Professor Muthu De Silva
-
Overview
Overview
Biography
Muthu De Silva is a Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Head of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange, at the Faculty of Business and Law, Birkbeck, University of London, UK.
Her research contributes to our knowledge on co-creation, defined as how different actors of the ecosystem - such as businesses, universities, society and government - work together to simultaneously generate business, social and environmental value. She has published in world-leading (ABS 4*/3*) journals such as Research Policy, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, British Journal of Management, Technovation, and R&D Management etc.
She has secured major grants from UKRI, ESRC, Innovate UK, Intellectual Property Office, EU and British Academy/Leverhulme, OECD, and British Academy of Management.
Her research simultaneously generates theoretically rigorous and practically impactful output. She is a co-investigator of Innovation and Research Caucus, a £7 million investment by the UKRI, ESRC, and Innovate UK to establish a world leading centre of excellence in research and innovation funding.
She has been awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in 2023.
She is a fellow of Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. She is in the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Management (ABS 4*) and the Journal of Business Research (ABS 3*).
Qualifications
Muthu holds a PhD in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Manchester Business School/Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, University of Manchester for which she received a bursary from the School’s Chair of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She also gained a Distinction for her MBA at the Bradford University School of Management, in which she received the ‘Strategic Planning Society Prize’ for the best performance in Strategic Management. She graduated with a First Class honours degree (in Economics and Business Management) from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, receiving the gold medal for the most outstanding performance. She has successfully completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education.
Employment History
Prior to joining Birkbeck, she worked as a lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Kent Business School, University of Kent. She also held a joint position as the Leader of Entrepreneurial Co-creation at the Big Innovation Centre and a Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. She has also worked as an Associate Academic Staff member at the Bradford University School of Management, a Teaching and Research Assistant at Manchester Business School and a Lecturer at the University of Peradeniya
Qualifications
- PhD, Manchester Business School/Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, University of Manchester
- MBA, Bradford University School of Management
- BSc, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Visiting posts
- Honorary Professor , Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) , 07-2023
- Honorary Research Fellow, Africa-Asia Centre for Sustainability Research, University of Aberdeen, 07-2022
- Honorary Fellow, InnoLab, University of Vaasa, Finland, 03-2022
Professional memberships
Academy of Management
British Academy of Management
Higher Education Academy - Fellow
Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce - Fellow
Innovation Caucus
Research Expert Advisor Board, Intellectual Property Office, UK - board member
Economics and Business evaluation panel of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT), the Portuguese public funding agency for Research & Development, chaired by Professor Stephen Roper from Warwick Business School, UK - evaluation member
External Peer Review Group – Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (Since August 2023) and previously for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (March 2020- August 2023)
EPSRC, Expert Grant Review Panel on NetZero commercialisation, knowledge exchange, policy engagement, and public engagement.
British Academy Sustainability & Social Value Working Group (UK Economic Strategy) member, a programme of work exploring the critical foundational elements of a long-term, holistic and sustainable approach to UK economic strategy.
Honours and awards
- Tenth Most Cited Article in 2019 in Journal of Organizational Behaviour (ABS 4*), Journal of Organizational Behaviour, September 2019
- The Most cited articles published in Research Policy since 2018 (ABS 4*), Research Policy Journal, September 2020
- Top downloaded articles in 2018 - Research Policy (ABS 4*), Research Policy Journal , September 2019
- Most downloaded article in 2018/19 - R&D Management Journal (ABS 3), R&D Management Journal , September 2020
- Best Paper Award in Innovation at the British Academy of Management Conference- 2016, British Academy of Management , September 2016
- Best Paper Award in Innovation at the British Academy of Management Conference – 2015, British Academy of Management , September 2015
- Best Paper in “Innovation, Management, and Governance for Sustainable Growth” at the ACIEK 2021 Conference - 2021, Academy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference, September 2021
- Best Paper Award in Marketing, Strategy & Policy Conference 2021 , Marketing, Strategy & Policy Conference 2021 , September 2021
ORCID
0000-0003-4800-3684 -
Research
Research
Research interests
- The concept of Entrepreneurial Co-creation
- University-industry co-creation
- Involvement of intermediaries in co-creation
- Co-creation by social enterprises
- Involvement of businesses and multinational organisations in co-creation
- Co-creation for green innovation
Research overview
Research Contribution
Muthu's core contribution to our knowledge is in the area of co-creation between actors of an innovation ecosystem. She defines co-creation as “close working relationship between individuals associated with different organisations such as – universities, businesses, intermediaries, governments, and society – to simultaneously generate business and social value” (De Silva and Wright 2018).
She has published several ABS 4* and 3* papers in the area of co-creation, which have enabled her to further our knowledge on dynamic capabilities, opportunities, relational capabilities, knowledge management strategies and outcomes of co-creation in different contexts
Funded Projects
2023/26: UKRI, ESRC and Innovate UK: Co-investigator: Establish Innovation and Research Caucus as a world leading centre of excellence in research and innovation funding
2023: ESRC Grant: Return on Investment of Social Science Research
2021/24: Consultant, the Working Party on Innovation and Technology Policy (TIP), OECD
2021/22: Principal Investigator – BEI School Research Grant
2021/22: Principal Investigator - Research Award by the University of Pécs
2019/22: Principal Investigator – BEI School Impact Grant
2018/19: Principal Investigator - BEI School Research Grant
2018/19: Principal Investigator - British Academy of Management Small Grant
2018/19: Co-investigator - British Academy of Management - Transition Grant
2017/18: Principal Investigator - Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty Research Fund, Kent Business School, University of Kent
2017/18: Co-investigator – Eastern Arc: Quantitative Social Science Workshop/Research Fund
2015/2016: Co-investigator - British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant
2014/2015: Principal Investigator - Innovate UK Research Grant
2012/2013: Principal Investigator – as a sub contractor to an EU project
2008/2012: PhD Bursary – from the Manchester Business School
2007: Commonwealth Postgraduate Scholarship
Research Centres and Institutes
-
Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of my areas of research interest. My core interest is in co-creation. Please check Research Overview section for my research interests in detail.
Current PhD Students:
- Doyin Olorunfemi
- David Roberts
- Muhammad Usman Naeem
- Filipe Martins Gomes
- Maximilian Giehrl
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
-
USMAN NAEEM
-
'DOYIN OLORUNFEMI
-
DAVID ROBERTS
Teaching
Muthu's main teaching contribution to Birkbeck is to enhance Entrepreneurship Education. She has designed and convened 60 credits of the 75 credits of Entrepreneurship modules offered by Birkbeck.
The recently awarded Small Business Charter accreditation based on the School’s contribution to the Entrepreneurship Education and Research is a real testimony to the years of effort that she has made to enhance "Entrepreneurship Education and Research" at Birkbeck:
The assessor’s comment in the awarding letter:
"The value Birkbeck adds to their student business owners and the impact on their businesses is an order of magnitude higher than the assessors have seen elsewhere. Furthermore, the stature, relevance, and impact of Birkbeck’s research for policy makers is exemplary"
She has been awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in 2023
The modules that she has designed and convened:
· Entrepreneurial Venture Creation (Postgraduate) (15 credits) – This module is designed to provide students with knowledge and skills to establish a new venture or to introduce innovation (e.g. new product/ service/ process/ business / project development) within an established organization.
· Entrepreneurship and Small Business (Undergraduate) (15 credits) - This module helps students to understand how to become entrepreneurial in a wide array of settings (e.g. start-ups, corporates, universities, intermediaries, communities and government)
· Entrepreneurship Project (Final year undergraduate students – alternative to dissertation) (30 credits) – This module offers guidance for undergraduate students (BSc Business Programme) to conduct a final year project to develop a business plan to establish a new business or to introduce innovation in an existing business.
She also convenes the following module, that is indirectly related to Entrepreneurship.
· Managing Digital Transformation (Undergraduate students) (15 credits) – The module is designed to provide students with an overview of the fundamentals of digital transformation and its impact on private and public organisations.
The innovative teaching techniques were adopted – including coaching, live case study sessions with entrepreneurs, opportunities to work with entrepreneurs to address real-life challenges, panel discussions with practitioners, guest speeches from industry representative, video case studies and problem based and flipped learning approaches – enabling students to learn and experience not only theory but also their practical applications, are incorporated.
-
Publications
Publications
Article
- Rossi, Federica and De Silva, Muthu and Pavone, P. and Rosli, Ainurul and Yip, N.K.T. (2024) Proximity and impact of university-industry collaborations. A topic detection analysis of impact reports. Technological Forecasting & Social Change ISSN 0040-1625.
- Al-Tabbaa, O. and Nasr, A. and Zahoor, N. and De Silva, Muthu (2023) Socio-emotional wealth preservation and alliance success in family firms: the role of political instability and alliance management capability. British Journal of Management 34 (2), pp. 915-941. ISSN 1045-3172.
- De Silva, Muthu and Al-Tabbaa, O. and Pinto, J. (2023) Academics engaging in knowledge transfer and co-creation: push causation and pull effectuation?. Research Policy 52 (2), pp. 104668. ISSN 0048-7333.
- De Silva, Muthu and Howells, J. and Khan, Z. and Meyer, M. (2022) Innovation ambidexterity and public innovation intermediaries: the mediating role of capabilities. Journal of Business Research 149, pp. 14-29. ISSN 0148-2963.
- Halilem, N. and De Silva, Muthu and Amara, N. (2022) Fairly assessing unfairness: an exploration of gender disparities in informal entrepreneurship among academics in business schools. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 174, pp. 121295. ISSN 0040-1625.
- Rossi, Federica and De Silva, Muthu and Baines, Ning and Rosli, Ainurul (2022) Long-term innovation outcomes of university-industry collaborations: the role of ‘bridging’ vs ‘blurring’ boundary spanning practices. British Journal of Management 33 (1), pp. 478-501. ISSN 1045-3172.
- De Silva, Muthu and Gokhberg, L. and Meissner, D. and Russo, M. (2021) Addressing societal challenges through the simultaneous generation of social and business values: a conceptual framework for science-based co-creation. Technovation 104, pp. 102268. ISSN 0166-4972.
- De Silva, Muthu and Al-Tabbaa, O. and Khan, Z. (2021) Business model innovation by international social purpose organizations: the role of dynamic capabilities. Journal of Business Research 125, pp. 733-749. ISSN 0148-2963.
- De Silva, Muthu and Rossi, Federica and Yip, N.K.T. and Rosli, Ainurul (2021) Does affective evaluation matter for the success of university-industry collaborations? A sentiment analysis of university-industry collaborative project reports. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 163 (120473), ISSN 0040-1625.
- De Silva, Muthu and Wang, P. and Kuah, T.H.A. (2021) Why wouldn’t green appeal drive purchase intention? Moderation effects of consumption values in the UK and China. Journal of Business Research 122, pp. 713-724. ISSN 0148-2963.
- De Silva, Muthu and Khan, M. and Vorley, T. and Zeng, J. (2020) Transcending the pyramid: opportunity co-creation for social innovation. Industrial Marketing Management 89, pp. 471-486. ISSN 0019-8501.
- Zing, J. and Khan, Z. and De Silva, Muthu (2019) The emergence of multi-sided platform MNEs: internalization theory and networks. International Business Review 28 (6), pp. 101598. ISSN 0969-5931.
- Meyer, M. and Kuusisto, J. and Grant, K. and De Silva, Muthu and Flowers, S. and Choksy, U. (2019) Towards new Triple Helix Organisations? A comparative study of Competence Centres as knowledge, consensus and innovation spaces. R&D Management 49 (4), pp. 555-573. ISSN 0033-6807.
- De Silva, Muthu and Wright, M. (2019) Entrepreneurial co-creation: societal impact through open innovation. R&D Management 49 (3), pp. 318-342. ISSN 0033-6807.
- De Silva, Muthu and Rossi, Federica (2018) The effect of firms’ relational capabilities on knowledge acquisition and co-creation. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 133, pp. 72-84. ISSN 0040-1625.
- Rosli, Ainurul and De Silva, Muthu and Rossi, Federica and Yip, N. (2018) The long-term impact of engaged scholarship: how do SMEs capitalise on their engagement with academics to explore new opportunities?. International Small Business Journal 36 (4), pp. 400-428. ISSN 0266-2426.
- De Silva, Muthu and Howells, J. and Meyer, M. (2018) Innovation intermediaries and collaboration: Knowledge–based practices and internal value creation. Research Policy 47 (1), pp. 70-87. ISSN 0048-7333.
- Del Giudice, M. and Khan, Z. and De Silva, Muthu and Scuotto, V. and Caputo, F. and Carayannis, E. (2017) The microlevel actions undertaken by owner-managers in improving the sustainability practices of cultural and creative small and medium enterprises: a United Kingdom-Italy comparison. Journal of Organizational Behavior 38 (9), pp. 1396-1414. ISSN 0894-3796.
- De Silva, Muthu (2016) Academic entrepreneurship and traditional academic duties: synergy or rivalry?. Studies in Higher Education 41 (12), pp. 2169-2183. ISSN 0307-5079.
Book Section
- Lawton Smith, Helen and De Silva, Muthu (2022) Future entrepreneurs: exploring paradigms in the entrepreneurial learning experience. In: Henry, C. and Casqueria Coelho Gabriel, B. and Sailer, K. and Bernado-Mansilla, E. and Lahikainen, K. (eds.) Strategies for the Creation and Maintenance of Entrepreneurial Universities. London: IGI Global. pp. 168-193. ISBN 9781799874560.
- De Silva, Muthu and Uyarra, Elvira and Oakey, Ray (2015) Academic entrepreneurship in a resource constrained environment: diversification and synergistic effects. In: Audretsch, D.B. and Lehmann, E.E. and Link, A.N. and Starnecker, A. (eds.) Technology Transfer in a Global Economy. International Studies in Entrepreneurship. New York, U.S.: Springer-Verlag. pp. 73-97. ISBN 9781489992086.
- De Silva, Muthu and Kodithuwakku, S.S. (2011) Pluriactivity, entrepreneurship and socio-economic success of farming households. In: Alsos, G.A. and Carter, S. and Ljunggren, E. and Welter, F. (eds.) Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship in Agriculture and Rural Development. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. pp. 38-53. ISBN 9781848446250.
Conference Item
- De Silva, Muthu and Wright, M. and Andersen, Birgitte (2015) Entrepreneurial co-creation: a framework and typology?. Academy of Management Conference, 2015, Vancouver, Canada
- De Silva, Muthu and Rossi, Federica (2014) Industry practices supporting knowledge exchange: lessons from firms that successfully interact with universities. Academy of Management Conference, 2014, Philadelphia, US
- De Silva, Muthu and Uyarra, E. (2014) The dynamisms of the motivations of academic entrepreneurs in a resource constrained environment. Academy of Management Conference, 2014, Philadelphia, US
- De Silva, Muthu and Uyarra, E. and Oakey, R. (2012) Academic entrepreneurial diversification in a resource constrained environment. British Academy of Management Conference 2012, 2012, Cardiff, UK
- De Silva, Muthu (2011) Academic entrepreneurship in a resource constrained environment: diversification and synergistic effects. EU-Spri Conference, 2011, Manchester, UK
- De Silva, Muthu and Uyarra, E. and Oakey, R. (2011) Diversification and academic entrepreneurship in a resource constrained environment. Technology Transfer Society Conference 2011, 2011, Augsburg, Germany
- De Silva, Muthu (2010) Business start-up and growth motives of entrepreneurs who own small and medium enterprises in regional context of the UK. British Academy of Management Conference, 2010, Sheffield, UK
- De Silva, Muthu Kakouris, A., ed. (2010) Business start-up and growth motives of entrepreneurs who own small and medium enterprises in regional context of the UK. European Conference on Entrpreneurship and Innovations, 2010, Athens, Greece
- De Silva, Muthu and Kodithiwakku, S.S. (2010) Pluriactivity among rural farming households: survival or capital accumulation strategy?. British Academy of Management Conference, 2010, Sheffield, UK
Monograph
- De Silva, Muthu and Paunovi, C. and Planes-Satorra, S. and Peñalosa, P. (2023) Unlocking co-creation for green innovation: 10 international case studies. OECD. ISSN 23074957.
- De Silva, Muthu and Paunovi, C. and Planes-Satorra, S. and Peñalosa, P. (2023) Unlocking co-creation for green innovation: an exploration of the diverse contributions of universities. OECD. ISSN 23074957.
- De Silva, Muthu (2023) University-industry co-creation for innovation: models, best practice and evidence gaps. Innovation and Research Caucus.
- De Silva, Muthu and Lavelle, O. and Schmidt, N. and Paunov, C. (2022) Co-creation during COVID-19: 30 comparative international case studies. OECD. ISSN 2307-4957.
- De Silva, Muthu and Schmidt, N. and Paunov, C. and Lavelle, O. (2022) How did COVID-19 shape co-creation? Insights and policy lessons from international initiatives. OECD. ISSN 23074957.
- De Silva, Muthu and Andersen, Birgitte (2015) Technology and innovation centres contributing to Europe 2020: how to generate value through EU funding. Big Innovation Centre.
- Andersen, Birgitte and De Silva, Muthu and Levy, C. (2013) Collaborate to innovate: how business can work with universities to generate knowledge and drive innovation. Big Innovation Centre.