Background

Profile

Fiona has been with the Business School since completing her PhD in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University in 2006 and is now a Senior Lecturer.

She was appointed to the role of Associate Dean Engagement and Place in 2023. This role will see her providing strategic leadership in shaping and delivering an ambitious engagement & place strategy for the Business School to deliver impactful outcomes with business, policymakers and society, regionally, nationally and globally.

Fiona leads a project called Captured, piloted with co-invest from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and part-funded by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership and Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) in 2017/18, which is exploring the ways in which anchor institutions, such as universities, business schools and large firms, can support small firms in their region to develop leadership and entrepreneurship skills. Captured is an internationally recognised programme recognised by AACSB in April 2018 as one of 31 projects in their Innovations that Inspire Challenge and by the Global Business School Network Going Beyond Awards in 2021.

She and Jo Singh also lead a programme called Commercialise without Compromise in partnership with Creative Heritage Studios which is supported by Creative Central:NCL, funded by Newcastle City Council and North of Tyne Combined Authority. This programme supports creative practitioners to commercialise their practice without compromising their values, or risking their health, well being and finances. The precursor of this programme, the PopUp Primer Programme won the 2023 Newcastle University Engagement and Place Award for Inclusive Growth.

From 2017 - 2023 she held the role of Director of Impact, supporting academics in the Business School as they apply their research to make a difference to pressing problems in organisations, policy and wider society.

From 2012 - 2015 Fiona was Director of Accreditation for the Business School, leading the School's successful drive to achieve triple accreditation from the three leading international bodies that quality assure the activities of Business Schools (EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA).

Prior to that, she was appointed as Director of Engagement for the Business School in September 2009 and developed the MBA Sustainability Challenge with Procter & Gamble; the Herbert Loebl Export Academy with RTC North, HSBC and Ward Hadaway; and the Business of Sustainability Week with Santander.

Fiona graduated with a first class degree in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge in 1990 and subsequently worked in relationship banking for NatWest Bank for 9 years.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Associate Dean Engagement and Place
• Advisory Board Member, National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprises (NICRE)

Qualifications

• PhD Newcastle University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences 2017
• MA (Cantab), 1st Class, Land Economy and History 1990

Memberships

• British Academy of Management (Conference Chair Cultural and Creative Industries Track)
• Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (Institutional Membership)

Bibliographic References

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fiona_Whitehurst

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6481-0086

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=W-3WHCEAAAAJ&hl=en

Research

Research Background

Fiona completed a PhD in Economic Geography at Newcastle University in 2005 looking at the use of clusters in economic development policy and retains a research interest in the interactions between firms, and other entities, particularly in the marine technology industries. She also has a strong research interest in regional economic development policy and the way in which firms interact with universities.

Current Work

Fiona's current research is practice-based and revolves around development programmes for micro-businesses. Fiona and her co-investigators, Paul Richter and Leigh Sear, see this research as interactive research, deliberately linking research (knowing) and practice (doing). Through participating in the programme participants gain value through their experiential learning (doing) and these experiences are used to provide the empirical material (via observations, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and surveys) to address underpinning research questions (knowing).

She is a co-investigator of the SECT:OR (Small Enterprises in COVID Times: On Regulation) project, funded by the ESRC under UKRI's rapid response to COVID-19 call. Working with partners at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham and Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the project identified how small firms received and acted on information about laws and guidance during the pandemic and made several key policy recommendations. 

Other Expertise

Fiona has been involved in a variety of research assignments including the mapping exercise for Creative Fuse North East, a five university project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Arts Council and European Development Fund; a report on Smart Specialisation in the North East of England for the North East Local Enterprise Partnership; an identification and assessment of sectoral strengths in the North East for the regional development agency One NorthEast; a study of the implications of an emerging regional policy for higher education in England for Universities UK and a study of the impact of the higher education institutions in the Yorkshire and the Humber Region for Yorkshire Universities. Work from her PhD contributed to an EU FP5 research project CRITICAL (City-Regions as Intelligent Territories: Inclusion, Competitiveness and Learning).

Fiona led an ESRC Business Engagement project aiming to identify the ways in which firms, particularly small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the subsea engineering sector could work together to promote their industrial sector and tailor skills provision for their requirements. This led to a collaborative project with Newcastle College and the development of two specialist subsea degrees, in addition to a range of practical activities to engage young people in the engineering sector. 

Fiona also held a curriculum development grant to produce a range of entrepreneurial video narratives for use in teaching across the university. This project led to a joint research project with Dr Janine Swail looking at student perceptions of entrepreneurship.

Esteem Indicators

Member of Global Underwater Hub North Committee

Selected Funding

• ESRC £114,000 SECT:OR (Small Enterprises in COVID Times: On Regulation) project, under UKRI's rapid response to COVID-19 call Feb 2021 - May 2022 
• Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Creative Fuse North East £35,172 May 2016 to Oct 2018
• UK Commission for Employment and Skills Captured £133,000 Oct 2015 to June 2016
• EEF (Engineers Employers Federation) Assessing the Need for a North East Apprentice and Skills Training Centre £10,000 July 2014 to March 2015
• ESRC Business Engagement Funding £75,300 (April 2008-April 2009)

PhD Supervision

• Alexia Mellor (third supervisor with Professors Vee Pollock and John Bowers) PhD Fine Art (Creative Practice) COMPLETED
• Daniel Newberry (co-supervised with Drs Kate Lewis and Paul Richter)
• Pip Kyle (co-supervised with Professor Stephen Procter and Dr Ewan MacKenzie)
• Bethany McDonald Shepherd (co-supervised with Professor Kate Chedgzoy and Dr Jane Nolan)
• Abdullah Al Mamun (co-supervised with Professor Matthew Gorton)

Teaching

I teach a module on Creativity to students on Postgraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship programmes

Publications

• Articles

  • Siedlok F, Hibbert P, Whitehurst F. Social network influences on employee responses to organizational withdrawals. Organization Management Journal 2020, 17(1), 15-35.
  • Whitehurst F, Richter P. Engaged scholarship in small firm and entrepreneurship research: Grappling with Van der Ven's diamond model in retrospect to inform future practice. International Small Business Journal 2018, 36(4), 380-399.
  • Whitehurst F. Capturing the Concept of the Captured Programme. E-Organisations and People: Journal of the Association for Management Education and Development 2016, 23(2), 47-55.
  • Whitehurst F, Siedlok F. Regional Leadership: The Emergence of Subsea NE and the Subsea Technology Cluster in North East England. Regions Magazine 2009, 275(1), 20-23.
  • Whitehurst F, Siedlok F, Race JM. Reach-in and Reach-out: The Story of the MSc in Pipeline Engineering at Newcastle University. International Small Business Journal 2008, 26(6), 709-733.
  • Benneworth P, Whitehurst F. The wicked issues of clusters, clustering and cluster policy. Regional Review 2002, 11.
  • Benneworth P, Whitehurst F. Regional Development Agencies’ approaches to cluster strategies. Regions: The Newsletter of the Regional Studies Association 2001, 234, 6-9.

• Book Chapter

  • Whitehurst F, Mountford-Brown VM, Sear L. The role of enterprise and entrepreneurship education in transformational entrepreneurship: The case of Azerbaijan. In: Maas G; Johnston A, ed. Cases on Transformational Entrepreneurship. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024, pp.60-73.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Whitehurst F. Bumps in the Road and Five Star Reviews: Identity Work on the Journey from Employee to Entrepreneur. In: British Academy of Management, BAM2023. 2023, Brighton.
  • 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.
  • Whitehurst F, Fairley A, Richter P. The Promise of Using Entrepreneur Generated Video Reflections in Entrepreneurship Research. In: Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference (ISBE 2021). 2021, Cardiff, UK: ISBE.
  • Whitehurst F, Fairley A, and Richter P. Micro Business Owners’ Approaches to Adopting Digital Entrepreneurship During the COVID-19 Pandemic. In: RENT (online). 2020.
  • Richter P, Whitehurst F, Wilkin G. Unpacking Narratives of Entrepreneurship for Creative Workers. In: Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. 2019, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
  • Palamida E, Whitehurst F, Xanthopoulou D, Papagiannidis S. Senior Entrepreneurship through the lenses of a Pre and Post Retirement Dichotomy: The role of Need satisfaction and Work engagement on Entrepreneurial Intentionality. In: ISBE 2019. 2019, Newcastle upon Tyne: Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
  • Whitehurst F, Richter P. Stimulating learning in micro-business owners through introducing external perspectives. In: Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference (ISBE 2018). 2018, Birmingham, UK: ISBE.
  • Mallett O, Richter P, Whitehurst F, Sear L. Reconceptualising anchor institutions: a new direction for regionally-focused small firm support. In: ISBE 2016 Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. 2016, Paris, France.
  • Richter P, Whitehurst F, Sear L. Anchor institutions and small business development and learning: A role for university business schools?. In: 5th Engage HEI Conference. 2016, University of Central Lancashire.
  • Whitehurst FC. When Two (or Three or Four) Worlds Collide? Motivations and Stimuli in Collaborations Involving Further Education, Higher Education and Industry. In: Multi-Organisational Partnerships, Alliances and Networks (MOPAN 2013). 2013, Newcastle upon Tyne.
  • Whitehurst FC, Siedlok F, Hibbert P. Late Life Entrepreneurship in the Context Of Closures. In: 27th Australian & New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) Conference. 2013, Tasmania, Australia.
  • Whitehurst FC. Can Smart Specialisation Strategies Learn Lessons from Cluster Policy? A look back at cluster policy in the North East of England. In: Meeting of the Social Dynamics of Innovation Networks (SDIN) Research Group. 2013, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
  • Whitehurst F, Hodgson CM. When Two (or Three or Four) Worlds Collide?: The Case of a Collaboration involving Further Education, Higher Education and Industry. In: British Academy of Management Conference. 2010, Sheffield, UK.
  • Whitehurst F, Hodgson CM. Regional Policy Makers, Higher Education and Clusters: Regional Strategic Human Resource Development?. In: Engage HEI. 2010, Bradford, UK.
  • Whitehurst FC, Swail J. Just One Question – Do entrepreneurship educators sufficiently account for students’ perceptions of entrepreneurship?. In: British Academy of Management Conference. 2009, Brighton, UK.
  • Hodgson CM, Whitehurst FC. ‘Match Making and Making Sense: A potential role for business school academics in industry-university engagement’. In: HE Academy, Business, Management, Accountancy and Finance Annual Conference. 2009, Cardiff, UK.
  • Whitehurst FC. A contact sport, not a numbers game: the use of clusters in economic development policy. In: DIME International Workshop, Reconsidering the Regional Knowledge Economy: Theoretical, Empirical and Policy Insights from Diverse Research Approaches. 2008, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
  • Whitehurst FC, Siedlok F. From closure to excellence: micro-clusters, local embeddedness and public policy. In: Paper presented at the Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship 29th National Conference. 2006, Cardiff, UK.
  • Whitehurst F. Cluster policy in the North East of England: High or Low Tide? policy approaches to the life sciences and the marine and offshore cluster. In: Economic Geography Research Group Postgraduate Symposium. 2004, University of Sheffield, UK.

• 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.
  • Butt M, Cross E, Holliman N, Kempton L, Legget J, Mackenzie E, Ross H, Sapsed J, Swords J, Vallance P, Whitehurst F. Creative Fuse North East: Initial Report. Newcastle University, UK, 2017.
  • Fisher B, Goddard JG, Kempton L, Marlow D, Robson L, Whitehurst FC. North East Local Economic Partnership: Smart Specialisation Report. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: North East Local Economic Partnership, 2013.
  • Whitehurst FC. [PhD Thesis] The use and misuse of clusters in economic development policy:A case study of two cluster policy initiatives in the North East of England. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2007. Centre for Urban & Regional Development Studies.