Professor Mehdi Boussebaa

Professor of International Management (Management)

telephone: 0141 330 4579
email: Mehdi.Boussebaa@glasgow.ac.uk

Biography

Mehdi is Professor of International Management and currently leads the International Business and Enterprise Research Cluster at Glasgow. He also is a member of the business school's Management Subject Leadership Team. Before joining Glasgow in 2016, Mehdi held positions as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader at the University of Bath School of Management. He completed an ESRC-funded PhD at the University of Warwick in 2008, followed by a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Mehdi's research examines how globalisation shapes organisations, work and knowledge, with particular attention to colonial legacies and contemporary structures of power and inequality. He has explored these dynamics in transnational professional service firms, outsourced service work and universities, drawing on fieldword across Asia, Latin America and Europe. Through this work, he interrogates how neocolonial logics are enacted and contested in global business, while also engaging with the geopolitics of knowledge production and its implications for research and education in business schools.

Mehdi's research has been published in top-tier journals such as Academy of Management Learning & Education, Human Relations, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business and Organization Studies. One of his papers was a finalist for the US Academy of Management's Carolyn Dexter Award and another two were shortlisted for the Col. Lyndall F Urwick Memorial Prize awarded by the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants, City of London. Mehdi also received the Dean's Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Research in 2015 and the Dean's Award for Research Excellence in 2012 at the University of Bath.

Mehdi serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Critical Perspectives on International Business and sits on the editorial boards of Human Relations, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Professions and Organization, Journal of World Business, Organization and Organization Studies. He has held visiting positions at institutions in Canada (Alberta), China (Tongji and UIBE), France (Aix-Marseille), and Sweden (Lund).

Prior to academia, Mehdi worked for a now-defunct US-based telecoms market research and consulting firm in London for 2½ years after completing undergraduate studies at Bayes (formerly Cass) Business School, which included an Erasmus exchange at Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. In his late teens and early twenties, he financed his studies and travels by working various small jobs in Paris and London. He is bilingual in English and French, with dormant fluency in two other major world languages.

Research interests

Globalisation and global North-South relations
Transnational management consultancies as agents of globalisation
Identity regulation in a global context
Eurocentrism and the politics of management knowledge
Decolonising management research and education
The politics of English as a 'global' language in business and academe
Qualitative research, especially interviewing and discourse analysis

Publications

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Number of items: 43.

2025

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468, Alcadipani, R., Clegg, S., Cunha, M.P. and Vianna, F. (2025) Englishization beyond the global north: dependency, struggle, and resistance in Brazilian management research. Academy of Management Learning and Education, (Accepted for Publication)

Munro, Iain, Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Rhodes, Carl (2025) Transnational corporate power, neo-colonialism and investigative journalism: a conversation with Matt Kennard. Critical Perspectives on International Business, (doi: 10.1108/cpoib-06-2024-0054) (Early Online Publication)

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2025) Neocolonialism. In: McCann, Leo, Bozkurt, Ödül, Finn, Rachael, Granter, Edward, Hunter, Carolyn, Kivinen, Nina, Kumar, Arun and Wierman, Brian (eds.) Elgar Encyclopedia of Critical Management Studies. Series: Elgar encyclopedias in Business and Management. Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, pp. 329-332. ISBN 9781800377714

2024

Buck, Trevor ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3475-9309 and Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2024) Improving the credibility of case study research in international business studies and beyond: a simple fix for a serious problem. Multinational Business Review, 32(4), pp. 425-442. (doi: 10.1108/MBR-04-2024-0061)

Sinkovics, Noemi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5143-6870, Sinkovics, Rudolf ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4471-5054, Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Fletcher, Margaret ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8168-7865 (Eds.) (2024) International Business and SDG 8: Exploring the Relationship between IB and Society. Series: The Academy of International Business. Palgrave Macmillan: London. ISBN 9783031468018

Sinkovics, Noemi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5143-6870, Sinkovics, Rudolf R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4471-5054, Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Fletcher, Margaret ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8168-7865 (2024) International Business and SDG 8: An Introduction to the Theme. In: Sinkovics, Noemi, Sinkovics, Rudolf R., Boussebaa, Mehdi and Fletcher, Margaret (eds.) International Business and SDG 8. Series: The Academy of International Business. Palgrave Macmillan: London, pp. 3-8. ISBN 9783031468018 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-46802-5_1)

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2024) The Big Con: how the consulting industry weakens our businesses, infantilizes our governments and warps our economies. By Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington Allen Lane, UK, 2023, 344 pp., ISBN 978-0593492673. Journal of International Business Studies, 55, pp. 121-123. (doi: 10.1057/s41267-023-00653-8)[Book Review]

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2024) Unsettling West-centrism in the study of professional service firms. Human Relations, 77(1), pp. 29-52. (doi: 10.1177/00187267221128262)

2023

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2023) Decolonizing international business. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 19(4), pp. 550-565. (doi: 10.1108/cpoib-12-2022-0121)

Ashley, Louise, Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468, Friedman, Sam, Harrington, Brooke, Heusinkveld, Stefan, Gustafsson, Stefanie and Muzio, Daniel (2023) Professions and inequality: challenges, controversies, and opportunities. Journal of Professions and Organization, 10(1), pp. 80-98. (doi: 10.1093/jpo/joac014)

2022

Boussebaa, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Morgan, G. (2022) Globalization and organizations. In: Knights, David and Willmott, Hugh (eds.) Introducing Organizational Behaviour and Management, 4th Edition. Cengage Learning: Andover. ISBN 9781473773851

2021

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2021) From cultural differences to cultural globalization: towards a new research agenda in cross-cultural management studies. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 17(3), pp. 381-398. (doi: 10.1108/cpoib-01-2020-0003)

Dörrenbächer, Christoph, Sinkovics, Rudolf R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4471-5054, Becker-Ritterspach, Florian, Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468, Curran, Louise, de Jonge, Alice and Khan, Zaheer (2021) The Covid-19 pandemic: towards a societally engaged IB perspective. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 17(2), pp. 149-164. (doi: 10.1108/cpoib-02-2021-0021)

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Tienari, Janne (2021) Englishization and the politics of knowledge production in management studies. Journal of Management Inquiry, 30(1), pp. 59-67. (doi: 10.1177/1056492619835314)

2020

Romani, L., Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Jackson, T. (2020) Critical perspectives on cross-cultural management. In: Szkudlarek, B., Romani, L., Caprar, D. and Osland, J. (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Contemporary Cross-Cultural Management. SAGE Publications Ltd.. ISBN 9781526441324

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2020) In the shadow of empire: Global Britain and the UK business school. Organization, 27(3), pp. 483-493. (doi: 10.1177/1350508419855700)

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2020) Identity regulation and globalization. In: Brown, A.D. (ed.) Oxford Handbook of Identities in Organizations. Series: Oxford Handbooks. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. ISBN 9780198827115

McGivern, Gerry, Nzinga, Jacinta, Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and English, Mike (2020) Professional pastoral work in a Kenyan clinical network: transposing transnational evidence-based governmentality. In: Bevir, Mark and Waring, Justin (eds.) Decentring Health and Care Networks: Reshaping the Organization and Delivery of Healthcare. Series: Organizational behaviour in healthcare. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, pp. 239-266. ISBN 9783030408886 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-40889-3_11)

2019

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2019) Brexit’s ‘Global Britain’: UK needs a clear economic strategy for its trading future, not a dead colonial fantasy. Conversation, 2019(May 10),

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Faulconbridge, James R. (2019) Professional service firms as agents of economic globalization: a political perspective. Journal of Professions and Organization, 6(1), pp. 72-90. (doi: 10.1093/jpo/joy014)

2018

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2018) Management Research: European Perspectives, Sabina Siebert (Ed.). Journal of International Management, 24(2), pp. 195-197. (doi: 10.1016/j.intman.2018.04.001)[Book Review]

2017

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2017) Global professional service firms, transnational organizing and core/periphery networks. In: Seabrooke, Leonard and Henriksen, Lasse Folke (eds.) Professional Networks in Transnational Governance. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 233-244. ISBN 9781107181878

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Brown, Andrew D. (2017) Englishization, identity regulation and imperialism. Organization Studies, 38(1), pp. 7-29. (doi: 10.1177/0170840616655494)

2016

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Faulconbridge, James (2016) The work of global professional service firms. In: Wilkinson, Adrian, Hislop, Donald and Coupland, Christine (eds.) Perspectives on Contemporary Professional Work: Challenges and Experiences. Series: New horizons in management. Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA, pp. 105-122. ISBN 9781783475575 (doi: 10.4337/9781783475582.00014)

2015

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2015) Control in the multinational enterprise: The polycentric case of global professional service firms. Journal of World Business, 50(4), pp. 696-703. (doi: 10.1016/j.jwb.2014.11.002)

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Morgan, Glenn (2015) Internationalization of professional service firms. In: Empson, Laura, Muzio, Daniel, Broschak, Joseph and Hinings, Bob (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Professional Service Firms. Series: Oxford handbooks. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 71-91. ISBN 9780199682393 (doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199682393.013.5)

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2015) Professional service firms, globalisation and the new imperialism. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 28(8), pp. 1217-1233. (doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-03-2015-1986)

2014

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468, Sinha, Shuchi and Gabriel, Yiannis (2014) Englishization in offshore call centers: a postcolonial perspective. Journal of International Business Studies, 45(9), pp. 1152-1169. (doi: 10.1057/jibs.2014.25)

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2014) Offshore call centre work is breeding a new colonialism. Conversation, 2014(Oct 21),

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Morgan, Glenn (2014) Pushing the frontiers of critical international business studies. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 10(1/2), pp. 96-106. (doi: 10.1108/cpoib-11-2013-0046)

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468, Sturdy, Andrew and Morgan, Glenn (2014) Learning from the world? Horizontal knowledge flows and geopolitics in international consulting firms. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(9), pp. 1227-1242. (doi: 10.1080/09585192.2013.826711)

2012

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468, Morgan, Glenn and Sturdy, Andrew (2012) Constructing global firms? National, transnational and neocolonial effects in international management consultancies. Organization Studies, 33(4), pp. 465-486. (doi: 10.1177/0170840612443454)

Taminiau, Yvette, Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Berghman, Liselore (2012) Convergence or divergence? A comparison of informal consultant–client relationship development practices in Britain, France and Germany. Service Industries Journal, 32(10), pp. 1707-1720. (doi: 10.1080/02642069.2012.665902)

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2012) The globalisation of professional service firms (and its limits). Bath Perspective, 18, pp. 31-35.

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2012) La construction de la multinationale “apatride”: le cas des entreprises mondiales de services professionnels. In: Mendez, Ariel, Tchobanian, Robert and Vion, Antoine (eds.) Travail, Compétences et Mondialisation: Les Dynamiques Sociétales en Question. Series: Armand Colin - recherches. Armand Colin: Paris. ISBN 9782200272685

2011

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2011) The global organizational design of the "Big Four" [opening case]. In: Peng, Mike and Meyer, Klaus (eds.) International Business. Cengage Learning: London : South-Western, pp. 456-457. ISBN 9781408019566

2010

Boussebaa, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Morgan, G. (2010) Amplifier consulting: managing a ‘global’ project [case]. In: Daft, Richard L., Murphy, Jonathan and Willmot, Hugh (eds.) Organization theory and design. Cengage Learning EMEA: 9781844809905, pp. 256-259. ISBN 9781844809905

Greenwood, Royston, Morris, Tim, Fairclough, Samantha and Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2010) The organizational design of transnational professional service firms. Organizational Dynamics, 39(2), pp. 173-183. (doi: 10.1016/j.orgdyn.2010.01.003)

2009

Spicer, André and Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2009) Managing conflict: the curious case of neuro-linguistic programming. In: Hancock, Philip and Tyler, Melissa (eds.) The Management of Everyday Life. Series: Palgrave critical management studies. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke ; New York, pp. 164-178. ISBN 9780230524798

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2009) Struggling to organize across national borders: the case of global resource management in professional service firms. Human Relations, 62(6), pp. 829-850. (doi: 10.1177/0018726709104544)

2008

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2008) Are Consultants Simply Bluffing? Sociologie du conseil en management by Michel Villette. Editions La Decouverte, Paris, 2003. 7.95. ISBN 2707140368. Organization, 15(2), pp. 298-300. (doi: 10.1177/13505084080150020702)[Book Review]

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2008) When the Party's Over: The Dark Side of Consulting Les Nettoyeurs by Vincent Petitet. Paris, editions Jean-Claude Lattes, 2006. 16. 248pp. ISBN 2709627302. Organization, 15(3), pp. 466-469. (doi: 10.1177/1350508408090167)[Book Review]

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 and Morgan, Glenn (2008) Managing talent across national borders: the challenges faced by an international retail group. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 4(1), pp. 25-41. (doi: 10.1108/17422040810849749)

This list was generated on Sat Nov 1 02:57:08 2025 GMT.

Jump to: Articles | Book Sections | Book Reviews | Edited Books

Number of items: 43.

Articles

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2014) Offshore call centre work is breeding a new colonialism. Conversation, 2014(Oct 21),

Boussebaa, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4283-2468 (2012) The globalisation of professional service firms (and its limits). Bath Perspective, 18, pp. 31-35.

Book Sections

Book Reviews

Edited Books

This list was generated on Sat Nov 1 02:57:08 2025 GMT.

Grants

BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, 2023
BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, 2020
International Research Mobility Award, LabexMed, Aix-Marseille Université, France, 2016
Research Seed Corn Fund Award, University of Bath School of Management, 2013
Research Seed Corn Fund Award, University of Bath School of Management, 2011
Research Mobility Award, Alberta School of Business, Canada, 2009
Strategic Development Fund Award, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, 2009
Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, Said Business School, University of Oxford, 2008-2009
Overseas Institutional Visit Award, ESRC, 2007

Supervision

Mehdi welcomes applications from prospective doctoral students interested in international business and society, as well as those looking to explore management and organisational issues in a global context. Please refer to Mehdi's 'Research Interests' section for potential topics.

Bristy, Jannatul Ferdous
Identity Regulation by Multinational Enterprises: A Postcolonial Perspective

Teaching

Mehdi has taught at all levels, both in the UK and internationally. His research-led teaching draws on a broad range of scholarship, including international business, organisation studies, international political economy and postcolonial thought. He is passionate about helping students develop an interdisciplinary and critical understanding of international business and management. He currently teaches on the following courses:

Global Business
International Management
Understanding Transnational Corporations

Additional information

Editorships

Co-Editor-in-Chief, Critical Perspectives on International Business, Emerald, since 01/2022
Associate Editor, Critical Perspectives on International Business, Emerald, since 01/2016-12/2021

Editorial Board Memberships

Organization, 08/2025 - present
Journal of Management Studies, 01/2021 - present
Human Relations, 09/2020 - present
Journal of World Business, 01/2017 - present
Organization Studies, since 2013
Journal of Professions & Organization, since 2013

Other

Visiting Professor, University of International Business & Economics, Beijing, China, 2017 - present
Fellow, Scaling Business in Africa (SBIA) consortium, University of Edinburgh, 10/2020 – present
Visiting Professor, University of Bath School of Management, 01/2017 - 01/2020
External Examiner, University of Edinburgh Business School, 2014-2018
Shortlisted for the Col. Lyndall F Urwick Memorial Prize, Worshipful Company of Management Consultants, 2016 and 2017
Research Fellow, Said Business School, University of Oxford, 2009-2018
Invited LabexMed Scholar, Aix-Marseille Université Aix-en-Provence, France, May 2016
Dean’s Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Research, University of Bath School of Management, 2015
Invited Visiting Lecturer, University of Tongji School of Management & Economics, Shanghai, China, September 2014
Invited Scholar, University of Lund School of Economics & Management, Sweden, May 2014
Finalist for the Carolyn Dexter Award for Best International Paper, US Academy of Management (All-Academy Award), 2014
Invited Scholar, Laboratoire d’Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (LEST), Aix-Marseille Université, Aix-en-Provence, May-June 2013
Dean’s Award for Research Excellence, University of Bath School of Management, 2012
Dean’s Award for Innovation & Enterprise, University of Bath School of Management, 2011

Mehdi Boussebaa, Professor in International Business

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