Professor Jim Love

Economics and Strategy Group

• Phone:+44(0)121 204 3001
• Email: j.h.love@aston.ac.uk
• Room: SW1013

Profile

I’ve been a Professor at Aston Business School since 1998, apart from a brief period spent at Birmingham University.  Before that I spent a number of years in the Economics department at Strathclyde University.
My background is in applied microeconomics, principally in the fields of international business and innovation.  Most of my work is empirical, using firm-level datasets.
I am currently a member of the Research Committee of the ESRC.

Qualifications & Education

• BA in Economics, University of Strathclyde, 1978

• PhD in Economics, University of Strathclyde, 1988

Teaching activity

BS3332 Economics of Multinational Enterprise

Research interests

1. Knowledge Co-ordination, Innovation and Business Performance
This work is based on the econometric estimation of the innovation value chain linking the sources of innovation inputs (internal R&D and external knowledge sourcing) to innovation outputs, and estimating the effect this has on productivity, profitability and growth.  Another element of this work examines the determinants and effects of innovation in services, and the dynamics of open innovation.

2. Foreign Direct Investment: Motives and Effects
Present research focuses on technology sourcing as a motivation for FDI among OECD countries, and the link between the motivation for FDI and spillover effects on domestic productivity and labour demand.  Another strand of this work examines the MNE as a source of intra-firm and international knowledge and technology transfer. 

Linking the first two themes is a programme of work estimating jointly the effects of innovation, ownership and exporting on performance (productivity profitability and growth) at the firm level.

3. Theory of the Firm/MNE
 My current theoretical interest lies in the development of an opportunism-independent theory of the firm which is nevertheless contractual and consistent with a transaction-cost perspective.

Recent research funding

1. The Dynamics of Open Innovation (October 2010 to March 2012, with S Roper). Funded by ESRC

2. The use of Alternatives to Patents, and limits to Incentives (June to December 2010, with Vania Sena and Mark Rogers), Funded by Intellectual Property Office

3. Measuring Firm-level Innovation Performance in Nine Areas of the UK Economy (February to September 2009, with S Roper and J Bryson). Funded by NESTA

4. A Comparative Evaluation of the Impact of UK Trade & Investment’s R&D Programme (October 2008 to March 2009, with M Hart and N Driffield). UKTI/BERR. 

5. Growing Inward and Indigenous Investment (January to December 2008, with N Driffield et al ). Funded by Manchester Independent Economic Review

6. Supermodularity and Complementarity in the Organization of Innovation (January 2005 to September 2006  with S Roper).  Funded by ESRC

7. Knowledge Co-ordination, Innovation and Business Performance (October 2004 to December 2005 with S Roper).  Funded by ESRC

PhD Supervision

I’m interested in supervising doctoral students in the following areas:

• The innovation value chain and open innovation

• The relationship between innovation and exporting at the firm level

• Technology transfer and the multinational enterprise

Membership of Professional Bodies

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS).