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Prof. Nick Oliver

Nick Oliver is Professor of Management and Head of School at the Management School and Economics, University of Edinburgh. He joined Edinburgh in January 2007, having spent 14 years at the Judge Business School, Cambridge. Prior to that he was at Cardiff Business School (for seven years) and the before that with the Systems Group at the Open University for four years.

Nick teaching areas include Organisational Behaviour, the management of innovation and Operations Management. He is co-author of The Japanization of British Industry (1992), which examined the transfer of Japanese management practices to the UK.

Research interests

Nick's research has spanned two main areas: manufacturing performance and product development and he has led several international benchmarking studies in Japan, Europe, North America and China.

His interests include issues of competitiveness in the automotive industry, the application of lean ideas to sectors outside of the manufacturing sector and the relationship between lean principles and brand identity.He is currently working on a book on the collapse of the Rover car company.

Recent publications

Oliver, N., Dewberry, E., Dostaler, I. (2004) 'New Product Development Benchmarks: The Japanese, North American and UK consumer electronics industries'. Journal of High Technology Management Research. Vol 15, No 2, pp 249-265.

Oliver, N. and Holweg, M. 'Brand or Bland? (2006) The Manufacturing Engineer, June-July, pp18-23.

Bates, H, Holweg, M., Lewis, M., and Oliver, N. (2007) 'Motor Vehicle Recalls: Trends, Patterns and Emerging Issues'. OMEGA. Vol 35, No 2, pp 202-210.

Oliver, N., Schab, L. and Holweg, M. (2007) ‘Lean principles and premium brands: conflict or complement?'International Journal of Production Research. Vol 45. No 16, 3723-3739.