Andrew James is Professor of Innovation Management & Policy and a member of the Manchester Institute of Innovation and Research. His research and teaching interests focus on corporate technology strategy, innovation management and science and technology policy.  He has engaged in research, consultancy and executive education with companies from a diverse range of sectors including chemicals, industrial electronics,  pharmaceuticals and legal services but his particular focus is on the industrial and technological dynamics of the defence, security and aerospace sectors.

My research focuses on corporate technology strategy, innovation management and science and technology policy. 

My current research is focused on:

• Organisational and behavioural factors in the adoption of digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence;
• The geopolitics of supply chains, supply chain resilience and supply chain mapping and UK-China research and technology relationships;
• Public procurement and innovation, especially in the defence and security sectors.

My research has been funded by national governments, international organisations, the ESRC and EPSRC. I have published in a range of journals including Research Policy, R&D Management and Science & Public Policy.

I teach innovation management and strategy on undergraduate, Masters, MBA and executive education programmes. I am Programme Director for Alliance Manchester Business School's MSc in Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship (IME). I am course coordinator on the final year undergraduate course unit BMAN 31080 Consultancy Project and BMAN 62042 Case Studies on Technology Strategy & Innovation Management on the MSc in Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship. I deliver executive education courses on Innovation, Digitalisation & Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Management.

I am open to the supervision of new PhD students and visiting researchers. However, in common with most of my colleagues, I receive a large number of poorly targeted PhD inquiries, many of which have been mass mailed to many colleagues with no personalisation nor acknowledgement that it is a mass mailout. I ignore such emails.

Doing background research on potential supervisors, their research interests and publications is a strong indication of your seriousness, research skills and suitability for doctoral research. If you are contacting more than one prospective supervisor that is fine, but please say so!

My main supervisory interests are in innovation management and policy and reflect my current research interests in the adoption of digitalisation and AI, supply chain resilience, UK-China research and technology collaboration and public procurement and innovation, especially in the defence and security sectors.

Please have a look at my recent publications to get a sense of my interests (several are co-authored with my PhD students). I am a qualitative researcher but much of my recent work has employed mixed-methods in collaboration with more quantitatively minded colleagues. I am happy to consider such approaches.