Professor Anna Morgan-Thomas
- Professor (Management)
telephone: 01413302548
email: Anna.Morgan-Thomas@glasgow.ac.uk
Biography
Dr Anna J Morgan-Thomas is the Director of Postgraduate Research at Adam Smith Business School. Previously, she worked as Associate Director of Scottish Graduate School of Social Science at the University of Edinburgh, the UK’s largest ESRC Doctoral Training Centre. Prior to joining Glasgow in 2003, she was an ESRC Research Fellow and PhD student at Warwick Business School (1999-2003).
Anna is a business practitioner turned academic with first-hand expertise in marketing and business development. For example, she worked as senior analyst at the Global Research and Development at Millward Brown, the UK’s 4th largest marketing research agency.
Research interests
Anna is a member of the Marketing research cluster.
Current research
- Sociomateriality and performativity
- Algorithmic management
- Innovation in algorithmic systems
- Online engagement and disengagement.
Research interests
Areas of expertise
- Digital transformation of marketing practice
- Digital innovation
- Digital entrepreneurship
- Online brand communities
- Online engagement
- Algorithmic management
Research approaches / theoretical interests
- Socio-technical approaches to organising (work of Latour, Schatzki, Callon, Hayes and Orlikowski)
- Critical realism in digital transformation (Volgoff, Bygstad and Henfridsson)
- Generativity in digital innovation and entrepreneurship (Boland, Nambisan, Yoo and Zuboff).
Anna’s research focus is the phenomenon of digital technology in organising. Specifically, her focal concern is the way in which digital technology transforms business practices viewed from either collective or individual perspective. In addressing digital transformation, her research favours a critical socio-technical stance that rejects both the technological determinism and constructivism.
Within the area of digital technology studies, Anna has three enduring concerns:
- Theorising the relationship 'between' the social and the technical in organisational practices, specifically marketing practices.
- Technology and its relationship with processes of organising (such as digital innovation, digital marketing, digital entrepreneurship, etc).
- The implications of digital technology for customer behaviour, attitudes and perceptions (such as consumer engagement, brand relationships or online communities).
Within these areas, Anna is ambidextrous about research designs. Her publications include survey-based quantitative studies as well qualitative methods informed by theories of practice and process philosophy.
Grants
- Libereat: Monetising Big Data Analytics, Scottish Funding Council, Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (£5000, January-April 2018).
- Transitions to Blended and Online Learning: PGT Research Methods, Learning, Teaching and Development Fund, University of Glasgow. Co-investigators: Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas, Dr Adina Dudau & Dr George Kominis (£53,212, 2014-2016).
- Business model innovation in regional tourism: digital tourism platform, Scottish Funding Council, Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (£5000, 2015).
- Ubiquitous digitization and risk management models, Scottish Enterprise, First Step Award. Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (£5000, 2014).
- Utellme: Ubiquitous digitization and value creation, Scottish Enterprise, First Step Award. Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (£5000, 2014).
- The effectiveness of Agripa flexible advertising systems, Scottish Enterprise, First Step Award. Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (£5000, 2014).
- Base: New business models in digital economy. Scottish Enterprise, First Step Award. Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (£5000, 2013).
- Online internationalization, Adam Smith Research Foundation, University of Glasgow. Prof Becky Reuber and Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (£7000, 2012)
- Bio-tech start-ups and demand-side strategy. Scottish Enterprise, First Step Award. Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (50%) and Dr Alfredo D’Angelo (£5000, 2011).
- Tissue Solutions: Business models in global bio-tech industry, Scottish Enterprise, First Step Award. Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (50%) and Dr Alfredo D’Angelo (£5000, 2011).
- Innovation in renewable energy: Researching global market opportunities, Scottish Enterprise, First Step Award. Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (£5000, 2014). £5000 (2014)
- Routes to market in mobile applications contexts. Scottish Enterprise, First Step Award. Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (£5000, 2014).
- SME internationalization, GAESA, Andalucía Business Enterprise, Spain Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (100%)(€5500, 2009).
- Market assessment and strategy development for Virtual Abattoir, Scottish Enterprise, First Step Award. Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (£5000, 2014).
- Export Development, Scottish Enterprise, Knowledge Transfer Partnership. Prof Robbie Patton, Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas and Stacy Stewart (£103,228, 2006).
- Managing Multinational Enterprise, GAESA, Andalucía Business Enterprise, Spain. Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (€5500, 2007).
- Virtual Export Channels. ESRC, PhD scholarship. Dr Anna Morgan-Thomas (£88,000, 1999-2003).
Supervision
Anna is interested in supervising projects examining:
- Digital innovation and digital transformation in marketing, entrepreneurship and international business.
- She is particularly interested in projects that approach digital technologies (AI, big data, algorithms) from perspectives of sociomateriality, critical realism or practice theory.
Current doctoral supervision
Hakan Sanri
“Algorithmic innovation and value capture in digital ventures”
Co-supervisor: Dr Alison Smart
Scholarship: College of Social Science PhD scholarship
Natalia Kapralova
“Managing big-data driven business transformation”
Co-supervisor: Prof Denis Fischbacher-Smith
Scholarship: College of Social Science PhD scholarship
Alekasndra Bavdaz
“Technology and marketing practice: performing global branding”
Co-supervisor: Dr Katherine Duffy
Scholarship: College of Social Science PhD scholarship
Xinyu Dong
“Negative consumer engagement”
Co-supervisor: Prof Cleopatra Veloutsou
Torsten Nattermann
“Exploring impacts of digital technology trends on B2B relationships in global supply chain networks”
Co-supervisor: Prof John Finch
Mohd Irwan Bin Dahnil Sikumbang
“Social media adoption in small medium sized businesses”
Co-supervisor: Dr Yee Kwan Tang
Sergio Osuna
“Brand polarisation”
Co-supervisor: Dr Cleopatra Veloutsou
Agostinho Abrunhosa
“Moocs and digital transformation of business education”
Co-supervisor: Dr Ignacio Canales
Completed PhDs
Chuan Li (completed November 2018)
“Strategic alignment, customer relationship management and firm performance”
Co-supervisor: Dr Yee Kwan Tang
Scholarship: College of Social Science PhD scholarship
Olekasndra Pasternak (completed October 2016)
“E-word of mouth and online brand communities”
Co-supervision: Prof Cleopatra Veloutsou)
Yang Zhao (completed September 2016)
“Business model evolution and firm performance of entrepreneurial companies”
Co-supervisor: Prof Trevor Buck)
Laurence Dessart (completed July 2015)
“Online communities and brand engagement”
Co-supervisor: Prof Cleopatra Veloutsou
Scholarship: College of Social Science PhD scholarship
Karl Warner (completed April 2014)
“Dynamic capability development towards sustainable competitive advantage amongst life science new ventures”
Co-supervisor: Prof Marian Jones
Nathaniel Massa (completed February 2012)
“Internationalisation and competitiveness of small firms in Malta”
Co-supervisor: Prof Marian Jones
Lucrezia Casulli (completed in 2009)
“The role of absorptive capacity in the international growth and development of small firms”
Co-supervisor: Prof Marian Jones
Scholarship: ESRC CASE 1+3 studentship, with Scottish Enterprise
Jon Carrick (completed November 2011)
“The role of venture capital in new international ventures”
Co-supervisor: Prof Marian Jones
Junzhe Ji (Completed 2010)
“Strategic decision-making process characteristics, confucian values and their effects on international entry mode decisions: a study of Chinese private firms”
Co-supervisor: Prof Pavlos Dimitratos
Teaching
Current courses
- Management research methods (PGR)
- Multivariate analysis (PGR)
- Structural equation modelling (PGR)
Past teaching
- Digital marketing (UG and PGT)
- Digital entrepreneurship (PGT)
- International marketing (PGT)
- Strategic marketing (UG and PGT)
- Strategic marketing and management (MBA and UG)
- Marketing analysis (UG)
- Research methods (UG, PGT)
- Marketing research (UG, PGT)
Additional information
- Director of Postgraduate Research, Adam Smith Business School
- Member of the University’s Senate and Academic Standards Committee (since 2012) responsible for the assessment, evaluation and development of University’s quality assurance policies, regulations and systems
- Associate Director of the Scottish Graduate School for Social Science (2014-17, 0.2 FTE)
- Member of University’s Virtual Learning Board (2016-18), a pan-University steering committee that sets the direction for technology enhanced learning
- Doctoral Convenor for Academy of International Business, UK& Ireland Chapter (2008-2014)
- Associate Editor for Journal of Product and Brand Management (since 2016)
- ESRC reviewer for PhD scholarships in Scotland (2014-16)
- External reviewer for AHRC-funded Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities’ Collaborative Awards (2016).
R408E Level 4, Management, Gilbert Scott Building, Glasgow G12 8QQ,