This is the blog of Andrew Smith, a senior lecturer in International Business at the University of Liverpool Management School.
I teach about international business and organizational change. My academic research straddles the boundaries of business and economic history on the one hand and strategy and entrepreneurship on the other. I was trained at Queen’s University and the University of Western Ontario in Canada and the University of London here in the UK. I have published social-scientific articles in such journals as Business History, Journal of Management Studies, Enterprise and Society, and Journal of Management Inquiry. I am a member of the Academy of Management, the British Academy of Management, the European Group for Organizational Studies, and the Association of Business Historians. In 2019, I was elected to the executive of the MH Division of the Academy of Management. I’m currently the subject group research director for the SIBE group within the management school. I joined Liverpool’s management school in 2014 and previously worked a universities in the UK and Canada. My pre-academic work was largely in sales and the art of persuasion.
I’m a proud dual citizen of both the United Kingdom and Canada and believe that as management academics we have a strong obligation to use our research talents to make our local communities, nations, and the world better places. I believe that academics in management schools should work closely with private companies and I would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with firms of various sizes, particularly but certainly not exclusively in the two countries to which I owe allegiance. I also welcome the opportunity to work with law firms and have acted as an expert witness in a constitutional court case that had important business implications. I frequently reflect on how I can be of service to society and to the taxpayers and other stakeholders who support the research and teaching that I love. My research is often focused on making a theoretical contribution but I am of the firm conviction that there is nothing so practical as a good theory and that the very best theoretical work done in management schools can be profitably put to work in firms that are operating in a competitive market.
I am a member of the Academy of Management, the European Group for Organizational Studies, and the Association of Business Historians.
Correspondence should be sent to: University of Liverpool Management School, University of Liverpool, Chatham Street, Liverpool L69 7ZH, United Kingdom.
The Past Speaks 
Bang on. The 1860s are my decade too.
Thanks for mentioning the OurOntario.ca portal. However you linked to our Parent organization’s website. To link to the portal where you can search and access content from over 200 libraries, archives, museums and historical societies the url is http://www.ourontario.ca.
Here’s the blurb:
Our Ontario allows for easy findability of digital collections that are about Ontario people, places and events, or are from Ontario organizations. Search results are customizable to suit specific audiences and personal tastes – plot search results in Google Earth, view as an image wall,
and effortlessly share search results with your friends or colleagues by using the social media tools. We’re also outputting data in a number of formats for those of you who want to mash up the data.
Good stuff on this blog. I started to scan material on Canadian Confederation in terms of trying to understand how the current debt crisis with the “PIGS” (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain) would play out, remembering in past lifes reading how Canada was formation was more akin to an ignomious bond re-organization exercise, rescueing British merchant banks from the likes of Galt. How it ended fleecing surplus areas of the to-be Canada like Nova Scotia at the expense of cpaitalist and debtors in Upper Canada. How this commerical objective with some immediate catalyst form security concerns of the Fenian Raids and post-Civil War USA was reflected in the shared motto “good order” of the BNA – not at all romantic like “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness”. I make that quip which some in Canada might feel is snide from an American as, though I have lived in USA for last 30 years, I have roots in Cape Breton, educated at UWO, and spent time working offshore trawlers on the Grand Banks and even delivering equipment to the mine face in Elliot Lake – not far from you now. I think I have a good grasp of what is Canada.
You should consider that angle: what does Canada confederation teach us about what might come about in Europe.
Also please email if there is market data I can provide you on the “PIGS” debt – I imagine you have examined closely the debt/markets for Canadian risk circa 1867.
Hi Mac Robertson,
Thanks for the post. I have certainly considered the parallels between Canadian Confederation and the creation of other big free-trading zones, most notably the EU. I’m not a big fan of the EU (Let me be more precise– I’m not a big fan of the EU officialdom in Brussels) and I think that Confederation was the wrong thing for British North America. But I don’t think the EU is the best analogy for Canadian Confederation. Canada in 1867 had just two languages, whereas the EU has dozens. The EU was a post-conflict healing project: New Brunswick has never fought a war with Nova Scotia.
My book on Confederation has data on bond yield spreads– I used the spreads to determine what British investors thought of Confederation.
Excellent blog, Mr. Smith!
Great work.
I’m so sorry you have to see such horrific scenes. I work for a radio station in Australia, any chance you’ll be available in about 40 hours for a cross?