Beginning 2023 with 'thank yous'

I submitted my PhD thesis before Christmas. Reflecting, in the months leading up to that point, on all the people that had played parts large and small in my journey from clueless first year to only slightly less clueless final year, I realized that, similar to raising a child, it takes a village to develop a PhD. This particular PhD has benefited from a large village of people, and since I don't intend to inflict the whole thesis on anyone but my examiners, and wishing to be more openly and outwardly grateful in 2023, I copy the acknowledgements section of that document here to acknowledge and thank the disparate inhabitants of my research village. There will be those who, in the maelstrom of the last few months, will have slipped my mind. My apologies for that. I know who you are and I promise to thank you in person.

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Most importantly of all, this thesis is dedicated to the memory of Alisha Tuladhar , a great friend, a considerate, hardworking, and brilliant colleague, a person who gave her time and her enthusiasm for all she did very generously and who will always remain an inspiration for her vision, her purpose, and her approach. I told Alisha early and often how much I appreciated her advice, her ideas, and her drive. I learned so much from her, not least of which is that it is never too early to say the one thing I will never get to tell her: thank you.

In the same vein, huge heartfelt ‘thank yous’ to Dr. Juliette Engelhart , Malek El-Qallali , Duncan McGregor , Dr. Johanne, PhD, SFHEA Grosvold , Glenn Parry , and Alistair Brandon-Jones for all those things more important that this PhD, and for being there, reaching out, listening, and sharing over the last few months.

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Thank you to my mum, whose scepticism about what corporations say and do has led me here, and to my dad, whose questioning everything has pushed me to do the same on this journey, even with myself. Thank you to my wife, Amy Rogerson , for your support and for enabling me to pursue just ‘one’ more dream, and to our son – I promise, one day, not long from now, you’ll get the answer you want when you ask if I’m a ‘doctor of reading’ yet.

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I thank both ESRC for funding this project and SWDTP staff – Rob, Connor Scott , Jo, Ana – who have been there to help behind the scenes at all times. Likewise, Sooz - Suzanne Swallow - at Bath, who has always been there to point me in the right direction.

I have reflected often during the course of this PhD, particularly when seeing and hearing others misfortunate with their supervision arrangements. I have been blessed to have worked with and been supported by a team of supervisors in Andrew Crane , Dr. Johanne, PhD, SFHEA Grosvold , and Vivek Soundararajan who have had their own challenges during COVID and have never stopped being available to offer advice, discuss ideas, drink coffee, highlight potential pitfalls, prepare me for interviews, work with me on projects, and to supervise and support in a way that has taught me a lot about how this should be done. To Andy, for showing faith early and often in the face of fading but ongoing scepticism about how all this works on my part, and for keeping me on task even when I had wandered off to the extent that I was sometimes no longer sure what the path was. To Jo, who has been a constant source of support, inspiration, and leadership from the beginning and whose faith and support has been priceless. To Vivek, both for helping to shape the PhD and my work and for showing trust in me by inviting me onto other projects of your own.

Beyond my immediate supervisory team, I have been extremely lucky to work with and learn from everyone at the Centre for Business, Organisations and Society. In particular I would like to thank Annie Snelson-Powell , whose door has always been open to discuss anything and everything I have been working on, and from whom I have learnt a huge amount writing with on other projects; Krista Bondy , whose time and coffee chats I have missed recently; and to Sarah Glozer for your positivity, and endless encouragement.

Huge thanks also to Michael John Bloomfield and Yixian Sun for bringing me along in their own work and letting me push my ideas on them as well, and to Iain Davies for his excellent leadership of the PhD programme in those early months when we were clueless and appreciated your availability for all our questions.

A special mention here for Helen Rhodes , the management studies librarian at the university, who has never questioned my ever-expanding need for resources and who has given me literal days of her time in pursuit of answers to obscure questions regarding the inner workings of information services I used.

I have had the privilege of being encouraged and supported by a wide range of academics both at Bath and elsewhere from the point of deciding to undertake a PhD until today. To Alex Edmans and Maria Farkas , who gave their time so long ago they may not remember, having never met me, to discuss factors I should consider in choosing a PhD; to Laura J. Spence, FAcSS , who introduced me to Andy without hesitation; to Benn Lawson , who encouraged me to take this journey and has been available repeatedly throughout the process; to Glenn Parry , with whom it has been and continues to be a great pleasure to work; to Charles H. Cho, PhD, CPA , whose advice and introductions were invaluable in developing myself and my career; to Jeremy Moon, for the advice and the beer; to Alexander Trautrims and Professor Jo Meehan and Bruce Pinnington and Olga Martin-Ortega and Brendan O'Dwyer and John Ferguson and Ian Thomson and Michelle Westermann-Behaylo and Marco Mongiello and Mubarak Mohamud and Emma Crates and Sean Ansett and Leonardo Rinaldi and Giovanna Michelon and Andreas Wieland and Michelle Rodrigue and Jesse Dillard - all for being open and welcoming of an unknown PhD student and for offering encouragement and time and advice and coffee and opportunities. You have made this journey, with your ad hoc inputs to it, not only easier but also more enjoyable.

Thanks for the trust and encouragement shown by Christopher Pesterfield , Pedro Lafargue , Jose Antonio Mu?iz , and Chris Dimos , fellow PhDs who had the good grace to listen to my ideas and the drive to come with me on projects outside the PhD.

Last, but certainly not least, to my fellow PhDs and postdocs at Bath for the coffee and the pizza and your openness and your encouragement and your inspiration and your ideas. To my fellow CBOS PhDs past and present – to Natalie Pearson and Zena A. , whose advice and opinions I have always valued. To Oyinkansola Odunjo, Ph.D. , Amira Mukendi , and Tom Mansell for blazing a trail we all follow and being there to help the new arrivals. To Chris Dimos , my first-year mentor and first friend at Bath. And to the other CBOS PhDs – to Paul Bedford , Katharina Hug , Sophia Ndibalema , and Emma Barnes-Lewis , and to the newcomers – Hafize ?elik , Harish Shetty Bandsale , Tina Kimfumu , who have become friends and who I can’t wait to see follow me on this journey.

To Inge Aben , Jelena Lagger , Alessandro Lucini Paioni , Ay?e Begüm K. Kilic, for your encouragement, leadership, and friendship.

Finally, to my other PhD friends, visitors to the University: to Gaelle Cotterlaz-Rannard , Omid Maghazei and Francesco Scarpa , for the fun we had then and the help since.

This thesis, this process, this researcher would have been so much less but for you. Thank you.