Staff Profile

Background

My background is as a geographer.

I spent 19 years as a contract researcher in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies, before joining the Business School as senior lecturer.

Roles and Responsibilities

Chair of Board of Examiners (Pre-experience PG programmes) 2005-2024 

Qualifications

BSc (in social sciences) in Geography, University of Bristol.

Ph.D, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Memberships

Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)

Languages

Tourist's French

Informal Interests

Bird watching

Practical conservation

Running

Google scholar: Click here.

Undergraduate Teaching

BUS2017 Introduction to innovation and technology management (ML)
BUS3027 Innovation and creativity (ML)
(ML) = module leader

Postgraduate Teaching

NBS8032/8132 Managing complex projects (MBA) (not currently taught)
NBS8213 Managing Design and Product Development (ML) (not currently taught)

NBS8035 Understanding and Managing Creativity (not currently taught)

Research Interests

Innovation and technology management.

Creativity and design.

Product development in engineering, with particular reference to engineer-to-order companies.

Innovation in large-scale projects.

Management of complex projects.

Other Expertise

Industrial survey design, implementation and analysis.

Technology diffusion.

Project management.

Experience of a wide range of research methodologies.

Current Work

Co-investigator on UKRI/ESRC Agile Covid response funded project: ‘Influencing policy and practice through examining UK small business understanding of and response to COVID-19 regulation and guidance’. March 2021 - March 2022.

Project now in the dissemination phase with the preparation of academic articles.

Currently writing and publishing material on innovation and complexity in major projects, based on the findings of previous research into long-term complex engineering projects.

Postgraduate Supervision

Amongst others, I have supervised two ESRC Case students in the areas of R&D in small firms and Supply Chain Management in the offshore industry who have both been awarded their Ph.ds.

I have acted as internal examiner of several Ph.D theses.

Esteem Indicators

Founder member and treasurer of the Innovation Special Interest Group of the British Academy of Management

Member of the Technical Scientific Committee of the Masters in Territorial Marketing, Universita Cattolica, Piacenza, Italy.

Visiting Fellow - ESRC Business Process Resource Centre 1996-2000.

Consultant to European Commission DGXIII SPRINT/EIMS.

Member of editorial board of International Journal of Project Organisation and Management

Funding

I have been principal investigator on Research Council projects to the value of £272,000 and co-investigator on Research Council projects to the value of £152,000 (both ESRC and EPSRC).

I have also led projects for the European Commission and Eurostat.

Industrial Relevance

Collaborative research with ALSTOM Transport Ltd, Northumbrian Water Ltd and Clarke Chapman Ltd on long-term projects, including supply chain workshops.

Consultancy research for Sage plc on the manufacturing sector.

My research on the engineering design process and complex project supply chains has also contributed to training workshops and focus group activities aimed at local companies.

• Articles

  • Sabini L, Alderman N. The Paradoxical Profession: Project Management and the Contradictory Nature of Sustainable Project Objectives. Project Management Journal 2021, 52(4), 379-393.
  • Sabini L, Muzio D, Alderman N. 25 years of ‘sustainable projects’. What we know and what the literature says. International Journal of Project Management 2019, 37(6), 820-838.
  • Alderman N, Ivory C. Translation and convergence in projects: an organisational perspective on project success. Project Mangement Journal 2011, 42(5), 17-30.
  • Alderman N, Ivory CJ. Service-led Projects: Understanding the meta-project context. Construction Management and Economics 2010, 28(11), 1131-1143.
  • Ivory CJ, Alderman N. Who is the customer? Maintaining a customer orientation in long-term service-focused projects. International Journal of Technology Management 2009, 48(2), 140-152.
  • Ivory CJ, Alderman N. The imagined user in projects: articulating competing discourses of space and knowledge work. Ephemera 2009, 9(2), 131-148.
  • Ivory CJ, Alderman N, Thwaites AT, McLoughlin IP, Vaughan R. Working around the barriers to creating and sharing knowledge in capital goods projects: the client’s perspective. British Journal of Management 2007, 18(3), 224-240.
  • Alderman N, Ivory C. Partnering in major contracts: Paradox and metaphor. International Journal of Project Management 2007, 25(4), 386-393.
  • Alderman N, Ivory C, McLoughlin I, Vaughan R. Sense-making as a process within complex service-led projects. International Journal of Project Management 2005, 23(5), 380-385.
  • Marshall JN, Bradley DP, Hodgson CM, Alderman NF, Richardson RGW. Relocation, relocation, relocation: Assessing the case for public sector dispersal. Regional Studies 2005, 39(6), 767-787.
  • Ivory CJ, Alderman N. Can project management learn anything from studies of failure in complex systems?. Project Management Journal 2005, 36(3), 5-16.
  • Alderman N. Innovation in complex capital projects: Clustering and dispersion in two cases from Argentina and the UK. Journal of Economic Geography 2004, 4(1), 65-82.
  • Alderman N, Maffin D, Thwaites AT. Project-level influences on the management and organisation of product development in engineering. International Journal of Innovation Management 2001, 5(4), 517-542.
  • Alderman, N. Innovation performance in the periphery: the case of mechanical and electrical engineering. Scottish Geographical Magazine 1998, 114(2), 94-102.
  • Alderman, N. Industrial innovation diffusion: the extent of use and disuse of process technologies in engineering. Area 1998, 30(2), 107-116.
  • Alderman N, Braiden P, Hills B, Maffin D, Thwaites A, Vaughan R. Business process analysis and technological change in the capital goods industry. International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 1998, 11(6), 418-427.
  • Maffin, D., Thwaites, A.T., Alderman, N., Braiden, P. and Hills, W. Managing the Product Development Process:Combining Best Practice with Company and Project Contexts. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management 1997, 9(1), 53-74.
  • Wong, C., Marshall, J.N., Alderman, N. and Thwaites, A.T. Management training in small and medium-sized enterprises: methodological and conceptual issues. The International Journal of Human Resource Management 1997, 8(1), 44-65.
  • Alderman, N. Innovation and survival amongst mature establishments in the mechanical engineering industry. Geoforum 1996, 27, 461-477.
  • Marshall JN, Alderman. Rolling back the frontiers of the state: civil service reorganization and relocation in Britain. Growth and Change 1991, 22(4), 51-74.

• Authored Book

  • Alderman N, Ivory C, McLoughlin I, Vaughan R. Managing Complex Projects: Networks, Knowledge and Integration. London: Routledge, 2014.

• Book Chapters

  • Alderman N, Ivory C. Dealing with ambiguity in complex projects: planned or emergent practices?. In: van Marrewijk, AH, ed. Inside Megaprojects: Understanding Cultural Practices in Project Management. Copenhagen, Denmark: Copenhagen Business School Press, 2015, pp.175-209.
  • Ivory CJ, Alderman N, McLoughlin IP, Vaughan R. Sense making as a process within complex projects. In: Hodgson, D., Svetlana, C, ed. Making Projects Critical. London: Palgrave, 2006, pp.316-334.
  • Alderman N. Mobility versus Embeddedness: the Role of Proximity in Major Capital Projects. In: Lagendijk, A., Oinas, P, ed. Proximity, Distance and Diversity: Issues on Economic Interaction and Local Development. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005, pp.255-276.
  • Alderman N, McLoughlin IP, Ivory CJ, Thwaites AT, Vaughan R. Trains, Cranes and Drains: Customer Requirements in Long-term Engineering Projects as a Knowledge Management Problem. In: von Zedtwitz, M; Haour, G; Khalil, T; Lefebvre, LA, ed. Growth through Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 2003, pp.331-348.
  • Alderman N. Distributed Knowledge in Complex Engineering Project Networks: Implications for Regional Innovation Systems. In: Fischer, MM; Frohlich, J, ed. Knowledge, Complexity and Innovation Systems. Berlin: Springer, 2001, pp.209-227.
  • Alderman, N. Local product development trajectories: engineering establishments in three contrasting regions. In: E.J. Malecki and P.Oinas, ed. Making Connections: Technological Learning and Regional Economic Change. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999, pp.79-107.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Richter P, Down S, Whitehurst F, Fitzmaurice M, Alderman N, Fairley A. Benefits of Covid Regulation to Small and Micro Businesses. In: Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE 2022). 2022, York, UK.
  • Sabini L, Muzio D, Alderman N. Integrating sustainability into project management practices: the perspective of professional institutions. In: International Research Network on Organizing by Projects (IRNOP) 2017. 2018, Boston University, United States: UTS ePRESS.
  • Alderman N, Ivory CJ, McLoughlin IP, Vaughan R, Thwaites AT. Sense-making as a process within complex service-led projects. In: IRNOP (International Research Network on Organisation by Projects) VI Project Research Conference. 2004, Turku, Finland: Abo Akademi University Press.
  • Ivory CJ, Alderman N, Thwaites A, McLoughlin IP, Vaughan R. Knowledge management for new technology procurement: The case of a sludge treatment centre. In: IEEE International Engineering Management Conference. 2002, Cambridge, UK: IEEE.

• Reports

  • Richter P, Whitehurst F, Alderman N, Fairley A, Wilson P, Bellis D, Grinkina K, Down S. Navigating the Covid-19 Regulatory Landscape: How small businesses experienced regulations in a crisis. Blackpool: Newcastle University; University of Birmingham; Federation of Small Businesses; Economic and Social Research Council, 2022.
  • Alderman N, Coombes MG, Raybould SR. Mapping grants to deprived areas in England. London: Community Fund, 2001.