Dr Maria Balta

Dr Maria Elisavet Balta is currently Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Director for the MSc in Human Resource Management.

She was previously a TEF Coordinator (2019- 2021) and a Chief Examiner for Stage 1 (2017-2021). She holds a PhD in Management Studies funded by Leventis Foundation and MSc in Human Resources and Employment Relations both from Brunel Business School. She is Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy and Academic Member of CIPD.

Her research has received a significant amount of funding from national and international research council organisations including British Academy of Management Transition Grant 2 (£3,200,00) (PI), Medway Council in partnership with Local Government Association (LGA) and University College London (UCL) (£30,000,00) (CI), Medway Council Strategic Recovery Fund (£17,500,00) (PI), UKAIS (£1,000,00) (CI), the Qatar ($796,000,00) (CI), KTP (10,000,00) (CI), European Commission for the ERASMUS+ 2015 (€207.526,00)(CI), Brunel Research Initiative & Enterprise Fund (£12,574,00) (PI). Maria is recipient of the Graduate and Researcher College Prize for Programme Academic Lead from the University of Kent (£500), and she was nominated for the Brilliant Research-Based Education Award by the Kent Union, University of Kent in May 2023. 

Maria is an editorial board member of the International Journal of Information Management and the Sustainability Journal. She co-edits special issues for journals such as International Journal of Information Management and Frontiers in Sociology. She is also Associate Editor for the special issue on "The new wave of “hybrid work”: an opportunity to revise assumptions and build theory" for the Information Systems Journal.

Maria's research is located at the nexus of Human Resource Management and Strategy. Maria's current research interests are in digital technologies business model pivoting through the use of digital technologies in the context of SMEs.

Maria’s work appears in internationally recognised peer-reviewed outlets including:

• British Journal of Management
• Work Employment and Society
• Technological Forecasting and Social Change
• International Journal of Information Management
• European Management Review
• Journal of Information Frontiers
• Production Planning and Control and Organization
  

Finally, she disseminates her work in national and international conferences, including British Academy of Management.

Maria has significant teaching experience at undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA levels. Maria's portfolio of taught courses includes managers and organisations, strategic management, issues and controversies in management, business and research methods, introduction to management, theory and practice in management.

In 2022-23, she convenes the following modules:

• BUSN 9000 Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility
• BUSN 9201 Research Methods and Consulting Skills
• BUSN 8103 Human Resource Management in Context
• BUSN 8105 Human Resource Management Project

Dr Balta welcomes applications relative to her research expertise. If you are interested in a PhD in her research area, please contact Maria directly.

Current Supervisees

• Maryam Ajaj: Entrepreneurship Self-Efficacy (ESE) and its effects on entrepreneurship opportunities (2nd supervisor).

Past Supervisees

• Idorenyin Etokakpan: Talent Management-Post Brexit: Employer Branding as Strategic tool for Employee Retention.

• Nasser Alshawaaf: The Interrelationship Between Micro-Level Mechanisms in the Emergence of Hybrid Institutional Logics: A Comparative Analysis of Art Museums in the United Kingdom and France

• Bader Aldawaidh: Investigating the relationship between top management team’s characteristics and organisational innovation: The Mediating role of dynamic capabilities

• Zafer N. Aljalfan: Investigating strategic alignment of talent management and organisation sustainability in Higher Education

• Behrouz Behzadan: The Mechanism and Process of Succession in Industrial Family Businesses: Case Studies in the Iranian Context

• Qamra Alomani: The mediating role of emotional exhaustion and work engagement on the relationship between job demands-resources and nurses’ anxiety, turnover intention and happiness in Saudi public hospitals

• Mohd Huridi: The impact of globalisation on the SMEs export performance

• Che Rosmawati Binti Che Mat: The mediating and moderating effect of innovation and dynamics capabilities on the relationship between business network and firm’s performance of Malaysian SMEs

• Jaehoon Lim: A Transition process from Acceptance to Infusion behaviour in online brand communities: A socialization process perspective

• Akarawat Jatuphatwarodom: Exporter-importer relationships and international marketing strategies: An empirical study on ASEAN Economic Community
  

• Senior Fellow of the Higher EducationAcademy
• Academic Member of CIPD
• Member of British Academy of Management
• External examiner for PhD/DBA: Kings College London, Brunel University, Bradford University.
• External examiner for Programmes: Swansea University, Henley Business School.