Bayes Business School highlights of 2024
A speech from the would-be Chancellor of the Exchequer, further highly impactful research, a sharp rise in student satisfaction rankings and key anniversaries have all contributed to another successful year at Bayes Business School. To close the year, here’s a roundup of some of the highlights from the last 12 months.
FASI turns 50
This year saw the Faculty of Actuarial Science and Insurance blow out the candles to celebrate its 50th birthday. Along with the chance to relive 1970s fashion statements, Professor Steve Haberman told the story of the Faculty’s foundations and growth from a new course into an eventual suite of programmes.
At a special event in November, an expert panel of actuarial alumni and academic colleagues formed a panel to look back on the development of actuary education and what the future holds, before a keynote speech from John Burn-Murdoch, Chief Data Reporter at the Financial Times.
Other anniversaries saw the Centre for Charity Effectiveness celebrate 20 years, while The Costas Grammenos Centre for Shipping, Trade and Finance marked 40 years.
A bounce in student satisfaction
The annual National Student Survey (NSS) figures, released in July, saw Bayes’ finance programmes rise 23 places and into the UK’s top ten across 130 institutions.
BSc Accounting and Finance rose 59 places on its own, while Business Management courses climbed the rankings as well.
Further success was celebrated in September’s Guardian Good University Guide as BSc Finance with Actuarial Science jumped 15 places to 14th overall and up to 3rd in London. Meanwhile, Marketing and Public Relations programmes recorded top spot in London and 3rd place in the country.
Rachel Reeves sets out pillars for growth in 2024 Mais Lecture
March brought Rachel Reeves MP, then-Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, to Bunhill Row to deliver the annual Mais Lecture. Hosted by the Centre for Banking Research, national media swarmed to Bunhill Row to hear about Ms Reeves’ speech which laid out three pillars for economic growth and stability.
With a packed-out auditorium of journalists, colleagues, alumni and friends of Bayes, the lecture grabbed news headlines and footage across the country as the soon-to-be Chancellor set out a blueprint for the economy weeks before Labour’s landslide election victory.
Academic excellence
Bayes faculty members were internationally celebrated throughout 2024 with awards and professional body appointments.
Professor ManMohan Sodhi was elected as one of the only Production & Operations Management Society (POMS) Fellows from outside of the United States, while Professor Bobby Banerjee was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy.
Dr Canan Kocabasoglu-Hillmer was the recipient of a major research award at the annual EurOMA 2024 conference, and Professor Paula Jarzabkowski won the Academy of Management’s Joanne Martin Trailblazer Award.
Impactful research at the edge of practice
2024 brought another year of stellar published research from Bayes academics.
If you’re already thinking of excuses for letting New Years’ resolutions slide, research from Professor Janina Steinmetz suggested you should blame a lack of time rather than money to preserve legitimacy among peers. Among Professor Zach Estes’ new papers were findings that images corresponding to the scent of an item, such as fruit or flowers, were more likely to sell.
Dr Hans Frankort’s research found that competitive colleagues put rivalries aside in a struggling company, while a study by Dr Simon Parker and Professor André Spicer found that “institutional parasites” can risk an organisation’s long-term health if they are not swiftly removed.
Training user entrepreneurs to implement scientific decision-making broadens product value propositions and leads to more sustainable business ventures, according to research from Professor Elena Novelli, while Dr Amit Rawal created a framework for failed entrepreneurs to bounce back and start again.
Dr Nicole Lux’s annual Commercial Real Estate Lending Report once again shone a light on the plight of UK loans, showing that new lending fell 33 per cent in 2023 to its lowest level in a decade. Professor Kate Phylaktis, meanwhile, co-authored a report examining the effects of real estate investment trusts (REITs) on the price of housing across the world. Domestic and inbound M&A activity, however, continues to flourish according to Dr Naaguesh Appadu’s annual M&A Attractiveness Index.
Dr Simone Krummaker explored the evolving role of export credit agencies (ECAs) in navigating geopolitical and trade megatrends.
Sustainability remains a focal point of research at Bayes, with Dr Jingshi Liu’s study revealing that motivations behind purchasing counterfeit luxury goods potentially lie in the desire to make a statement about income inequality. Professor Feng Li and Dr Aneesh Banerjee uncovered how companies commonly shout about their ethical credentials without investing in proper checks into their suppliers’ sustainability claims, while a white paper by Dr Cormac Bryce and Dr Ioannis Moutzouris called on marine insurance firms to help clients develop decarbonisation strategies.
