Warwick Business School's Core Insights

In this latest episode of a seven-part series in conjunction with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology we are looking at blockchain's potential impact on banking. Blockchain has been billed as potentially a huge disruption to the financial system, removing the middlemen for instant transactions. Recently JP Morgan announced it is using blockchain in India and bypassing SWIFT - the global system used by banks to transfer payments - and there are others like French investment bank BNP P...

Since the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX - a centralised exchange or CEX - the popularity of decentralised exchanges, or DEXs, such as Uniswap or Orca, has soared. But which type of platform will win in the battle for crypto trading? What are the pros and cons of the different types of platform? And will it just be cryptos being traded in the future or other financial assets like real estate? This episode will explore the merits of CEX and DEX and seek to answer the central quest...

In this fifth episode on fintech with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology we look at Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards, which have become important to all businesses, especially as, according to the CBI, two-thirds of investors take ESG factors into account when investing in a company. Yet accusations of greenwashing are plaguing the ESG movement, while some companies have cottoned on to their importance and manipulated their ESG statistics to attract investors. So...

In the third episode of this special series on Fintech with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology we look at decentralised finance, or DeFi. It offers financial instruments without relying on traditional intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks by using smart contracts on a blockchain. It could be revolutionary and take out a lot of costs that banks like to add, plus anybody can become a ‘bank’ and start lending money or cryptos, getting better rates than on the high stre...

In the second of this special series on Fintech with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology we look at cryptocurrency regulation or the lack of it. The crypto world has frequently been described as the Wild West, while the collapse of the FTX exchange with investors losing billions of dollars and founder Sam Bankman-Fried convicted of fraud, means regulators and regulations are closing in. What will this look like for a market that crosses borders? How will they work? Will they dampen i...

The first in a new seven-part series on Fintech with the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, join your host Natasha de Teran, a former financial journalist and author of The Pay Off: How Changing the Way We Pay Changes Everything, as we explore the world of digital currencies. Most central banks around the world are looking at introducing a digital currency or a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency), including the UK’s Bank of England. Indeed, China has already started experimenting with...

Nigel Driffield, Professor of International Business, has become a much sought after expert in foreign direct investment, leading the West Midlands strategy to attract investors from overseas and then Coventry and Warwickshire as the district sought to recover from the pandemic. Here, Professor Driffield reveals to Core Insights host Trevor Barnes the key policies and levers regional and national governments can use to attract foreign investment, creating jobs, boosting productivity and the e...

Stephen Roper joins Core Insights host Trevor Barnes to discuss how the UK's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the economy and how his research is proving vital in their battle for growth and survival. Professor Roper is Director of the Enterprise Research Centre, the UK's leading centre for research into the growth, innovation and productivity of SMEs, shaping policies and practices. It is funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS...

Loizos Heracleous, Professor of Strategy, has been advising NASA on how it can stay ahead and work with the new space firms emerging from the private sector, such as Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. Here, he reveals to host Trevor Barnes how he has helped shape NASA's new strategy to not only strengthen the US as a global leader in space, but build a sustainable human presence on the Moon and Mars, and work with these new space firms in an alliance of international partne...

The UK's National Health Service (NHS) has been involved in a five-year long trial across five hospitals with the US-based Virginia Mason Institute (VMI), which is famed for adopting the lean methods used in car manufacturing pioneered by Toyota. The VMI has produced some of the best healthcare organisations in the US through this system and the NHS is hoping its magic can work in the UK as it looks to improve its services. Nicola Burgess, Reader of Operations Management, has been studying an...

Core Insights podcast host Trevor Barnes is joined by award-winning author Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School, and Ed Gardiner, Director at Innovation firm Cogco, which uses behavioural science, data science and design to build new products and services.The pair reveal how research from behavioural science can be applied to many different businesses, from marketing agencies to finance companies. Gardiner and Professor Chater delve into how 'nudges' and ro...

Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Michael Bradshaw, Professor of Global Energy, and how his research has led to him becoming a trusted advisor to UK Government policymakers as the country attempts to decarbonise its economy. The complicated journey to net zero has been made even more difficult by the effects of Brexit, an increased dependence on gas imports, and now the war in Ukraine. Research by Professor Bradshaw has informed the Government's approach to measuring and managin...

Businesses have been turned upside down by the pandemic and, though restrictions are slowly being lifted, navigating a world still coming to terms with a new normal has left traditional strategy tools found wanting for many, while Russian's invasion of Ukraine has added a new layer of uncertainty.Christian Stadler, Professor of Strategy, reveals a new strategy-making method - open strategy. He discusses its real world application with Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East, who has guided the company th...

The global pandemic saw the global economy effectively put on hold as lockdowns across the globe saw all but essential work frozen. Core Insights host Audrey Dias talks to Ana Galvao, Professor of Economic Modelling and Forecasting, and Paul Fisher, Ex-Bank of England Economist and Honorary Professor at Warwick Business School, to find out how the recovery is going and when the global economy will return to pre-pandemic levels. Read more from Professor Galvao on Post-COVID: When will the UK e...

With the threat of COVID-19 continuing to affect our lives, working remotely or hybrid working seems to be a fact of life for many office-based workers. So what does this mean for the future of the office? Do organisations really need one?Maja Korica, Reader in Management and Organisation, and Toby Benzecry, founder and CEO of Workplace Futures Group, discuss the future of the office in a post-pandemic world with Core Insights host Audrey Dias. Dr Korica is researching the future of work, whi...

Host Audrey Dias talks with Neil Stewart, Professor of Behavioural Science and Rafael Batista, former Head of Behavioural Research at Commonwealth Bank, about how the finance industry is using nudges to help customers with their money. Professor Stewart has done pioneering work on credit cards and is forcing the industry to think again about how it persuades customers to pay off their debt. While Rafael used behavioural science nudges to help Commonwealth Bank build a better relationship with...

Join host Audrey Dias as she explores the tricky conundrum that often hits social enterprises and green start-ups as they seek to grow their business: should they compromise their ideals?Deniz Ucbasaran, Professor of Entrepreneurship, has researched this area and details her findings and a process that green entrepreneurs and social enterprises can go through to find the right balance. She is joined by Hugh Thomas, Co-Founder and CEO of Ugly Drinks, whose start-up is taking on the fizzy drink...

Core Insights host Audrey Dias asks Michael Bradshaw, Professor of Global Energy, and Joan MacNaughton, Trustee of The Climate Group and an Executive Chair at the World Energy Council, if the world is building back greener as it recovers from the pandemic. Many governments have laid out plans to reach net zero by 2050 following the pandemic, but is this really happening or is it, as Greta Thunberg says, "all blah, blah, blah..."?For more on this topic read Professor Bradshaw's article Will th...