Overview
Bill leads the Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Digital Era modules on the Exeter Executive MBA and MBA modules, as well as a range of innovation centred Masters modules working with organizations such as VISA, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and the Bank of England. He is a keen advocate of the “Flipped Classroom” teaching method, and focuses on experiential learning. He has recently published Vigilant Innovation (2020) and Lean CX: How to differentiate at low cost and least risk (April 2021 - with co-authors).
Bill worked in globally focused marketing, commercial and Board positions for 27 years. He joined the Centre for Innovation and Service Research (ISR) at the University of Exeter Business School in 2012 from Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, where he had been a Board director for 12 years, responsible for sales and marketing activities. During his time at Emerald revenue, profits and staffing levels more than doubled. In addition to a complete overhaul and repositioning of the brand, he established and managed a global network of offices which drove significant growth, particularly in Asian markets.
He secured a strong grounding in B2B marketing and branding working with Castrol oil. Highlights included managing Castrol’s international motorsport programme with Mercedes, Jaguar, Toyota and Honda, and operating as Sales and Marketing Director for Castrol Spain in Madrid. He has also been a Sales Director for the US based Hallmark group, responsible for customers such as Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, Morrisons and Boots. He has worked commercially in over 50 countries.
In the Academic sphere he has been a Visiting Professor at University College London, and has served on AACSB’s strategic Committee for Issues in Management Education (CIME). Recent projects have included establishing the University of Exeter’s business focused Degree Apprenticeship programmes working as Director of Executive Education. He engages in knowledge transfer projects including KTPs, and the Future Focus project.
Qualifications
- BA (History), University of Nottingham
- PhD (Innovation Management), University of Exeter - No corrections
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Research
Research interests
Bill’s research has focused on how the Higher Education publishing sector has already transformed itself from a paper based world, to the flexible provision of digital journals, books and analytic services. To compete and win in the expanding - and fragmenting - global HE environment, publishers need to innovate and respond to changing stakeholder needs.
Through over 60 confidential face to face interviews with CEOs, Directors and Managers at Elsevier, Wiley, Macmillan, T&F, Sage, Emerald, Cambridge University Press, Harvard Business School Publishing, Institute of Physics Publishing, and The Royal Society, Bill has explored how they sense and respond to innovation signals in their core markets, and identify opportunities beyond their core environments – the environments where disruptive challenges emerge and new opportunities develop.
Key findings include:
- The importance of managing a portfolio of innovation and new product development opportunities across core, adjacent and transformative/peripheral environments
- The high impact of the “Rapid Change Core” on activities “Beyond the Core”
- Organisations with a workflow/service focus, rather than a product focus, explore opportunities more broadly, and using analytics to inform decisions more effectively, than more narrowly focused firms
- Poor alignment of technology strategy, innovation/product development strategy and project management effectiveness is limiting the success of innovation initiatives
- Organizational ambidexterity is a challenge for publishers
Please contact Bill to learn more
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Publications
Journal articles
R. Jamali H, Russell B, Nicholas D, Watkinson A (2014). Do online communities support research collaboration?.
Aslib Journal of Information Management,
66(6), 603-622.
Abstract:
Do online communities support research collaboration?
. Purpose
. – the purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which academics are engaged with online communities for research purposes, and the research activities, platforms and tools associated with these communities. In addition, the paper aims to discover the benefits, disadvantages and barriers involved in the use of online communities, and especially in regard to the trust and authority issues, so important in scholarly communications.
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. Design/methodology/approach
. – a layered, mixed-methods approach was used for this complex research topic. Interviews were undertaken with social science and humanities researchers, followed up with focus groups in both the USA and UK. This qualitative work was then followed up with an online questionnaire that generated over 1,000 responses.
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. Findings
. – over half the sample had experience of an online research community and a majority of researchers are making at least occasional use of one or more Web 2.0 services for communicating their research activity; for developing and sustaining networks and collaboration; or for finding out what others are doing. Big differences exist in membership rates according to subject, but not really by age or other demographic factors. The biggest benefit to joining an online community is the ability to seek information in one’s own specialism. Younger researchers are more engaged with online communities.
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. Research limitations/implications
. – the qualitative research was limited to the UK and USA. While use of online communities is now accepted by both established and younger researchers, the main ways of communicating research remain scholarly journals and books.
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. Practical implications
. – the implications for learned societies and publishers are not clear. Journals are confirmed as the primary way of disseminating research. However, it would be easy for these stakeholders to miss how younger researchers expect to connect in digital communities.
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. Social implications
. – with researchers of all ages accepting the existing and importance of online communities and connections, there are few technical or social barriers to using mainstream digital tools to connect professionally.
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. Originality/value
. – There is little published research considering the role of online research communities, so the study is highly original. It is valuable to discover that researchers still prefer to share research findings primarily through journals, rather than through social technologies.
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Abstract.
Russell WE (2013). Have digital repositories come of age? the views of library directors. Webology, 10(2).
Rowlands I, Nicholas D, Russell B, Canty N, Watkinson A (2011). Social media use in the research workflow. Learned Publishing, 24(3), 183-195.
Nicholas D, Huntington P, Russell B, Watkinson A, Jamali HR, Tenopir C (2005). The Big Deal — ten years on.
Learned Publishing,
18(4), 251-257.
Abstract:
The Big Deal — ten years on
ABSTRACTThis paper describes the highlights of an exploratory deep log analysis of journal usage on OhioLINK, conducted as part of the MaxData project. OhioLINK, the original ‘Big Deal’, provides a single digital platform of nearly 6,000 full‐text journals for more than 600,000 people in Ohio and the investigation aimed to assess it after approximately 10 years. The data was generated from an SPSS analysis of the raw (unprocessed) server logs for June 2004 to December 2004. Approximately 1,215,000 items were viewed on campus in October 2004 and 1,894,000 items viewed off campus between June and December 2004. There are a number of usage analyses including: demand and activity; number and name of journal; date of publication; subject/discipline of journal and method of searching/navigating.
Abstract.
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External Engagement and Impact
External positions
- HEA Fellow
- FME Senior Fellow
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Teaching
He teaches Innovation to Masters and MBA students, and Business to Business (B2B) Marketing on the Exeter MBA, as well as delivering Executive Education focussed on both Innovation and B2B Marketing and Commercial Strategy.
Modules
2023/24
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