How SMEs can become environmentally sustainable and productive

In this episode, Professor Kerrie Unsworth (Leeds University Business School) and John Steel (Cafédirect) discuss the tensions and potential trade-offs between social, environmental, and financial goals. Kerrie asks John about Cafédirect’s take on sustainability and social justice. 
 
This podcast episode was recorded remotely in December 2021. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available. 

Kerrie Unsworth is a Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Leeds University Business School. Her research focuses on how people juggle goals, tasks and identities and the effect this has on motivation and particular behaviours such as leadership, collaboration and pro-environmental behaviour. 
 
John Steel is CEO of Cafédirect. He is a business leader and social entrepreneur with a passion for making business a force for good. Under John’s leadership Cafédirect has returned to growth, become profitable and yet maintained its sustainability commitments to its producers. John is determined that Cafédirect, as one of the UK’s pre-eminent Social Enterprises, plays a pivotal role in leading the change agenda. John is a passionate and genuine believer in the need for real change in the way business contributes to society and the wider world.

A balancing act between sustainability and profitability

Dr Alexander Beresford speaks to Dr Temitayo Odeyemi about Temitayo’s research, exploring the key complexities and challenges of just transition in Nigeria. They discuss the involvement of Nigeria’s labour unions and sector-specific unions in shaping government policies around just transitions, and the different conversations that are happening at a national and subnational level when it comes to just transitions and the concept of decent work. 

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2. 

Visit the project webpage. https://business.leeds.ac.uk/dir-record/research-projects/1990/just-transition-action-concepts-debates-and-strategies-an-international-comparison-across-11-countries

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in May 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available. 

About the speakers:  

Dr Alexander Beresford is an Associate Professor in African Politics, and Director of Research and Innovation for the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. His research provides a multi-layered insight into how global normative order is mediated and contested within and between two interwoven spaces - political struggles over inequality, power and corruption from everyday sites of politics through to the highest tables of power in South Africa; and the global diplomatic contestation of vaccine access, conflict resolution and climate change led by South Africa as an emerging power.   

Dr Temitayo Odeyemi is a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, and Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Parliamentary Research, Berlin, Germany. His PhD research at the University of Leeds (2024) explored the public engagement repertoires of the Nigerian national and subnational Lagos State legislatures. This built on his wider interest in how key democratic institutions drive resilience and sustainability through connections with non-state actors and everyday citizens, particularly in Sub-Saharan African contexts. 

Just Transitions – a global exploration: Nigeria

Ying Zhang - research poster

Luke Nolan - research poster

Yagiz Talay - research poster

Addi Manolopoulou speaks to Professor Steve Toms about his latest book - “Systems of Deceit – Financial Fraud and Scandal in the United Kingdon, 1700-2010.” Professor Toms explains the historical roots and systemic causes of financial crime in the UK, revealing how economic structures, deregulation, and shifting sectoral dominance have shaped fraud over the past 300 years. 

This episode was recorded in May 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.  

Read the book: “Systems of Deceit - Financial Fraud and Scandal in the United Kingdom, 1700–2010”, Steven Toms  

About the speakers: 

Addi Manolopoulou is the Departmental Manager for the Accounting and Finance Department at Leeds University Business School. She is committed to translating complex research into real-world impact.   

Professor Steve Toms is Chair in Accounting. His research interests cover the role of accounting (including forensic accounting), accountability, and corporate governance in the development of organisations, particularly from a historical perspective. 

300 years of deceit: a systemic look at financial crime in the UK

After delivering insightful presentations at the Legal Tech in Leeds 2025 conference, Dr Virág Blazsek and Professor Danat Valizade have come together on our podcast to share some of the key themes they discussed at the event. In this episode, they talk about how legal tech growth is shaped by two main areas - workforce change and energy policy. 

This episode was recorded on 24th June 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.  

About the speakers:  

Dr Virág Blazsek is a Lecturer in Commercial, Corporate, and Banking Law and a Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP) at the University of Leeds School of Law. Her recent research, supported by the Michael Beverley Innovation Fellowship, examines FinTech hub development and financial sector transformation in secondary financial centres, focusing on Leeds, the US, and Singapore. The project highlighted the vital role of regional legal and tech clusters - like Leeds - in strengthening the UK’s LegalTech sector, largely due to their strong underlying real economies. 

Danat Valizade is Professor of Quantitative Employment Research at Leeds University Business School. His research focuses on labour market inequalities and the future of work; job quality; advanced econometrics, and machine learning. 

The two forces driving legal tech growth: people and power

Addi Manolopoulou speaks to Professors Shima Amini and Abdul Mohamed about their recent research on how climate change risk affects the performance of newly listed firms in the US. The discussion highlights how drought exposure, investor sentiment, and mandatory climate disclosures influence Initial Public Offerings (IPO) outcomes. With implications for investors, policy makers, and company leaders, the findings position climate risk as a financial concern, not just an environmental one. 

This episode was recorded in July 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.  

Read the journal article: “Climate change risk, investor sentiment, and the performance of new entrant firms”, Small Business Economics. 

About the speakers: 

Addi Manolopoulou is the Departmental Manager for the Accounting and Finance Department at Leeds University Business School. She is committed to translating complex research into real-world impact.   

Professor Shima Amini is Chair in Entrepreneurial Finance. Her research is focused on entrepreneurial finance, initial public offering, venture capital, private equity, corporate finance, behavioural finance, and market microstructure.   

Professor Abdul Mohamed is Chair in Accounting and Finance. His research interests are in the area of corporate finance, venture capital, bankruptcy, and market-based accounting research. 

Climate change as a financial risk: what new firms and investors need to know

In this episode, Professor Magda Osman and Dr Sarah Jenkins discuss risk communication - exploring what role the social sciences play in risk communications, whether it can ever be objective, how people perceive and tolerate risk differently, and how trade-offs and context shape the risk decisions people make. 

This episode was recorded on 4th August 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.  https://business.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/download/379/podcast-transcript-making-sense-of-risk-communications

About the speakers:  

Magda Osman holds a Visiting Professor of Impact position at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, and is a Research Professor at the Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. She is a psychologist by training, with a specific interest in decision-making under risk and uncertainty, risk analysis and causal analysis, folk beliefs in the manipulation of the unconscious, as well as an interest in examining effectiveness of methods of behavioural change. 

Dr Sarah Jenkins is a Lecturer in Applied Decision-Making and a cognitive psychologist, with extensive experience of conducting applied research focusing on how people understand, communicate and make decisions concerning risk and uncertainty. She holds a joint post between the Centre for Decision Research at Leeds University Business School, and the Met Office, where she is applying social science techniques to deliver high-impact decision research in areas related to weather and climate.

Making sense of risk communications: framing, trust, and trade-offs

In this introductory episode, Professor Helen Hughes and Emma Findlay explain the purpose of the Surgical Care Observatory and why successful surgical innovation is about far more than the tech itself. They discuss system readiness, and how sociotechnical frameworks can help the NHS implement new technologies safely, effectively, and sustainably.

This episode was recorded on 24th November 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available. https://business.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/download/383/podcast-transcript---introducing-the-surgical-care-observatory

Visit the project webpage: https://business.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/dir-record/research-projects/2425/surgical-care-observatory-healthtech-research-centre-in-accelerated-surgical-care

This project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

About the speakers: Dr Helen Hughes is an Associate Professor at Leeds University Business School and Director of the Behaviour Lab. Helen in an interdisciplinary researcher, whose research spans aerospace to healthcare sectors.  Helen is currently an Associate Editor at Ergonomics journal, and a Co-Investigator within the NIHR-funded Surgical Health-Tech Research Centre, where she leads the ‘Surgical Observatory’ workstream. 

Emma Findlay is a Research Officer at Leeds University Business School, working in the Surgical Care Observatory theme of the HealthTech Research Centre in Accelerated Surgical Care.  Her research explores the underpinning psychology of complex systems; including medtech implementation, surgical sustainability and multiteam system functioning. 

Articles mentioned in this episode and related reading:

“Organisational psychologists – essential to saving the NHS”, The Psychologist, 31 October 2025, Helen Hughes and Emma Findlay  
“The Principles of Sociotechnical Design”, Human Relations, Albert Cherns, 1976  
“Sociotechnical principles for system design”, Applied Ergonomics, Chris Clegg, 2000
“Leveraging socio-technical systems to tackle grand challenges: Reflections on human-robot teams, hybrid workplaces, med-tech, and digital transformation”, Ergonomics, Matthew Davis, Helen Hughes, Mark Robinson, Jeffery Scales, Shankar Sankaran, Dikai Liu, Emma Findlay and Emma Gritt, 2025

Introducing the Surgical Care Observatory – why sociotechnical thinking is needed within the NHS

In this episode of the Research and Innovation Podcast, Rashik Parmar MBE, and Professor Mehmet Dogar explore advances in artificial intelligence, responsible computing, and robotics. They discuss why responsible computing is becoming urgent, the challenges of making digital systems ethical and sustainable, and the ambition to position the UK as a world-leader in this space. Mehmet shares insights from the University of Leeds Robotics Lab, including why robotics lags behind other areas of AI and how researchers are tackling complex tasks like multi-object packing and physical interaction. Together, they look ahead to what responsible, trustworthy computing and more capable robots could mean for society in the coming years. 

Both Rashik and Mehmet presented on these topics at the Leeds Digital Festival event - “The future is now: tech driving UK industry” - which was co-hosted by Leeds University Business School and the School of Computer Science.  

Mehmet’s research is supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/V052659/1] 

This episode was recorded on 8 December 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available. 

About the speakers: 

Rashik Parmar MBE is a member of Leeds University Business School’s Research International Advisory Board. Previously, Rashik was Group CEO of British Computer Society (BCS), and the IBM Fellow and Vice President responsible for creating and driving IBM’s European technical strategy. Rashik is a member of the Open University Council and also chairs Industry Advisory Board for Digit Lab. 

Professor Mehmet Dogar is Professor of Robotics & AI at the University of Leeds. His research focuses on autonomous robotic manipulation. Mehmet is an EPSRC Fellow, and an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Robotics Research, and an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

Towards a world of ethical computing and smarter robots

There is a consensus that companies need to adopt a low-carbon economy. Manufacturing Small to Medium Enterprises (mSMEs) are pulled by pressure for productivity growth whilst also being high carbon emitters. In this episode of the Research and Innovation Podcast, Dr Matthew Davis and Naomi Booth Wade discuss the tensions and challenges of productivity and environmental sustainability. 

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in September 2020. If you would like to get in touch regarding the project discussed in this podcast, visit bit.ly/productivesustainable or email n.s.boothwade@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available at: https://business.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/download/196/podcast_episode_13_-_transcript

About the speakers:  

Matthew Davis is an Associate Professor at Leeds University Business School, a Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. His research centres on how people interact with their environments, the impact of different office designs and how businesses engage in CSR, particularly to address sustainability and modern slavery. 

Naomi Booth Wade is a Research Assistant on the project “Sustainable and productive?! Helping manufacturing SMEs to manage multiple goals”. Naomi has an educational background in Psychology and Organisational Psychology. She is a budding business psychologist with a demonstrated history of working in the research and consultancy fields.

The project discussed in this episode is funded by the ESRC Productivity Insights Network. Grant number 154166.

Can manufacturing SMEs be both productive and environmentally sustainable?

Professor Kerrie Unsworth and Mark Goldstone discuss the benefits of manufacturing SMEs becoming more environmentally sustainable and what Yorkshire businesses are doing to achieve their sustainability goals. 

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in December 2020. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available at:  https://business.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/download/204/podcast_episode_15_-_transcript. 
This project - “Sustainable and productive?! Helping manufacturing SMEs to manage multiple goals” - is funded by the ESRC Productivity Insights Network. Grant number 154166.

Kerrie Unsworth is a Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Leeds University Business School. Her research focuses on how people juggle goals, tasks and identities and the effect this has on motivation and particular behaviours such as leadership, collaboration and pro-environmental behaviour. 

Mark Goldstone is Head of Business Representation & Policy at the West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce helps businesses grow by sharing opportunities, knowledge and expertise, with a strong business voice influencing decision-makers at all levels.

How manufacturing SMEs are becoming more environmentally sustainable in the Yorkshire region

Leeds University Business School’s Research and Innovation podcast brings you insights from our expert researchers. From the future of work, to disruptive technologies; green behaviours to emerging markets, we’ll be covering a wide-range of topical issues and novel ideas. 

Listen to the podcast to find out more about our research and how it’s inspiring business managers, informing policymakers and influencing society.

If you have any comments regarding any of these episodes, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk.

How manufacturing SMEs are becoming more environmentally sustainable in the Yorkshire region

Leeds University Business School

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