Staff profile

Dr. Jeffrey Hughes (BBS, MBS, PhD, FRSA, SFHEA) is Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Durham University Business School.

He also holds the position of Associate Chair for Durham University Business School's Smart & Scale initiative, a £9 million research programme that prioritizes impactful outcomes in smart and scale-up activities. Its primary objective is to provide support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the North-East of England, fostering innovation, resilience, and economic development in the region.

Jeffrey was awarded his PhD in Strategy and Information Systems from Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, and completed his postdoctoral studies in the field of big data analytics at the School of Management, University of St. Andrews.

He has published his research in leading academic journals including Journal of Strategic Information Systems, International Review of Administrative Sciences, Journal of Strategic Studies, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Business Venturing Insights.

Jeffrey is passionate about teaching, receiving both school and university-wide recognition for his pedagogy premised upon linking theory to practice.

He has been successful in funding bids for projects including 'A Strategy Bridge from International Relations to Management Studies' (2021, Co-investigator: £63,420), 'Scottish University Scale Up Consortium' (2020, University of St. Andrews lead: £500,000), and 'Scottish University Scale Up Consortium' (2019, University of St. Andrews lead: £100,000).

Jeffrey has held senior academic leadership roles including Deputy Director of the Graduate School for Interdisciplinary Studies, and Director of Teaching at the School of Management, University of St. Andrews. Most recently, he was Head of MBA Programmes at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

He draws upon a wealth of practitioner experience from his time spent in industry, where he was primarily engaged in the technology and consulting realms. He has worked for a range of large multi-nationals inclusive of Diageo, Eir, and British Telecom.

Jeffrey is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), and Adjunct Faculty in Strategy and Technology at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

• Strategy
• Technology
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Social Innovation
• Grand Challenges

• 2024: Global Engagement Grant recipient: Knowledge exchange with Dartmouth College and colleagues at the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship, Technology Transfer Office, and Tuck School of Business.
• 2023: Keynote Speaker - DBA at Fudan Conference:
• 2023: Associate Chair of Durham University Business School's Smart & Scale initiative:
• 2022: Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA):
• 2022: Governing Board Member - Scottish Universities Scale-up Programme: From 2019-2022, Jeffrey served on the governing board of the Scottish University Scale-up consortium focussed upon helping Scotland’s higher education institutions either enhance or develop strategies for delivering executive education to ambitious scale-up entrepreneurs. This work resulted in the consortium successfully securing significant financing from the Scottish Funding Council.
• 2021: Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (FRSA):
• 2020: St Andrews Students’ Association Teaching Awards: Category: Best Teacher in the Faculty of Arts and Divinity (Nominee)
  Category: Innovative Teaching (Nominee)
• 2019: St Andrews Students’ Association Teaching Awards: Category: Best Teacher in the Faculty of Arts and Divinity (Nominee)
  Category: Innovative Teaching (Nominee)
• 2018: Trinity College Dublin Teaching Excellence Award: For the module 'Strategy and Information Systems'.
• 2016: PRINCE2 Project Management Methodology: Practitioner Certified.
• 2014: Irish Academy of Management: Best Paper award at the 2014 Annual Conference (Research Design and Methodology track).

Conference Paper

• Hughes, J., Healy, J., & Donnelly-Cox, G. (2023, November). From practice to theory and back again: Exploring social innovation scaling processes through multiple lenses. Paper presented at ISBE 2023, Birmingham
• Hughes, J., Pitsis, T., Leighton, M., & Bhatia, K. (2024, April). Meta-Practices: The Role of Ecosystems Actors in Social Innovation. Paper presented at 9th Annual Entrepreneurship as Practice Conference 2024, University of Leeds
• Hughes, J. (2023, November). From practice to theory and back again: Exploring social innovation scaling processes through multiple lenses. Paper presented at Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Annual Conference 2023, Birmingham
• Healy, J., Donnelly-Cox, G., & Hughes, J. (2023, July). From practice to theory and back again: Exploring social innovation scaling processes through multiple lenses. Paper presented at 39th EGOS Colloquium 2023, Cagliari, Italy
• Hughes, J., & Ball, K. (2022, December). Sowing the seeds of value? Persuasive practices and the embedding of big data analytics. Paper presented at Beyond Big Data Surveillance: Freedom and Fairness, Ottawa, Canada
• Hughes, J. (2021, December). Innovation and Creativity in Taught Postgraduate Summer Project Modules: Leveraging Technology and Supporting Future Career Pathways. Paper presented at Advance HE’s Teaching and Learning Conference 2021, Online
• Healy, J., & Hughes, J. (2021, September). Making Things Great Again: Evidence from the post-apartheid LGBTI field in South Africa of the enabling and constraining influences of social myths. Paper presented at Twelfth International Symposium on Process Organization Studies (PROS)., Online
• Healy, J., & Hughes, J. (2019, July). Making Things Great Again: The Practices of Aligning around Strategies to Address Social Challenges. Paper presented at European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Annual Conference., Edinburgh, Scotland
• Hughes, J., & Ball, K. (2018, December). Lost in Translation? Persuasive Practices and Big Data Analytics. Paper presented at Tension in the Data Environment: Can Organisations Meet the Challenge?, Coventry, England
• Hughes, J., & McDonagh, J. (2014, September). New Avenues in Strategic Information Systems Planning Research: A Strategy as Practice Perspective. Paper presented at BAM2014: British Academy of Management Annual Conference, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Journal Article

• Cunningham, J., Hughes, J., Hay, A., Greene, F., & Seaman, C. (2024). Bridging the divides: A case study of collective action across Scottish university business schools to support small business. Journal of Business Research, 183, Article 114859. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114859
• Healy, J., Hughes, J., Donnelly-Cox, G., & Shantz, A. (2024). A long and winding road: The hard graft of scaling social change in complex systems. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 21, Article e00455. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00455
• Hughes, J., Orr, K., & Yusoff, M. (2023). Strategizing for grand challenges: economic development and governance traditions in Malaysian local government. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 89(2), 363-380. https://doi.org/10.1177/00208523211048167
• Hughes, J., Kornberger, M., MacKay, B., O’Brien, P., & Reddy, S. (2023). Organizational strategy and its implications for strategic studies: A review essay. Journal of Strategic Studies, 46(2), 427-450. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2021.1994950
• Schuler, B., Orr, K., & Hughes, J. (2023). My colleagues (do not) think the same: Middle managers’ shared and separate realities in strategy implementation. Journal of Business Research, 160, Article 113782. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113782
• Hughes, J., & McDonagh, J. (2021). SISP as practice: De-isolating SISP activity across multiple levels. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 30(2), Article 101658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2021.101658
• Hughes, J., & Ball, K. (2020). Sowing the seeds of value? Persuasive practices and the embedding of big data analytics. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 161, Article 120300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120300
• Hughes, J., & McDonagh, J. (2017). In defence of the case study methodology for research into strategy practice. The Irish Journal of Management, 36(2), 129-145. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijm-2017-0013

Report

• Armstrong, R., Hughes, J., Adair, M., & Hogan, A. (2017). Your GDPR Journey. Saros Consulting
• Armstrong, R., & Hughes, J. (2017). A Guide to Information Technology and Cybersecurity Risks. [No known commissioning body]