About TBRP
Trust in Emergence
Our Mission
To distill corpora of massively complex human and organizational behavior aiming to discover behavioral structures and regularities through theorizing and theory building – all contributing to a richer, theoretically explicated understanding of such behaviors.
Our Vision
TBRP is recognized as a global leader in pursuit of newness and theory building through inter-disciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-technology and international, impact focused, relevant doctoral training and research.
TBRP is an inter-disciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-technology and international Research Programme in Newness and Theory Building with critical mass, the highest academic standards, peer review, evaluation and monitoring, international teams training and supervising doctoral candidates and integral engagement of non-academic partners that fosters innovative, multi- and cross-disciplinary, relevant and creative research exposed to and integrated with industry and public and not-for-profit sectors.
Through harnessing the research strengths, facilities and senior academic personnel of TBRP members, TBRP, as a Collaborative Research Network of the Aalborg University Business School, provides an unrivaled resource for the training of the doctoral candidates. TBRP is led by Romeo V. Turcan who founded it in 2012.
Foundation Pillars
Newness, uncertainty and theory building are the foundation pillars of TBRP. In our society of rapid change, seeking to cope with complex, large scale new challenges to economic, social and political development, there is an urgent need for a new perspective in high level research and doctoral training to address how best to interpret and respond to escalating new local, regional, international and global challenges. The volume of data and sources of information for evidence based research is daunting, reinforcing the need for effective new ways to improve understanding and interpretation, build new theories, and understand theory building process.
Interdisciplinary Doctoral Training
Since its inception, TBRP Interdisciplinary Doctoral Training continues to have successful impact in translating theoretical level research into employability in private and public sectors, including outside academia of doctoral students. It offers a number of high quality, interdisciplinary doctoral and supervisor training programmes as well as developed 'in-house' strategies for theorizing and theory building.
Interdisciplinary Research
Underpinning the quality of the interdisciplinary doctoral training are the high level inter-disciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-technology and inter-national research projects that are innovative in their multi-dimensional focus on the dynamic, emerging and complex social, economic technological and policy challenges of rapid change, mass data and contested evidence bases.
Funding Portfolio
Since its foundation in 2012, TBRP has attracted, as main applicant, EU funding of over 8 million EUR, and acted as a coordinator of 5 EU funded - research and capacity building - projects.
Knowledge Transfer
Doctoral training, Publication and events, Collaborative research, Domain-specific expert advice are examples of inter-disciplinary, inter-technology and inter-sectoral training Knowledge Transfer activities TBRP and its partners engage in, contributing to a richer, theoretically explicated understanding of massively complex human and organizational behavior.
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Petri Ahokangas is a Professor at the University of Oulu Martti Ahtisaari Institute, which he leads. His research focuses on how innovation and technological change affect international business creation, transformation, strategies in high-tech and software-intensive business domains. He has over 170 publications and works actively in national and international research projects. |
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Svante Andersson is a Professor at the Halmstad University. He leads the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Marketing Management and research projects that deal with international growth in the health technology sector and with Born Globals as an innovative approach to business creation in international networks. |
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Alicia Blanco-González is a Professor at Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain; VP of the European Academy of Economics and Business Management; General Secretary of the Camilo Prado Foundation; and Co-Director of the Organizational Legitimacy Observatory. Her research focuses on organizational legitimacy, institutional theory, business reputation and social responsibility. |
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Nikhilesh Dholakia is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Rhode Island and founding co-editor of Markets, Globalization & Development Review (MGDR). He was a president of International the Society of Markets & Development. his current research focuses on global social and cultural aspects of new media, sentient technologies, and socioeconomic transformations. |
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EUniAM (Enhancing University Autonomy in Moldova) team |
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Michael Fast is a Docent at the University College Northern Denmark. His research focuses on philosophy of science and qualitative methodology in lifeworld traditions and subjectivism (phenomenology, hermeneutic, symbolic interactionism, critical theory), organization theory and organizational analysis. |
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Norman M. Fraser is an entrepreneur, Adjunct Professor at the AAU Business School and Fellow Commoner at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. He has spent more than twenty years creating and leading successful businesses. He has authored around 50 peer-reviewed publications and his current research interests include entrepreneurship, industry creation, and institutionalization. |
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GOOCZ (Getting Out of Comfort Zone) Team |
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Jillian Gordon is the Director of Learning and Teaching at Adam Smith Business School and member of the School Executive team. Her research focuses on the interplay of social enterprise, philanthropy, and entrepreneurship. Her work has been published in Human Relations, International Small Business Journal, Harvard Business History Review, Venture Capital, and Business History. |
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Anita Juho is Secretary General of the Finnish Technology Advisory Board, Finland. With a PhD in International Business and International Entrepreneurship, she has 15 years of an academic career as a researcher and lecturer in international business and entrepreneurship in various Universities in Asia, Middle East, Europe and North America. |
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LNETN (Legitimation of Newness and Its Impact on EU Agenda for Change) Team |
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Andy Lowe is a Fellow of the Grounded Theory Institute in California. He holds an MBA from Aston University in Birmingham UK as well as a PhD from Glasgow University Scotland. For the past 20 years Andy has had a close working relationship with the co-originator of the Grounded Theory method Dr. Barney Glaser. Andy is still very active in PhD research supervision. |
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Chris Mould, profiled by Guardian Newspapers as one of the UK’s top social entrepreneurs, is an innovative leader, widely experienced in public and voluntary sectors. He is particularly interested in disruption, scale, replication and impact. Chris led the Trussell Trust from a small NGO to a multi award winning national organisation that pioneered social franchising. |
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PBLMD (Introducing Problem Based Learning in Moldova: Toward Enhancing Students’ Competitiveness and Employability) Team |
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John E. Reilly is a Higher Education consultant with wide European and International experience in Higher Education and a member of the UK Bologna Experts team. He was awarded the MBE for services to Higher Education and the ERASMUS programme. John was appointed as Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Government. |
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Michael Saren is a Professor of Marketing in Birmingham Business School, involved in the Responsible and Critical Marketing Research Group in the Department of Marketing. His research focuses on the development of marketing theory, particularly regarding marketing knowledge, technology, and sustainability. He is one of the founding editors of the Marketing Theory journal. |
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Romeo V. Turcan, Professor at AAU Business School, Adjunct Professor at Trinity Business School, Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on legitimation of newness and theory building across disciplines and contexts. He holds MSc and PhD from Strathclyde University and Diploma from the Air Force Engineering Military Academy, Riga. |