Skip to main navigation Skip to main content

The University of Southampton

×

Phone:: (023) 8059 3887
Email:: A.Nayak@soton.ac.uk

Dr Ajit Nayak BSc, PGCHE, MA, PhD

Associate Professor of Strategy

Dr Nayak is an Associate Professor of Strategy at the Southampton Business School. His further qualifications include, Foundation for Science and Technology Future Leader Fellow (2021) and Advance HE Fellow.

Dr Nayak’s primary area of interest is strategy. Previously, he has examined issues relating to strategy practice, dynamic capabilities, leading sustainability transitions, decision making, paradoxes, creativity, consumption, theory and entrepreneurship. Dr Nayak has published in Academy of Management Review, Organization Studies, Business History, Long Range Planning, Organization and Marketing Theory.

Dr Nayak welcomes applications from PhD students interested in process and practice approaches to strategy and organizations. In particular, from students interested in researching the Indian business context, sustainable development goals (SDGs) and inclusive innovation.

Research

Publications

PhD supervision

Contact

Research interests

Research interests

Dr Nayak's research interests revolve around strategy process, practice and decision making in changing environments. Theoretically, they focus on strategy-as-practice to inform how firms and individuals engage with strategy. Which draws on process and practice philosophers such as Henri Bergson, Martin Heidegger, William James, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Paul Ricoeur to theorise organizational lives. Empirically, he is interested in how firms achieve superior performance and the process of decision-making and innovation. He is currently researching how companies are developing ‘inclusive innovation’ strategies, the involvement of CEOs in championing Sustainable Development Goals, and the contributions of British South Asian pioneers to the UK.

Research Projects

Post-merger integration - academic partners are TAMPI, India and non-academic partners are Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank
Accelerating social impact capabilities in India (ESRC IAA funded project) - non-academic partner is Saathi Re
Innovation for and from the base of the pyramid (internal funding) - non-academic partner is IBM Research Kenya
Dynamic Capabilities in emerging economies (internal funding) - non-academic partner is IBM Research New Delhi

Affiliate research group

Strategy and Innovation Research Group

Research project(s)

The Pioneers Project

This project, funded by the University of Southampton, UKRI India, and the Asian Media Group, will create a ‘living history resource’ which documents and analyses the lives of successful South Asians who have made Britain their home, achieved visibility in various sectors, and have made an economic, sociocultural, political and intellectual contribution to its modern society since the 1960s. The project has policy implications in the realm of the social integration of established ethnic minority communities, social cohesion, and multiculturalism in a diverse and globalised Britain.

Heritage, Religion and Diaspora

The Pioneers Project, a project of the University of Southampton’s India Centre for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development.

Sort via:TypeorYear

Articles

Book Chapters

Chia, R., & Nayak, A. (2017). Circumventing the logic and limits of representation: otherness in east-west approaches to paradox approaches. In W. K. Smith, M. W. Lewis, P. Jarzabkowski, & A. Langley (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Paradox (pp. 125-140). Oxford University Press.
Nayak, A. (2016). Bharti Airtel acquiring resources and capabilities: Case Study. In International Business (2nd ed.). Cengage.
Chia, R., & Nayak, A. (2016). The art of relevation/revelation: A Whiteheadian approach to management education. In C. Steyaert, T. Beyes, & M. Parker (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Reinventing Management Education (pp. 120-132). Routledge.
Nayak, A. (2014). Heraclitus (540-480 BC). In J. Helin, T. Hernes, D. Hjorth, & R. Holt (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Process Philosophy and Organization Studies (pp. 32-47). Oxford University Press.
Nayak, A., & Chia, R. (2011). Thinking becoming and emergence: Process philosophy and organization studies. In H. Tsoukas, & R. Chia (Eds.), Philosophy and Organization Theory (Vol. 32, pp. 281-309). (Research in the Sociology of Organizations). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/S0733-558X%282011%290000032012
Nayak, A., Maclean, M., Harvey, C., & Chia, R. (2010). Entrepreneurship, corporate governance and Indian business elites. In P. Singh, & S. Verma (Eds.), Organizing and managing in the era of globalization (pp. 232-258). SAGE Publications.
Nayak, A. (2009). Strategic foresight. In L. Costanzo, & B. MacKay (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Strategy and Foresight (pp. 66-81). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Nayak, A. (2005). Managing uncertainty. In S. Watson, & A. Moran (Eds.), Trust, Risk and Uncertainty (pp. 123-143). Palgave.

Conference

Gitsham, M., Nayak, A., & Gosling, J. (2021). The echo of conscience and responsible leadership. Paper presented at Strategic Management Society Conference.

Review

Nayak, A. (2010). Book Review - Strategy without design: The silent efficacy of indirect action - Robert CHIA and Robin HOLT, Cambridge University Press, 2009. Management, 13(3), 205-213.

Dr Ajit Nayak
Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK

Room Number : 2/6035

Share this profile Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on Weibo

Privacy Settings