.

Dr Michael Smets

Dr Michael Smets

Lecturer in Strategy

Economics and Strategy Group


Download CV in PDF format

http://www1.aston.ac.uk/reinsurance/

Profile

I joined Aston Business School in August 2009 as a Lecturer in Strategy in the Economics and Strategy Group. My research focuses on professional and knowledge-intensive service organisations, specifically their strategic management, internationalization, and interaction with socio-cultural contexts.Recent research projects included studies of global law firms and the alignment of their work across various jurisdictions, comparisons of risk- and reinsurance-trading practices in Lloyd’s of London, Bermuda, and Continental Europe, and continuous service innovation in professional sectors.I use qualitative methods, specialising in video- and team-ethnography. I received my DPhil from Said Business School, University of Oxford in 2009, where I am now an Associate Fellow of the Novak Druce Centre for Professional Service Firms. Method expertise in: (Corporate) Ethnography, Qualitative Interviewing

Research Interests

  • institutional theory

  • practice theory

  • (international) strategic management

  • Professional service innovation

Teaching activity 

  • Strategic Management, part-time MBA (BSM999)

  • Strategic Management, executive MBA (BSM989)

  • Topics in Advanced Strategy, MSc elective (BSM931)

  • Perspectives on Business and Management, undergraduate (BS1131)

  • Centre for Executive Development

 

 Academic Papers

  • Smets, M., Morris, T., & Greenwood, R. (2012) From Practice to Field: A Multi-level Model of Practice-driven Institutional Change. Academy of Management Journal, 55(4): 877-904

  • Malhotra, N., Morris, T., & Smets, M. (2010) New Career Models in UK Professional Service Firms: From Up-or-out to Up-and-going-nowhere? The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(9): 1396-1413

  • Reihlen, M., Smets, M., & Veit, A. (2010) Management Consulting Firms as Institutional Agents: Strategies for Creating and Sustaining Institutional Capital, Schmalenbach Business Review, 62 (July): 317-339

Research reports

  • Jarzabkowski, P., Allocato, A., Bednarek, R., Burke, G., Cabantous, L. & Smets, M. (2012) Beyond Borders: Charting the Changing Global Reinsurance Landscape, Aston Business School, Birmingham

  • Jarzabkowski, P., Smets, M. & Spee, P. (2010) Trading Risk: The Value of Relationships, Models and Face-to-Face Interaction in a Global Reinsurance Market, Aston Business School, Birmingham

 

 

  • 2012: ESRC Knowledge Transfer Grant (CI): Charting New Territory: Positioning the UK (Lloyd's) in a changing global reinsurance landscape (£112,373)

  • 2012: The Worshipful Company of Insurers (CI): Charting new territory: Positioning the UK (Lloyd's) in a changing global reinsurance landscape (£20,000)

  • 2012: Economics & Strategy Group (PI): Reinsurance trading in Europe. Data collection support (£4,680)

  • 2011: ESRC Industry placement (CI): Trading risks: The role of European firms in the global reinsurance market  (£75,000)

  • 2010: ACCIS grant priming fund (PI): Trading risks: The role of European firms in the global reinsurance market (£5,000)