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Dr Howard Viney

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Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management

You can email Dr Howard Viney directly; but for media enquiries please contact a member of The Open University's Media Relations team.

Staff profile

See below for Dr Howard Viney's:

Biography

Howard is Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management, and a member of the Centre of Strategy and Marketing at The Open University Business School. He teaches principally on the MBA programme and is presentation module team chair of The Dynamics of Strategy (B835), the new stage two MBA module. He was also a chair of the production module team for B835 as well as a member of the production module team for Making sense of strategy (B301), part of the BA (Hons) Business Studies programme. He is interested in all aspects of the strategic management field, but has a particular interest in corporate and competitive strategy (his PhD involved a study of the strategic options available to newly privatised utility companies) and stakeholder management, which is the area of the strategy debate closest to his current research interests. He has taught on OU programmes in South Africa, Ethiopia, Ireland and in continental Europe.

His research is principally focused upon three themes. The first looks at stakeholder management issues in non-traditionally competitive environments, such as the marketised public services and former public utilities. The second area of interest concerns Strategic Political Management (SPM), and how SPM may be deployed to achieve organisational competitive advantage. His final area of interest lies in the area of real options reasoning, and its application to vulnerable assets such as professional sportsmen. He collaborates with colleagues at Henley, Cranfield and Kent Business School on these projects. He has published over 20 academic papers, co-edited two books, and presented his work at numerous international conferences.

Away from the OU, Howard acts as a faculty advisor on executive education programmes in the Centre for Management Development at London Business School. He has provided training and consultancy for a number of major organisations (including KPMG, HMRC, Nordea, Ericsson, Abbey, IBM, LloydsTSB) and local authorities in the United Kingdom, and has experience of delivering training programmes for companies in Malaysia and Romania.

Research interests

My research is principally focused upon three themes. The first of these looks at stakeholder management issues in non-traditionally competitive environments, such as the marketised public services and former public utilities. I am particularly interested in the question of legitimacy, and how competing stakeholder claims based upon different bases of legitimacy are addressed by organisational managers. The second area of interest concerns Strategic Political Management (SPM), and how SPM may be deployed to achieve organisational competitive advantage. With my co-author I have developed a five stage levels of relationship engagement framework which we are currently aimed at exemplifying and testing. Finally, I am also interested the application of real options reasoning to those vulnerable assets which firms increasingly depends upon for competitive advantage with a particular focus upon succession planning. My co-author and I are applying these concepts initially to professional sportsmen.

Research student supervision

Publications

Journal papers
Datta, S, Kodwani, D, Viney, H  (2013)  'Shareholder wealth creation following M&A: evidence from European utility sectors', Applied Financial Economics, vol. 23, issue 10, pp. 891-900. Abstract
Baines, P, Viney, HP  (2010)  'The unloved relationship? Dynamic capabilities and political-market strategy: a research agenda', Journal of Public Affairs, vol. 10, issue 4, pp. 258-264. Abstract
Tunaru, R, Viney, HP  (2010)  'Valuations of soccer players from statistical performance data', NESSIS, Harvard University, SeptemberJournal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, vol. 6, issue 2, pp. available at http://www.bepress.com/jqas/vol6/iss2/10. Abstract
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP, Redwood, J  (2009)  'Explaining the unintended consequences of public sector reform', Management Decision, vol. 47, issue 10, pp. 1514-1535. Abstract
Ghobadian, A, Gallear, D, Viney, HP, O'Regan, N  (2007)  'Public sector performance improvement through private sector management practices: a satisfactory solution?', International Journal of Business Performance Management, vol. 9, issue 4, pp. 363-379.
Tunaru, R, Clark, E, Viney, HP  (2005)  'An option-pricing framework for valuation of football players', Review of Financial Economics, vol. 14, issue 3-4, Elsevier Science, pp. 281-295. Abstract
Faulkner, D, Carlisle, Y, Viney, HP  (2005)  'Changing corporate attitudes towards environmental policy', Management of Environmental Quality, vol. 16, issue 5, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 476-489. Abstract
Liu, J, Viney, HP, Holt, D  (2004)  'Environmental issues in China', European Business Journal, vol. 16, issue 2, pp. 59-69. Abstract
Watson, A, Viney, HP, Schomaker, P  (2002)  'Consumer attitudes to utility products: a consumer behaviour perspective', Marketing Intelligence and Planning, vol. 20, issue 7, pp. 394-404. Abstract
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP  (2002)  'Strategic reorientation in former public utilities: the example of UK electricity', Management Decision, vol. 40, issue 7, pp. 634-646. Abstract
James, P, Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP  (2001)  'Business separation and the future shape of the UK Energy Industry', Public Money and Management, vol. 21, issue 1, pp. 43-48. Abstract
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP, Holt, D  (2001)  'Seeking congruence in implementing corporate environmental strategy', International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, vol. 1, issue 4, pp. 384-401. Abstract
Holt, D, Viney, HP  (2001)  'Targeting environmental improvements through ecological triage', Eco-Management and Auditing, vol. 8, issue 3, pp. 154-164. Abstract
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP  (2000)  'Issues in strategic investment in the global electric utility industry', SAM Strategic Management Journal, vol. 65, issue 4, pp. 01/12/18.
Atkinson, S, Schaefer, A, Viney, HP  (2000)  'Organizational structure and effective environmental management', Business Strategy and the Environment, vol. 9, issue 2, pp. 108-120. Abstract
Holt, D, Viney, HP, Anthony, S  (2000)  'Supporting environmental improvements in SMEs in the UK', Greener Management International, vol. 30, pp. 29-49.
James, P, Viney, HP, Ghobadian, A, Liu, J  (1999)  'Addressing the divergence between environmental strategy formulation and implementation', Management Decision, vol. 37, issue 4, pp. 338-347.
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP, James, P, Liu, J  (1999)  'The US takeover of the UK electricity supply industry', Journal of General Management, vol. 24, issue 3, pp. 53-76.
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP, James, P, Liu, J  (1998)  'Extending linear approaches to mapping corporate environmental behaviour', Business Strategy and the Environment, vol. 7, issue 1, pp. 13-23.
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP, James, P, Liu, J  (1998)  'Reviewing the applicability of the Miles and Snow typology in a public utility environment', British Journal of Management - Special edition, vol. 9, pp. S71-S83.
James, P, Viney, HP, Ghobadian, A  (1997)  'Alliances and mergers in electricity supply', Public Money and Management, vol. 17, issue 4, pp. 13-18.
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP, James, P, Liu, J  (1995)  'The influence of environmental issues in strategic analysis and choice: a review of environmental strategy among top UK corporations', Management Decision, vol. 33, issue 10, pp. 46-58.
Books
Ghobadian, Abby, O'Regan, Nicholas, Gallear, David, Viney, Howard P. (eds)  (2004)  'Private-public partnerships: policy and experience', UK, Palgrave Macmillan. Abstract
Ghobadian, Abby, O'Regan, Nicholas, Gallear, David, Viney, Howard P. (eds)  (2003)  'Strategy and Performance: achieving competitive advantage in the global marketplace', Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. Abstract
Ghobadian, A, Woo, HS, Gallear, D, Viney, HP, Liu, J  (2001)  'Benchmarking: concept and practice with particular reference to the finance function', London, UK, CIMA Publishing, pp. 220. Abstract
Book chapters
Ghobadian, A, O'Regan, N, Gallear, D, Viney, HP  (2004)  'The future of the public private partnership', Private-Public Partnership: policy and experience, Basingstoke, UK, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 271-302. Abstract
Ghobadian, A, O'Regan, N, Gallear, D, Viney, HP  (2004)  'PPP: the instrument for transforming the public services', Public -private partnership: policy and experience, Basingstoke, UK, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-12. Abstract
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP, Liu, J  (1995)  'The impact of environmentally conscious corporate strategies upon manufacturing management', Stockton, D and Wainwright, C (eds) Advances in Manufacturing, Taylor and Francis, pp. 757-761.
Conference papers
Viney, HP, Baines, P  (2009)  'Differentiating between levels of strategic political management approaches', Academy of Management Annual Conference, Chicago, USA.
Datta, S, Kodwani, D, Viney, HP  (2008)  'Market for corporate control and privatised utilities', European Financial Management Association Annual Conference, Athens, Greece.
Viney, HP, Ghobadian, A  (2008)  'A stakeholder identification and salience theory for non-traditional operating modes', British Academy of Management Annual Conference, Harrogate, UK.
Viney, HP, Tunaru, R  (2008)  'Understanding vulnerability and its effects upon competitive advantage: defining the vulnerable asset', British Academy of Management Annual Conference, University of Leeds.
Baines, P, Viney, HP  (2008)  'The unloved relationship? Dynamic capabilities and political-market strategy: a research agenda', Academy of Marketing Annual Conference, The Robert Gordon University.
Holliman, D, Mallory, GR, Viney, HP  (2008)  'What role does managerial perceptions of cultural difference play in the selection of foreign markets and appropriate entry strategy?', British Academy of Management Annual Conference, Harrogate, September.
Holliman, D, Mallory, GR, Viney, HP  (2007)  'Does cultural and psychic distance impact on the market entry strategies used in the globalisation of US firms?', Academy of International Business, Indianapolis, USA.
Tunaru, R, Viney, HP  (2006)  'Managing uncertainty in real options: is your asset vulnerable?', Academy of Management Annual Conference, Atlanta.
Viney, HP  (2005)  'RTOs, new institutional forms and marketisation', British Academy of Management Annual Conference, Oxford University.
Viney, HP, Ghobadian, A, Mourouti, O  (2004)  'Determinants of strategy in a regulated public utility environment', British Academy of Management Annual Conference,, St. Andrews, Scotland.
Viney, HP, Ghobadian, A  (2003)  'Strategy combinations and strategic reorientation in newly competitive industries', Academy of Management Annual Conference, Seattle.
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP  (2002)  'Classification systems for regulated public utilities', 20th Annual Association of Management/International Association of Management Conference, Quebec City, August.
Liu, J, Viney, HP, Wang, J  (2002)  'Evolution of the Chinese civil service', British Academy of Management Annual Conference, Middlesex University.
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP  (2001)  'Drivers of strategy in a regulated environment', British Academy of Management Annual Conference, University of Cardiff.
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP, James, P, Liu, J  (1996)  'Developing generic operational strategies in a public utility environment', British Academy of Management Annual Conference, Aston University.
Ghobadian, A, Viney, HP, Liu, J  (1995)  'Ethics and the management accountant', International Management Accounting Conference, Universiti Kebangsaan, Malaysia.
Other
Viney, HP  (2009)  'Regulation in a volatile market', issue 28/01/10, Blog for the BBC's The Money Programme.
Viney, HP  (2008)  'The War for Wealth: The True Story of Globalization, or Why the Flat World is Broken', Prometheus, vol. 26, issue 4, pp. 412-415.