Professor Mehdi Boussebaa
- Professor in International Business (Management)
telephone:
0141 330 4579
email:
Mehdi.Boussebaa@glasgow.ac.uk
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468Biography
Mehdi Boussebaa is Professor of International Business at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, where he also leads the International Business and Enterprise Research Cluster.
His research spans the fields of international business and organisation studies and is also informed by postcolonial/decolonial thought and social science theories of globalisation. It is mainly concerned with the politics of corporate globalisation and management knowledge, with a specialist focus on professional service firms (especially management consultancies). In recent years, Mehdi has also been active in the 'decolonising the business school' movement through writing, workshops and symposia.
Mehdi's work has been published in major management journals such as Human Relations, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business and Organization Studies. One of his papers was a finalist for the US Academy of Management's Carolyn Dexter Award and another two were shortlisted for the Col. Lyndall F Urwick Memorial Prize awarded by the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants.
Mehdi is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Critical Perspectives on International Business and serves on the editorial boards of Human Relations, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Professions and Organization, Journal of World Business and Organization Studies. He has held visiting positions in Canada (Alberta), China (Tongji and UIBE), France (Aix-Marseille) and Sweden (Lund).
Mehdi earned an ESRC-funded PhD from the University of Warwick in 2008 after which he completed a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford before joining the University of Bath School of Management in 2009. He received the Dean's Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Research at Bath in 2015 (and the Dean's Award for Research Excellence in 2012). He joined Glasgow in 2016.
Prior to becoming an academic, Mehdi spent 2½ years working for a leading (now defunct) US telecoms market research and consulting firm in London following undergraduate studies at Bayes (formerly Cass) Business School and (as an Erasmus student) Complutense de Madrid, Spain. In his late teens and early twenties, he worked in various jobs in Paris and London to finance his studies and travels around the world, including as landscaper, takeaway delivery man, clothes shop assistant, supermarket shelf filler and waiter. He speaks four major world languages.
Research interests
- International business and society
- Corporate globalisation and global North-South relations
- Professional service firms (especially management consultancies) as agents of globalisation
- Eurocentrism and the politics of management knowledge
- Decolonising management research and education
- The politics of English as a 'global' language in business and academe
- Postcolonial and decolonial theorising
- Social science theories of globalisation
- Qualitative research, especially interviewing and discourse analysis
Grants
- BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, 2023
- BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, 2020
- International Research Mobility Award, LabexMed, Aix-Marseille Université, France, 2016
- Research Seed Corn Fund Award, University of Bath School of Management, 2013
- Research Seed Corn Fund Award, University of Bath School of Management, 2011
- Research Mobility Award, Alberta School of Business, Canada, 2009
- Strategic Development Fund Award, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, 2009
- Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, Said Business School, University of Oxford, 2008-2009
- Overseas Institutional Visit Award, ESRC, 2007
Supervision
Mehdi welcomes applications from potential doctoral students in the area of globalisation and international business and from those wanting to explore management/organisational issues in a global context. See Mehdi's 'Research Interests' section for potential topics.
- Bristy, Jannatul Ferdous
Identity Regulation by Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) through Employer Branding: A Postcolonial Perspective
Teaching
Mehdi has taught across all levels, in the UK and internationally. His teaching is research-led and draws on a broad field of scholarship, including international business, organisation studies, international political economy and postcolonial/decolonial thought. He has a keen interest in helping students develop a broad-based, interdisciplinary and critical/societal understanding of international business and management. He currently teaches the following courses:
- Global Business
- International Management
- Understanding Transnational Corporations
Additional information
Editorships
- Co-Editor-in-Chief, Critical Perspectives on International Business, Emerald, since 01/2022
- Associate Editor, Critical Perspectives on International Business, Emerald, since 01/2016-12/2021
Editorial Review Board Memberships
- Journal of Management Studies, 01/2021 - present
- Human Relations, 09/2020 - present
- Journal of World Business, 01/2017 - present
- Organization Studies, Sage Publications, since 2013
- Journal of Professions & Organization, Oxford University Press, since 2013
Other
- Visiting Professor, University of International Business & Economics (UIBE), Beijing, China, 07/2017 - present
- Fellow, Scaling Business in Africa (SBIA) consortium, University of Edinburgh, 10/2020 – present
- Visiting Professor, University of Bath School of Management, 01/2017 - 01/2020
- External Examiner, University of Edinburgh Business School, 2014-2018
- Shortlisted for the Col. Lyndall F Urwick Memorial Prize, Worshipful Company of Management Consultants, 2016 and 2017
- Research Fellow, Said Business School, University of Oxford, 2009-2018
- Invited LabexMed Scholar, Aix-Marseille Université Aix-en-Provence, France, May 2016
- Dean’s Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Research, University of Bath School of Management, 2015
- Invited Visiting Lecturer, University of Tongji School of Management & Economics, Shanghai, China, September 2014
- Invited Scholar, University of Lund School of Economics & Management, Sweden, May 2014
- Finalist for the Carolyn Dexter Award for Best International Paper, US Academy of Management (All-Academy Award), 2014
- Invited Scholar, Laboratoire d’Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (LEST), Aix-Marseille Université, Aix-en-Provence, May-June 2013
- Dean’s Award for Research Excellence, University of Bath School of Management, 2012
- Dean’s Award for Innovation & Enterprise, University of Bath School of Management, 2011
