Professor Simon Mollan
Professor of Business Strategy

Profile

Biography

I am Professor of Business Strategy and a member of the Operations, Strategy, and Governance subject group. Within the school, I am the Director of Postgraduate Research (2023-) and Co-Director of the Centre for Contemporary Business History and Society (2022-). Previously I was Director of the Sustainable Growth, Business, Work and Economic Productivity (SBE) Pathway at the ESRC White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership (2022-2024) having also held the role (2017-2020). Prior to that I was Head of the International Business, Strategy, and Management subject group at the Management School, University of York (2013-2017). Before joining the University of York I held academic posts at the University of Liverpool, Durham University, and York St John University, and was a Visiting Research Fellow at Duke University, North Carolina (Spring and Summer 2019).  I hold undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from Durham University and the University of Glasgow. I did my PhD in economic history at Durham University.

University roles

Research

Overview

My research explores how business and finance are constitutive of power relationships, especially in the context of Geopolitics and Geo-economics. I primarily use historical research methods. Current research areas are:

1. Banking history. With co-authors I am currently working several banking history projects that examine, variously, mergers and acquisitions in UK banking, the Eurocurrency market, and banking elites.

2. International development and development finance. I have published on the role of business in international development, particularly focusing on the MENA region.  I have recently begun a project which will explore how the UK undertook development banking activity in the post-war period, and how this was connected to international development, decolonization, the Cold War, and international business.

3. Business history. I continue to undertake work on various topics in global and international business history, especially on the role that taxation plays in shaping the international business environment. I am particularly in interested in tax havens, offshore corporate activity, and corporate strategy in relation to taxation.

4. Leadership, management, and society. I also undertake research on the ways in which leadership and management as practices and bodies of knowledge shape organizational and societal relationships.

I would welcome enquiries from prospective PhD applicants in any of the areas above. 

Publications

Full publications list

See my University of York PURE profile.