People & Partners

James Fleck

Dean and Professor of Innovation Dynamics

Professor Fleck joined The Open University Business School in January 2005. He has first degrees in arts and mathematics from the University of Edinburgh and postgraduate education in the structure and organisation of science and technology from the University of Manchester. He also has industrial experience as an engineer, in the North Sea oil-related sector; and as a computer programmer.

He has carried out research on technology development and innovation, including artificial intelligence (AI), industrial robotics, company-wide information systems, strategic innovations in financial services, multi-media, the design process, and most recently e-learning, holding major grants in all these areas. His early work on AI is still recognised both by the practitioners involved as well as professional historians and sociologists of science. His work on Robotics was recognised by the award of British Association for the Advancement of Science Joseph Lister Lecturer for the Social Sciences for 1995/96 and formed the basis for a major £10m Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) manufacturing innovation initiative. His theoretical work on evolutionary innovation ('innofusion') was, and is, a key part of the influential Edinburgh ‘social shaping of technology’ approach and has been widely cited. He has written many papers on these topics and presented numerous international invited papers, including at MIT (2003) and the Nobel Foundation at the Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, November (2002). Most recently, he received an "Excellence in Innovation" Award from Indira College of Engineering and Management in Mumbai, in January 2009. He also presented the opening Keynote Lecture at an International Congress on Distance Education, in Rio de Janeiro, May 2009. Major books include: Expertise and Innovation: Information Technology Strategies in the Financial Services Sector (Oxford University Press, 1994, with Fincham et al.); and Exploring Expertise (Macmillan, 1998, with Faulkner and Williams, eds.). Professor Fleck was Director of the University of Edinburgh Management School from 1996 to 1999 and while at the School initiated the development of the Global Innovation MBA (GIMBA), a major e-learning proposal. He was also head of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group at the University of Edinburgh Management School and held the Chair of The Organisation of Industry and Commerce there (the foundation Chair in the School). He has been a member of AMBA, AACSB and EQUIS panels (and chair of the latter) for the accreditation of business schools both internationally and nationally. He is currently a board member of EFMD, the European Foundation for Management Development and the parent body for the EQUIS accreditation, and is a member of the American-based AACSB Pre-Accreditation Committee.