The School of Business and Management of UCLan Cyprus places academic research at the core of its strategic mission and aspires to be one of the leading business schools in the region and beyond. The Faculty of the School mobilises its research strategy through research initiatives that shape cutting-edge, innovative developments in the business, management and entrepreneurial fields, bringing together students and stakeholders in a synergetic ecosystem. We set our research initiatives to address both the changing requirements of the business society, and the development of our students’ knowledge and expertise, preparing them, to become the competent leaders of the future.

More specifically, our research strategy resides on four strands, namely:

1. Advancing theoretical and empirical investigations in the broader field of business and management;
2. Broadening expertise in terms of research methodologies and theoretical perspectives;

• Consulting stakeholders and policymakers on prevalent best practices and contributing to the policy debate; and

1. Building partnerships with stakeholders from such constituencies as other university partners, research centres, business and professional associations, as well as enterprise development agencies.

In pursuing our research strategy, the School exhibits an impressive record of achievements along the following pillars:

• Achieving access to externally funded research;
• Offering joint supervision with UCLan UK academics to PhD scholars registered on the UCLan Doctoral Programme;
• Achieving high-impact publications in international journals;
• Disseminating research in high profile national and international conferences;
• Engaging in innovation and enterprise activities, including continued professional development (CPD), external consultancy, peer-esteem and knowledge transfer activities.

There is a continued pursuit of externally funded research through bidding and participation in projects (e.g. ARTISAN, GReFORM, SPRING) under Erasmus+, Horizon 2020, COST, and other funding bodies. Access to externally funded research has been enabled either at the University level or via the School’s association with CEDAR (Centre of Entrepreneurial Development, Alliance and Research). CEDAR is a non-profit organisation established by faculty of UCLan Cyprus, as well as other academic institutions and associate practitioners, to pursue externally funded research, knowledge transfer, executive education, consulting and outreach activities in entrepreneurship and related disciplinary fields.

We contribute to the propagation of the PhD scholars of the future, not only by forming supervisory teams that comprise academics of both UCLan Cyprus and UCLan UK but also by offering them opportunities to participate in various fora to present their doctoral work. At the same time, we encourage them to pursue teaching at the University and make sure that they receive training to become Fellows of the Higher Education Academy in the UK. We also cater for their training on research methodologies and other research aptitudes, including the pursuit of ethical and independent research.

The School is currently offering PhD supervision to the following doctoral candidates:

Markou Demetris (SMEs’ economic contribution); Karayianni Eva (entrepreneurial learning in family business); Thoma Georgios (organised football fandom); Dimitriou Dimitra (English language and Greek-Cypriot learners); Moyseos Moyses (entrepreneurial learning from sports); Koutsioundas Vassos (governance and compliance in sport); Eccleston Helen (socio-materiality and practice strategy); Patel Rizwana (adoption of Internet of Things).

Our faculty pursues world-class interdisciplinary research, published in high-impact, international peer-reviewed journals, establishing a positive social and economic footprint via engagement with entrepreneurs, major industry stakeholders and policymakers. Examples of high-profile outlets that our research features to include, inter alia: British Journal of Management (4*); Lingua (4*); Journal of International Marketing (3*); Journal of Business Ethics (3*); European Sport Management Quarterly (3*); Journal of Business Research (3*); Nonprofit Voluntary Sector Quarterly (3*); International Business Review (3*); European Economic Review (3*).

To promote multi-disciplinary research, we pursue coordinated activities via a number of research clusters:

• The Entrepreneurship cluster focuses on the following areas of interest: Family business and entrepreneurship; cooperation in entrepreneurship; collective dynamics in entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial education and learning; sport entrepreneurship. For further details concerning the initiatives and activities of the Entrepreneurship cluster, please click here.
• The Finance Governance & Accounting Research (FIGAR) cluster focuses on the following areas of interest: Behavioural finance; corporate governance; e-government; sport governance; inter-organisational cost management and control; corporate valuation and corporate structure; diversity in top management teams; shipping finance. For further details concerning the initiatives and activities of FIGAR, please click here.
• The Hospitality & Tourism cluster focuses on the following areas of interest: Travel behaviour in post-conflict societies; niche tourism as a contributor to peace; sport tourism; emotional labour in the hospitality industry; social tourism; dealing with emotions during interactions with aggressive customers. For further details concerning the initiatives and activities of the Hospitality and Tourism cluster, please click here.
• The Innovative Education & Linguistics (CIEL) cluster focuses on the following areas of interest: Theoretical and applied linguistics; syntax and semantics; bilingualism; multilingualism and dialect acquisition; teaching, education and distance learning; workplace learning; graphic life narratives; trauma and testimony in literature, human rights violations in literature, syntax interfaces to phonology and semantics. For further details concerning the initiatives and activities of CIEL, please click here.
• The Sustainability & Economic Development (SED) cluster focuses on the following areas of interest: Circular economy; sustainable economic growth and employment; corporate social responsibility (CSR); information asymmetries and income Inequality; sustainable agriculture and business; education for sustainable development; sustainable energy economics; sustainability risk Management and Models for SMEs; digital economy and society. For further details concerning the initiatives and activities of the SED, please click here.

The academics of the School of Business and Management are the mobilisers of our research strategy, are all PhD holders, and are the following:

Our academics also engage with external consultancy for industry, government (e.g. Cyprus Sport Organisation, the former Cyprus Tourism Organisation and currently Deputy Ministry of Tourism), and community organisations (e.g. Larnaka District Development Agency, Larnaka District City Councils), while they engage with peer-esteem activities, enjoying membership to professional bodies, professional and academic associations, advisory boards, and expert panels. On top of the above, our academics further act as external examiners to research theses, reviewers for peer-reviewed journals and conferences, are members of conference organising committees, and guest speakers for seminars and workshops (e.g. Cyprus Economy Review; Energy Developments in Cyprus, Polish National Sport Academy). The School’s academics also engage with the provision of continued professional development (CPD) training in collaboration with the Cyprus Human Resource Development Authority (HRDA). Furthermore, and as part of our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, we offer additional courses that are geared towards CPD such as the Entrepreneurship Camp.

Knowledge transfer and outreach activities is another area in which the School is very active, organising events of benefit to the community and to other external stakeholders. The School has been successful in turning some of these events into annual incubators, where business thinking, team-building, problem-solving, capabilities-building and entrepreneurship are bred (e.g. Ideodromio – an annual event for the generation of new, innovative business ideas by high school students; the Business Idea Competition – an event inviting young entrepreneurs to present their idea for a start-up business; the Business Escape Challenge – an annual event where young students are invited to solve business-related puzzles; the NextGen Accountant – an annual case study-based competition organised in collaboration with the SAP Competence Centre in Germany; the Be a Chancellor of the Exchequer for a Day competition, which involves student of UCLan Cyprus as well as of other universities on the Island, the EPSO competition, the Start-up Idea Fest Competition, etc.). The School also engages with the organisation of international research conferences (e.g. the Multinational Finance Society Symposium 2014, the 14^th EIASM Family Firm Management Workshop in 2018), and forums open to key industry stakeholders and policy-makers (e.g. Panoramas of: Entrepreneurship, 2013; European Funding, 2014; Innovation, 2015; Social Enterprise, 2017).