The Business and Management Research Institute (BMRI) organised its annual research conference on 12th January 2021 to increase awareness of BMRI initiatives and policies to staff and encourage them to be more research active.

Professor Ram Ramanathan, BMRI Director, started the event by providing an overview of BMRI, its objectives, achievements in the previous year, and plans for the current year including preparations for submission of materials for REF2021. This was followed by brief presentations by leaders of BMRI’s five research centres

Dr Maria Xiouri, from the Centre for Research in Law (CRiL) was the first to present highlights of the achievements and activities of the research centre, including the Families Together Project, funded by the British Red Cross. Dr Xiouri highlighted the participation of CRiL, and more specifically Dr Borelli, Dr Gualco and the PhD student Claudia Zugno, to the research group HUMARCY-Net ('Protecting HUman SEcurity with non-state actors in the MARitime and CYberSPAce'), which is coordinated by academics at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Italy, with the participation of academics and practitioners. She further highlighted her research on the law of treaties and the law of State responsibility.

Dr Christina Schwabenland provided a detailed account of the research activities in the Centre for Leadership Innovation (CLI), including the Equal Pay @50 conference just before the lockdown in Luton on 04 March 2020 and the writing retreat in July. Dr Mohamed Saeudy then presented various research activities in ResCAFE, followed by Dr Markus Haag and Professor Yanqing Duan on the activities of CIBAM and BISC respectively.

Following coffee break, there were three research presentations: by Wisam Abukalaf on the role of total quality management in Jordanian Municipalities, by Joseph Arhavbarian on Green Value Internalisation in UK firms, and by Markus Haag & Mahwish Zahara on applications of the Schwartz Value Survey.

Markus has published his PhD research on Personal Knowledge Development in Online Learning Environments: A Personal Value Perspective, and a shorter version entitled Personal Knowledge Development in Online Learning: A Model for Measuring Externalisation, Combination and Internationalisation

Mahwish is currently using the Schwartz Value Survey to investigate the perception of millennials of environmental sustainability and its link to purchase intention and actual purchase.

The afternoon session started with an inspiring presentation by Professor David Crowther, who, using published data, argued that the dairy industry could be the root cause of climate change, contrary to the perception that air travel is the greatest contributor of global pollution.

Following this presentation, Ayat Al-Mahmoud presented her research on understanding the influence of social media marketing activities on Consumers’ Purchase Intention of Package Holidays in Jordan, and then Abdalla Al-Khub presented his research on financial inclusion in Jordan.

The evening session included presentations on some of externally funded research activities in BMRI

Alexander Kofinas and Christina Schwabenland talked about their research work funded by the Chartered ABS on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Business School context. Yanqing Duan presented the findings and on-going activities on enhancing youth employability and rural entrepreneurship based on three of her EU Erasmus+ projects: CC Infinite, Land Mobility and AWARE

The entire day was well attended by 35 staff members and students, including PhD students from Jordan (with joint supervision with Middle Eastern University), with significant level of interactivity.

The event has been tweeted by several staff members with screenshots using references to the business school (@bedsbiz) and the University (@uniofbeds).