Study on Crowdfunding Renewable Energy wins 2015 EFMD Case Competition

Our study titled ‘Crowdfunding Renewable Energy Solutions: Abundance Generation’, took first prize in the ‘Integrating the Innovation Pipelines’ category of the Europe wide awards last month. Based on renewable energy crowd funding organisation Abundance Generation, which was co-founded by Business School MBA alumnus Karl Harder, the study investigates the potential of crowdfunding as an alternative source […]

The cost of capital and how it affects climate change mitigation investment (Grantham Briefing Paper)

My colleague Charlie Donovan and I recently published a briefing paper, commissioned by the Imperial College Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. Key points and link to download the paper are below: The cost of capital, also known as the minimum required rate of return, is a crucial factor in investment decision-making in […]

Apollo has landed: the role of the private sector in completing the race for 100% renewables

In the lead-up to the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP) in Paris, there was a lot of buzz in the mainstream business press about the need for research and development that could lead to breakthroughs in the cost of clean energy technologies. Over the summer, Financial Times commentator Martin Wolf called for a “moonshot to […]

‘Powering the Future': New models in renewable energy finance

Over $200 billion is spent each year on financing renewable energy projects, a global investment market set to expand at double digit growth rates far into the future. Renewable Energy Finance describes in rich detail current best practices and evolving trends in clean energy investing. With contributions from some of the world’s leading experts in […]

‘Copycat, copycat': Imitation vs. Innovation in business model design

With the proliferation of highly innovative, highly successful but replicable online business models and the march of globalization, copycat businesses are on the rise. Yet there is much debate on whether this is a good thing for innovation or an effective strategy for entrepreneurs. As part of this year’s Entrepreneurial Smart Camp, I presented a […]

Driving innovation in British and Indian companies: Perspectives from the Rajiv Gandhi Centre

Source: Driving innovation in British and Indian companies, written by Phil Thornton. For the last seven years the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RGC) has played a key role as a bridge between research carried out at Imperial College London and industries in both the UK and India. Founded in December 2007 and […]

Governing multiple stakeholder interventions: Solving the GAP in HIV/AIDS services (LSE Review of Books)

The HIV epidemic in South Africa has been the largest and most contentious of any country affected by the disease. HIV/AIDS and the South African State is a comprehensive account of the country’s 30-year struggle with the disease, a history fraught with government inaction, harmful interventions and dramatic discord between the South African state, the international […]

A return to ‘Gentlemanly Capitalism’: The role of private equity in Africa

Gentlemanly capitalism is a theory first put forward by P. J. Cain and A. G. Hopkins in the 1980s before being fully developed in their 1993 work, British Imperialism – a book I became very familiar with as a History undergraduate studying a very ‘old hat’ module on the economics of empire. The theory originally referred […]

Philosophers in the boardroom: Insights from theory on practice

Last weekend, London Business School hosted the 7th Sumantra Ghoshal Conference – an annual event where business school academics focus on what they consider to be ‘managerially relevant research’. For those who didn’t make it, here is a brief insight into some of the themes and thoughts that emerged. ‘The smell of the place’ Perhaps the most enduring […]