Professor Mehdi Boussebaa
- Professor in International Business (Management)
telephone: 0141 330 4579
email: Mehdi.Boussebaa@glasgow.ac.uk
Biography
Professor Mehdi Boussebaa joined the Adam Smith Business School in 2016 and currently serves as the deputy head of the School's International Business and Enterprise research cluster. Previously, he worked at the universities of Bath and Oxford. He has also held visiting positions in Canada, China, France and Sweden.
Mehdi researches and teaches on the history and (geo)politics of economic globalization and international management, with a specialist focus on professional service firms and the higher education sector. Since the Brexit vote in 2016, Mehdi has also been researching the notion of "Global Britain" championed by the UK government.
Mehdi's work has been published in a range of leading academic journals, including Organization Studies, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, Human Relations and Journal of Management Inquiry, as well as major edited volumes.
In 2015, Mehdi received the Dean’s Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Research at the University of Bath School of Management (and the Dean’s Award for Research Excellence in 2012). One of his recent papers – the first postcolonial analysis to be published in the top-ranked Journal of International Business Studies – was a finalist for the US Academy of Management’s Carolyn Dexter Award for the Best International Paper. Mehdi has also been shortlisted twice (2016 and 2017) for the Col. Lyndall F Urwick Memorial Prize awarded by the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants. In 2018, he was selected for the "High-end Foreign Experts Program" run by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.
Mehdi is currently Associate Editor of Critical Perspectives on International Business and also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of World Business, Organization Studies and Journal of Professions and Organization. He holds a PhD and an MA (with Distinction) from the University of Warwick.
Prior to joining academia, Mehdi spent 2½ years working for a leading (now bankrupt) US telecoms research and consulting firm in London following undergraduate studies at Cass Business School and (as an Erasmus student) Complutense de Madrid, Spain. He was born in France and speaks Arabic, French and Spanish as well as English.
Research interests
Mehdi is a member of the International Business and Enterprise research cluster.
Mehdi's research examines the cultural and (geo)political implications of economic globalization and international management. He is especially interested in how the (neo)colonial context shapes processes of globalization. Empirically, he examines these issues principally in the professional services sector and higher education using qualitative research methods. Theoretically, his work is informed by theories of the multinational enterprise, institutional theory, international political economy, Foucauldian theorising, imperial history, postcolonial theory, and research on the professions and professional service firms.
Mehdi's 2021 REF submission will be drawn from:
Boussebaa, M. and Faulconbridge, J. R. (2019) Professional service firms as agents of economic globalization: a political perspective. Journal of Professions and Organization, 6(1), pp. 72-90.
Boussebaa, M. and Brown, A. D. (2017) Englishization, identity regulation and imperialism. Organization Studies, 38(1), pp. 7-29. (ABS 4 and FT50)
Boussebaa, M. (2015) Control in the multinational enterprise: The polycentric case of global professional service firms. Journal of World Business, 50(4), pp. 696-703. (ABS 4)
Boussebaa, M. (2015) Professional service firms, globalisation and the new imperialism. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 28(8), pp. 1217-1233. (ABS 3)
Boussebaa, M., Sinha, S. and Gabriel, Y. (2014) Englishization in offshore call centers: a postcolonial perspective. Journal of International Business Studies, 45(9), pp. 1152-1169. (ABS 4* and FT50)
Boussebaa, M., Sturdy, A. and Morgan, G. (2014) Learning from the world? Horizontal knowledge flows and geopolitics in international consulting firms. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(9), pp. 1227-1242. (ABS 3)
Grants
- "High-end Foreign Experts Program" award, State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, Beijing, China, 2018.
- 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 globalization and international management. He is particularly, but not exclusively, interested in the following topics:
- The lived experience of globalization, especially in emerging markets
- Identity management in global and internationalizing organizations
- Globalization in the professional services sector
- Globalization in business schools and universities more broadly
- Headquarters-subsidiary relations and knowledge/practice transfer in multinational enterprises
- The ethics of international business
- The history of international business
Current PhD students (at Glasgow)
Christoph Biber
Mehdi is also currently supervising two doctoral students at the University of Bath and at the University of Warwick:
- Rachel Johnson (Bath) - internationalisation in the higher education sector, UAE focus
- Kevin Lam (Warwick) - internationalsation of the professional services service sector, China focus
Additional information
- Visiting Professor, University of International Business & Economics, Beijing, China, since July 2017
- Visiting Professor, University of Bath School of Management, since January 2017
- Associate Editor, Critical Perspectives on International Business, Emerald, since January 2016
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of World Business, since January 2017
- Editorial Board Member, Organization Studies, Sage Publications, since 2013
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of Professions & Organization, Oxford University Press, since 2013
- External Examiner, University of Edinburgh Business School, 2014-2018
- Shortlisted for the Col. Lyndall F Urwick Memorial Prize, Worshipful Company of Management Consultants, 2017
- Research Fellow, Said Business School, University of Oxford, 2009-2018
- Invited LabexMed Scholar, Aix-Marseille Université Aix-en-Provence, France, May 2016
- Shortlisted for the Col. Lyndall F Urwick Memorial Prize, Worshipful Company of Management Consultants, 2016
- Dean’s Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Research, University of Bath School of Management, 2015
- Invited Visiting Professor, 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
- Invited Post-Doctoral Researcher, Alberta School of Business, Canada, 2009
