownership: How does employee ownership influence resilience of the firm? (3) Global Innovation: How can firms appropriate value from their global networks?

In Aug 2013, he (with Joseph Lampel and Pushkar Jha) won the best paper of the year award at 73rd Annual Academy of Management for his article- 'Test Driving the Future'- in Academy of Management Perspectives. The award was conferred for advancing the understanding of issues that are relevant to managers and executives.

In Feb 2014, this collaborative work also was recognised by Charted Management Institute (CMI) as one of top 5 management articles.

His work stream on employee ownership (with Lampel and Jha) has provided the evidence base for the UK Government's policy on promoting employee ownership. From 2009-2014 he served as an adjunct faculty member at Indian School of Business [ISB]

He has published in Academy of Management Perspectives, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of World Business, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Small Business Economics, International Small Business Journal, Industrial Marketing Management, Business Horizons, European Management Journal, Strategic Change and Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. His research has also appeared in Financial Times and has been cited widely in other media outlets such as The Economist, The Times, The Guardian etc.

Research Impact on Policy: His work (with Joseph Lampel and Pushkar Jha) on examining the case for Employee-ownership in UK has provided the evidence base for the official British Government policy on employee ownership. The policy was officially launched in July 2013. This stream of work has been regarded as an Impact Case Study for REF 2014. He has co-authored two influential reports. First is Model growth: Do employee owned businesses deliver sustainable performance? Second, is his work with UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. The report titled 'The Employee Ownership Advantage: Benefits and Consequences' which was released along with the UK Government's Nuttall Review on Employee-Ownership. In 2012, he was invited to sit on the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills implementation group responsible for implementing the Employee Ownership policy in UK.

Industry Engagement: A variety of organizations have supported his field research. These include Wipro, SAP AG, John Lewis Partnership and International Chambers of Commerce where he (Joseph Lampel and Pushkar Jha) worked on counterfeiting and intellectual property survey of global firms.

Awards Ajay Bhalla has received several research and teaching awards. He won the 2013 best paper award at Academy of Management for his work published in Academy of Management Perspectives. His work has been nominated for best paper award at 2010 Strategic Management Society (SMS) Conference held in Rome and Academy of Management Conference held at Montreal. He is recipient of 2009 Research Award at Cass Business School and two City University

Teaching Awards 2007 City University Teaching Award for teaching on MBA programme and 2008 Cass Business School Teaching Award for his teaching on Masters programmes.

He (with Joe Lampel) has won research awards from UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), National Endowment of Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), and many private organizations. He (with Joseph Lampel) has also received the highly commended research award from Emerald for his research in Management.

Executing through leadership. He regularly consults top management teams who are seeking expertise on (a) how to create sustainable family firms, and (b) how to configure a firm's activity system to take global advantage of technology induced innovation. He has delivered several key-notes to audience ranging from consulting firms to policy audience. Building on his research on emerging markets, he works with top management teams on topics ranging from 'How are firms launching and building their global businesses in emerging markets?', 'How successful firms integrate emerging markets within their international growth or optimization strategy?' He has extensively advised executives on -Best Practices to follow when launching new ventures in the emerging market. How to create and appropriate value in IP sensitive environments across the value chain; Best practices in establishing offshore centres of excellence for high value added functions; How to promote learning from Vendor Relationships. During his engagements he uses proprietary tools he has developed during his work with numerous clients in software, professional services, and public services sectors.

Teaching: In his teaching, he aims to strike the balance between academic rigor and managerial relevance. His teaching has won number of awards (see awards section). He holds a post-graduate diploma in International Teaching from Stockholm School of Economics. Based on his research interests, he currently teaches two courses (1) 'Building Enduring Family Business', (2) 'Digital Business

Teaching evaluation: BUILDING ENDURING FAMILY BUSINESS: "I just wanted to thank you once again for giving me the opportunity to participate in this very intense yet extremely rewarding course. I do not think I have learnt as much as I have in the past 3 days in any other course. Before I took this course, I never considered joining my family business. However after attending the course, I realise first of all that my father has worked too hard to have none of his children take over his company and secondly, I can be involved in the strategical direction and growth of the company as it is still a fairly small company and has a lot of potential to grow. So now, as I go back for the short holiday I am going to make an effort to get to know the business and understand fully what it is about and at least try to contribute some of the things I learnt here there.

Influence: He considers that the most profound influence on his research streams has emerged from working closely with Joseph Lampel, currently Eddie Davis Chair at Manchester Business School. He also collaborates with delightful group of individuals such as Aneesh Banerjee, Pushkar Jha, and Kavil Ramachandran.

Industry experience Prior to joining Cass his industry experience involved working as a manager in the strategy consulting practice for Digitas, where his role involved working with major financial institutions and FMCG clients on developing technology enabled value enhancing strategies. Ajay has also worked for business analytics practice at Norkom Technologies, where his role involved developing customer intelligence solutions for airline and financial services sector. He has also gained a first hand substantial start-up experience as an entrepreneur, while successfully co-founding an online market research firm - Intellivey.com.

Education: He holds B.Comm from Punjab University, India, MBA from University of Wolverhampton and a Ph.D in Strategic Management from University of Nottingham Trent, UK. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in International Teaching from Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden.

Qualifications

• B.Comm, Punjab University, India
• MBA, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
• PhD, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom
• International Teachers Program, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden

Visiting Appointments

Visiting Scholar, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, INDIA, 2009 – 2010

Awards

• Charted Management Institute (CMI) (2014) Management Articles of the Year
• The Charted Management Institution (CMI) - charted professional body aimed at promoting highest standards in management excellence in UK has 90,000 members released the five best management articles of 2013. CMI launched Management Articles of the Year in 2011 to bring the best research on management topics, which has made substantial impact.
• Cass Professors Joseph Lampel and Ajay Bhalla with Dr Pushkar Jha from Northumbria University were one of the 5 winners of the CMI management articles of the year 2013. The articles entered into the CMI competition are reviewed and rated online by CMI’s membership for their usefulness to practicing managers.
• Their contribution was recognized at the annual awards ceremony held at British Library on February 3rd 2014. The article was the runner-up in the overall management of the year article category.
• Their paper “Test-Driving the Future: How Design Competitions are Changing the Future of Innovation” published in Academy of Management Perspectives, provides a comprehensive update on the rapid development of design competitions to spur innovation is an important contribution to both public and private domains.
• 73rd Annual Academy of Management (2013) Winner of the distinguished best paper award
• Winner of the distinguished best paper award at 73rd Annual Academy of Management conference at Orlando, USA.
• The prestigious award was conferred for (a) advancing understanding of issues that are relevant to managers and executives, and (b) demonstrating the utility of ideas grounded in theory.
• The award was for our research paper published in Academy of Management Perspectives in 2012 titled: 'Test Driving the Future: How Design Competitions are changing Innovation'.

Languages

Hindi.

Expertise

Primary Topics

• Family Businesses
• Innovation & Creativity
• Strategic Management

Additional Topics

• Entrepreneurship & Small Business Management
• Technology Management

Industries/Professions

• financial services
• information technology
• management consultingr
• etailing

Geographic Areas

• Asia - Southeast
• Europe
• Middle East

Research Topics

• Indian Family Business and Entrepreneurship
• Employee-Owned Businesses and Business Performance
• Intellectual Property Regimes
• Global Outsourcing Strategy

Lampel, J., Bhalla, A. and Ramachandran, K. (2017). Family values and inter-institutional governance of strategic decision making in Indian family firms. Asia Pacific Journal of Management pp. 1–30. doi:10.1007/s10490-017-9509-0.

Chapters (8)

• Bhalla, A., Lampel, J. and Vishnu, K. (2013). Wipro Consulting Services in 2008: building an optimal global configuration in business and IT consulting industry. In Lampel, J., Mintzberg, H., Quinn, J. and Ghoshal, S. (Eds.), The Strategy Process Concepts, Contexts, Cases Pearson Education. ISBN 978-0-273-65120-8.
• Bhalla, A. and Lampel, J. (2013). Tiscali UK: The rocky road to offshoring. In Lampel, J., Mintzberg, H., Quinn, J. and Ghoshal, S. (Eds.), The Strategy Process Concepts, Contexts, Cases Pearson/Education. ISBN 978-0-273-71628-0.
• Lampel, , Joseph, and Bhalla, A. (2012). Strategic Offshoring at Tiscali. In Dyson, B.F., Loveday, M.S. and Gee, M.G. (Eds.), FT Prentice Hall.
• Bhalla, A. (2008). Harnessing Knowledge Capabilities in Emerging Markets: Offshoring and the Experience of Mac & Company. In Satyendra Singh, (Ed.), Business Practices in Emerging and Re-Emerging Markets Palgrave MacMillan.
• Bhalla, A. (2008). Two case studies: Harnessing knowledge capabilities in emerging markets: Offshoring and the experience of MAC & co. Business Practices in Emerging and Re-Emerging Markets (pp. 221–230). ISBN 978-0-230-61101-6.
• Bhalla, A., Watkins, D. and Henderson, S. (2004). The Origins and Lessons of Entrepreneurial Achievement:a Multi-Paradigm Perspective via the Case Method. In Fayolle, A., Kyr�, P. and Ulijn, J. (Eds.), Entrepreneurship Research in Europe: Outcomes and Perspectives Cheltenham, Edward Elgar.
• Bhalla, A., Watkins, D. and Henderson, S. (2004). A Case Based Approach to Study Strategic Attributes of a Family Firm. In Astrachan, J.H. and Poutziouris, P. (Eds.), Family Business Case Annual Kennesaw, Ga: Cox Family Enterprise Center. ISBN 0-9753893-0-0.
• Bhalla, A., Watkins, D. and Henderson, S. (2002). A test of the appropriateness of alternative strategic management paradigms in the context of high growth ethnic and non-ethnic family firms. In Füglistaller, U., Pleitner, H.J., Volery, T. and Weber, W. (Eds.), Radical Change in the world-will SMEs soar or crash? (pp. 555–572). Swiss Research Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. ISBN 978-3-906541-18-1.

Journal Articles (20)

• Lampel, J., Bhalla, A. and Ramachandran, K. (2017). Family values and inter-institutional governance of strategic decision making in Indian family firms. Asia Pacific Journal of Management pp. 1–30. doi:10.1007/s10490-017-9509-0.
• Lampel, J., Bhalla, A. and Jha, P.P. (2014). Does governance confer organisational resilience? Evidence from UK employee owned businesses. European Management Journal, 32(1), pp. 66–72. doi:10.1016/j.emj.2013.06.009.
• Bhalla, A. and Terjesen, S. (2013). Cannot make do without you: Outsourcing by knowledge-intensive new firms in supplier networks. Industrial Marketing Management, 42(2), pp. 166–179. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2012.12.005.
• Bhalla, A., Lampel, J. and Ramachandran, K. (2012). The Indian Family Business: Striking a Path Between Tradition and Modernity. The Times . [publisher’s website]
• Bhalla, A., Lampel, J. and Larpin, E. (2012). The case study: Cegedim
• Post-merger acquisitions and the right signals to clients and staff. Financial Times .
• Bhalla, A., Jha, P. and Lampel, J. (2012). The Employee Owned Business Model During Growth and Adversity: How Well Does it Hold Up? European Business Review, (July-August) .
• Bhalla, A. and Lampel, J. (2012). Case study: Growth with values. Financial Times .
• Lampel, J., Jha, P. and Bhalla, A. (2012). Test-Driving the Future: How Design Competitions are Changing Innovation. Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(2), pp. 71–85. doi:10.5465/amp.2010.0068.
• Lampel, J. and Bhalla, A. (2011). Living with offshoring: The impact of offshoring on the evolution of organizational configurations. Journal of World Business, 46(3), pp. 346–358. doi:10.1016/j.jwb.2010.07.007.
• Lampel, J., Bhalla, A. and Vishnu, K. (2010). Wipro consulting Services: Building an Effective Global Configuration in Business and IT Consulting Industry. ASIAN CASE RESEARCH JOURNAL, 14(1), pp. 1–30. doi:10.1142/S0218927510001349.
• Lampel, J., Bhalla, A. and Vishnu, K. (2010). Wipro Consulting Services: Building an Effective Global Configuration in Business and IT Consulting Industry. Asia Case Research Journal, 14 .
• Burdon, S., Chelliah, J. and Bhalla, A. (2009). Structuring enduring strategic alliances: The case of Shell Australia and Transfield Services. Journal of Business Strategy, 30(4), pp. 42–51. doi:10.1108/02756660910972640.
• Bhalla, A., Lampel, J., Henderson, S. and Watkins, D. (2009). Exploring alternative strategic management paradigms in high-growth ethnic and non-ethnic family firms. SMALL BUSINESS ECONOMICS, 32(1), pp. 77–94. doi:10.1007/s11187-007-9064-z.
• Lampel, J. and Bhalla, A. (2008). Embracing realism and recognizing choice in IT offshoring initiatives. Business Horizons, 51(5), pp. 429–440. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2008.03.007.
• Bhalla, A., Sodhi, M.S. and Son, B.G. (2008). Is more IT offshoring better?. An exploratory study of western companies offshoring to South East Asia. Journal of Operations Management, 26(2), pp. 322–335. doi:10.1016/j.jom.2007.02.005.
• Stace, D. and Bhalla, A. (2008). Sustaining the ‘connective tissue’ of customer relationships. Strategic Change, 17(3-4), pp. 57–68. doi:10.1002/jsc.816.
• Lampel, J. and Bhalla, A. (2007). Let's get natural: The discourse of community and the problem of transferring practices in knowledge management. Management Decision, 45(7), pp. 1069–1082. doi:10.1108/00251740710773916.
• Lampel, J. and Bhalla, A. (2007). The role of status seeking in online communities: Giving the gift of experience. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(2), pp. 100–121. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00332.x.
• Bhalla, A., Henderson, S. and Watkins, D. (2006). A multiparadigmatic perspective of strategy: A case study of an ethnic family firm. International Small Business Journal, 24(5), pp. 515–537. doi:10.1177/0266242606067276.
• Burdon, S. and Bhalla, A. (2005). Lessons from the untold success story: Outsourcing Engineering and Facilities Management. European Management Journal, 23(5), pp. 576–582. doi:10.1016/j.emj.2005.09.012.

Course Directorship

• 2005 - 2006, Film Business Academy, Assistance Director
• 2005 -2007, Masters in Management, Admissions Tutor

Editorial Activities (10)

• Family Business Review, Referee, 2010 – present.
• Industry and Innovation, Referee, 2009.
• Small Business Economics, Referee, 2009 – present.
• Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Referee, 2008 – present.
• International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets, Member of Editorial Board, 2007 – 2010.
• Journal of Management Studies, Referee, 2007.
• Management Online Review, Member of Editorial Board, 2007 – present.
• Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Referee, 2007 – present.
• Journal of Operations Management, Referee, 2006.
• ESRC, Referee, 2003 – present.