The Faculty of Management Sciences held their first virtual Prestige research webinar on 07 October 2020. The guest speaker and Executive Director of the International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship at Coventry University, Prof. Gideon Mass, gave an insightful presentation on Management Science research agenda.

He provided an insight of how their institution is reasoning in terms of the research agenda and also reflected on some areas of COVID-19 in terms of the impact on the world, the role of research and potential issues of going forward.

Prof. Mass believes that in terms of the COVID-19, certain things need to be thought through and there is no doubt that the pandemic has had a tremendous impact globally. "Everybody in the world is talking about unemployment and people are scared about this new thing. They feel stressed and scared due to the tremendous uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Psychologists refer to collective stress and denial, making people react differently in this uncertainty and solutions are not always clear because nobody has the experience of this pandemic, which creates a further unsettling environment."

 He further said that the world is facing continuous changes and that is influencing the way people think about research. "There will most likely be future shocks. Today if we think about the system in which we operate, it is complex and by no means an easy way. The system is behaving in a self-driven manner and that influences everything, what we research and the way we are going to teach as well. We need to address issues in different ways, we cannot just do it according to the old or traditional ways."

When reflecting on the impact of COVID-19, he said that there are winners and losers in economies. He mentioned that online shopping and food delivery seem to be winning, while hotels, restaurants and sports industries are struggling. "If you just walk around, you will see closures of businesses that just could not win or survive this pandemic. There can be changes, but we sadly, the current picture is a decline in economies all over the world. What we have learned so far is that we need a more holistic view, we need deeper research and specific things that we can focus on. We need to balance current challenges with future solutions. One needs to think of the contextualisation of solutions because for me, research without solutions is questionable."

In conclusion, he said that the new normal differs for each person, country, and university. "Each person needs to unpack that in order to maximise the social impact in the environment in which they are. We need to accept that changes will be constant, and we should include that into our research models. We need research that will accelerate change, aid survival, and increase growth in a continuously changing environment. Researchers should be fit to change and be more futuristic in finding clues on how to manage the future better."