Dr Muthu De Silva — Birkbeck, University of London

Overview

Biography

Muthu de Silva is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. Her research contributes to our knowledge on co-creation. She has published in Research Policy, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, British Journal of Management, International Small Business Journal, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, R&D Management, International Business Review and Studies in Higher Education and received best paper awards in Innovation by the BAM Conference in 2015 and 2016. She has secured major grants from Innovate UK, Intellectual Property Office, EU and British Academy/Leverhulme, and British Academy of Management. She is a fellow of Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

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

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
The external Peer Review Group (PRG) of the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, UK - reviewer
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
Working Party of Innovation and Technology Policy, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) - steering group member

Honours and awards

Tenth Most Cited Article in 2019 in Journal of Organizational Behaviour (ABS – 4*), Journal of Organizational Behaviour,
Top downloaded articles in 2018 - Research Policy (ABS – 4*), Research Policy Journal ,
Most downloaded article in 2018/19 - R&D Management Journal (ABS 3), R&D Management Journal ,
Best Paper Award in Innovation at the British Academy of Management Conference- 2016, British Academy of Management ,
Best Paper Award in Innovation at the British Academy of Management Conference – 2015, British Academy of Management ,

ORCID

0000-0003-4800-3684

Research

Research interests

Developing the concept of Entrepreneurial Co-creation
University-industry co-creation
Involvement of intermediaries in co-creation
Co-creation between social enterprises and their international partners
Involvement of businesses in co-creation
Involvement of MNEs in co-creation

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

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

Member, Birkbeck Centre for Innovation Management Research

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

Teaching

Muthu has designed and is convening the two modules, for which innovative teaching techniques – 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.

Entrepreneurial Venture Creation (Postgraduate) – 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) - 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)

Publications

Article

De Silva, Muthu and Rossi, Federica and Yip, N.K.T. and Rosli, Ainurul (2020) 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 ISSN 0040-1625. (In Press)
Rossi, Federica and De Silva, Muthu and Baines, Ning and Rosli, Ainurul (2020) Long-term innovation outcomes of university-industry collaborations: the role of ‘bridging’ vs ‘blurring’ boundary spanning practices. British Journal of Management ISSN 1045-3172. (In Press)
De Silva, Muthu and Wang, P. and Kuah, T.H.A. (2020) Why wouldn’t green appeal drive purchase intention? Moderation effects of consumption values in the UK and China. Journal of Business Research ISSN 0148-2963. (In Press)
De Silva, Muthu and Al-Tabbaa, O. and Khan, Z. (2019) Business model innovation by international social purpose organizations: the role of dynamic capabilities. Journal of Business Research ISSN 0148-2963. (In Press)
De Silva, Muthu and Khan, M. and Vorley, T. and Zeng, J. (2019) Transcending the pyramid: opportunity co-creation for social innovation. Industrial Marketing Management ISSN 0019-8501. (In Press)
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.
Zing, J. and Khan, Z. and De Silva, Muthu (2019) The emergence of multi-sided platform MNEs: internalization theory and networks. International Business Review ISSN 0969-5931. (In Press)
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 normal academic duties in a resource constrained environment: symbiosis or rivalry?. Studies in Higher Education 41 (12), pp. 2169-2183. ISSN 0307-5079.

Book Section

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 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.