Dr Karl Warner is a Lecturer in Strategy at the Adam Smith Business School.

Karl is a three-time graduate from the University of Glasgow earning a MA (Hons of the First Class), MSc (Distinction) and PhD in Management. He returned to the Adam Smith Business School in 2019 having held academic positions as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Queensland, Research Associate at the University of Strathclyde, and Lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University.

Karl’s research and teaching lies at the intersection of strategy, entrepreneurship and international business. His research broadly examines how small and large firms pursue digital transformation strategies in high-technology contexts. Using qualitative methods, he is interested in studying how leadership teams go about building innovation capabilities and networks for collaborating and competing in these fast-changing environments.

Karl’s recent work investigates how incumbent firms in traditional industries are building dynamic capabilities for digital transformation, which has implications for how firms reinvent business models, enhance workplace collaborations and improve organisational cultures.

This work has received the CMCE Research Award for Technology and Consulting and won The 2019 Urwick Cup for outstanding research in management consultancy from the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants (WCoMC) at Goodenough College London.

Karl teaches strategic management at all classroom levels (undergraduate to executive education) and delivers commercial education to private and public sector organisations. He currently supervises a team of doctoral researchers on topics relating to the digital transformation of small and large companies in traditional and high-technology industries.

Research cluster: Strategy and Technology Management

Areas of expertise:

• Building capabilities for performance
• Technology venturing and entrepreneurship
• Digital transformation strategies
• Foreign market entry and expansion strategies
• Case study research and teaching

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£6995 Edinburgh Napier Business School Research Funding Competition (co-investigator) – awarded 2017.

£8000 Edinburgh Napier University Early Career Researcher Grant (principal investigator) – awarded 2016.

£1000 Academy of International Business (AIB-UKI) Doctoral Researcher Grant – awarded 2009.

Karl is interested in supervising PhD projects in strategic management, technology entrepreneurship and international business. He welcomes doctoral research applications in strategy areas relating to the digital transformation of small and large firms, digital innovation and entrepreneurship, and the internationalisation of technology-based new ventures.

• Lee, Benjamin
  Using a Dynamic Capabilities perspective to explore the adoption of AI and Machine Learning for Data Analytics (AIMLDA) in Accounting firms

Karl has been awarded a Senior Fellowship from the UK Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) for using the case method as a teaching strategy. He incorporates this approach into the following courses:

• Business competition
• Strategic management
• MBA strategic management

Membership

Karl is a member of:

• British Academy of Management (BAM)
• Academy of Management (AOM)
• Strategic Management Society (SMS)
• Academy of International Business (AIB)

Reviewer

He is a regular reviewer for leading management journals including:

• Journal of International Business Studies,
• Long Range Planning,
• Journal of World Business,
• International Small Business Journal.