Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé

Role

Dr. Benjamin Afreh is a research fellow at the Marketing and Consumer Studies Research Centre (MACS), Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé Business School. He is an early-career academic who applies interdisciplinary knowledge from the management field (entrepreneurship, strategy, innovation, and marketing studies) and the broader social sciences (e.g., economics and development studies) to research themes in sustainable futures, global heritage, marketing management, and consumer studies.

Benjamin's role as a research fellow involves leading and supporting research projects in the marketing and the broader management field. Regarding leadership, management, and administration, he supports MACS directors with the smooth functioning of the Research Centre, organising events, and preparing period Centre reports for Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé Business School's Research and Innovation Committee (formerly Research Strategy Group). He further disseminates research and Centre research events on its social media platforms. Benjamin has worked on funded research projects, which include a £1.2m innovation grant awarded by InnovateUK/the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and a £9K British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant.

Benjamin has experience in policy engagement, for example, in promoting innovation financing for early-stage enterprises in the creative industries in periphery regions through regulations that improve these enterprises' access to funding from UK Government schemes (such as InnovateUK and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) innovation voucher schemes, Arts Council England's Digital R&D Fund for the Arts) and alternative sources (for example, crowd-funding and blockchain platforms). He has further participated in practitioner engagement through co-created research, invited presentations, and workshops with entrepreneurs, investors, value-chain partners, government institutions, and local communities (e.g., Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, and ERDF SouthWest, Ghana Revenue Authority, The Registrar General's Department, Ghana, etc.).

Career overview

Benjamin has previously worked as a research and/or teaching assistant at Arts University Bournemouth (2020-2021), the University of Sheffield (2015-2019), the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (The University of Ghana) (2013-2015), and the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex (2012-2013). At the University of Sheffield, Benjamin contributed to teaching and learning quality, tutoring course modules such as enterprise and entrepreneurship, business strategy, finance for engineers and international business management study-skills sessions. He has also provided master students pastoral support for completing their dissertations.