Dr Aylin Ates
Reader
Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation
Personal statement
Dr Aylin Ates is a Reader in Strategy and Innovation at Strathclyde Business School with an internationally recognised research profile. She is co-leading the University Research Theme “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”. Her research delivers clear academic, policy, and business impact by advancing understanding of how manufacturing ecosystems including SMEs build adaptive and resilient capabilities in response to technological disruption, economic shocks, and sustainability challenges.
Aylin’s work has directly informed international policy and practice, including expert advisory roles for the UNIDO and citations in ILO policy reports on business resilience. Through sustained collaboration with industry and policymakers, her research has shaped debates on SME viability, co-opetition, circular economy and digital transformation within high-value manufacturing ecosystems.
She has secured and led a total of £4.5M external funding from bodies including UKRI, Innovate UK, ESRC, European Space Agency, ERDF, and EU Framework Programmes, with a strong emphasis on knowledge exchange and translational impact. She has delivered multiple high-impact Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) projects resulting in demonstrable organisational transformation, energy and resource efficiency, productivity gains, and new business models.
She is a highly regarded educator, teaching across Master’s and MBA programmes, and brings extensive expertise in strategy, innovation, and growth in dynamic and uncertain environments. With over 80 research outputs and deep industry collaborations, she blends academic rigour with real-world relevance, a hallmark of the Strathclyde MBA/ Exec MBA experience.
She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Strathclyde, and a BSc (Hons) in Industrial Engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Management in Turkiye.
External Roles:
- Expert Evaluator and Rapporteur for the European Commission Horizon programme
- Expert Evaluator for The Swiss National Science Foundation
- Expert Advisor for the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)
- Expert Evaluator for the National Science Centre Poland
- Co-Editor in Chief, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management
- Editorial Board Member, European Journal of Management & Research-Technology Management
- European Academy of Management – Scientific Council Member, Grants Committee Member, Mentor for Early Career Researchers
- Expert Reviewer for UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships
- British Academy of Management - Member of the Peer Review College, External Reviewer for Grants
Area of Expertise
- Strategic management (with particular reference to manufacturing small and medium enterprises-SMEs)
- Organisational resilience
- Innovation & Digital transformation
- Co-opetition strategies and circular business models in manufacturing ecosystems
I supervise UG, MSc, MBA and PhD/DBA projects in the area of strategic management, performance management, innovation, technology and change management.
Prize And Awards
- Short Listed for The Holland Award 2024 by Research-Technology Management Journal
- Recipient
- 2/4/2025
- Finalist in the 2024 Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) Awards - Best Business Impact and Transformation Award
- Recipient
- 10/7/2024
- Nominee for Strathclyde Business School Teaching Excellence Awards 2023/24 (Category: Student Support and Building a Sense of Community)
- Recipient
- 30/5/2024
- Nominee for Strathclyde Business School Knowledge Exchange Awards (Innovator with Future Impact)
- Recipient
- 1/6/2023
- Best Paper Award at the British Academy of Management Conference 2019
- Recipient
- 5/9/2019
- Nominee for Researcher Development Programme Supervisor of 2017/18 (PGR)
- Recipient
- 2018
Publications
- Building business models in complex manufacturing towards the circular economy
- Ates Aylin, Paton Steve, Sminia Harry
- BAM 2025: 39th Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management (2025)
- Revisiting co-opetition dynamics and key success factors via an intuitionistic fuzzy cognitive mapping approach
- Konyalioglu Aziz Kemal, Ates Aylin, Paton Steve
- BAM 2025: 39th Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management (2025)
- Prioritising critical success factors in coopetition using an integrated spherical fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (SF-AHP) approach and document coding
- Konyalioglu Aziz Kemal, Ates Aylin, Paton Steve
- EURAM 2025 Conference (2025)
- The Gender Index 2025: Scotland Narrative
- Shaw Eleanor, Lall Saurabh, Sahasranamam Sreevas, Mwaura Samuel, Ates Aylin, Lassalle Paul
- The Gender Index 2025 (2025) (2025)
- From transfer to co-creation : action research perspectives in knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) projects
- Ates Aylin, Paton Steve, Bititci Umit, Konyalioğlu Aziz Kemal
- Production Planning and Control Vol 36, pp. 236-249 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2024.2335475
- Understanding coopetition dynamics in manufacturing value networks : a system dynamics based causal loop diagram (CLD) modelling approach
- Konyalioglu Aziz Kemal, Ates Aylin, Paton Steve, Beldek Apaydın Tuğçe
- Advances in Production Management Systems Advances in Production Management Systems (APMS) Conference 2024 IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology Vol 731, pp. 19–33 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-71645-4_2
Teaching
Currently, I am the Module Leader for Applied Strategic Management for Stratchlyde MBA/Exec MBA and International Centres.
I design and deliver modules on Strategic Management, Technology and Organisational Change and Consulting within post-graduate MSc and MBA levels as well as post-experience corporate education programmes.
Research Interests
My research interests cover the areas of strategic management, innovation, digital transformation, circular business models, and manufacturing ecosystems mainly in small and medium enterprise (SME) context. I use qualitative data analysis techniques and happy to consider PhD applications in these fields.
Professional Activities
- IRI Workshop: Innovation in Action: A Case Study Workshop on Disciplined Innovation
- Speaker
- 30/9/2025
- Expert Evaluator & Rapporteur for the European Commission Horizon Europe Programme
- External Examiner
- 23/9/2025
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Organisational unit)
- Chair
- 1/8/2025
- External Examiner for PhD Viva (Benjamin Lee), Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow
- External Examiner
- 17/6/2025
- ReMake Glasgow: Circular Manufacturing Showcase - “Circular business models for value retention in high-integrity sector”
- Speaker
- 24/4/2025
- Internal Examiner for PhD Viva (Spyridon Gkikas Panousis)
- Examiner
- 4/4/2025
Projects
- Made Smarter Innovation - Amplifying the Impact of Ingeract
- MacBryde, Jillian (Principal Investigator) Ates, Aylin (Co-investigator) Lindsay, Colin (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2025 - 31-Jan-2026
- Innovate UK, Interface Standard Innovation Voucher - Innovative Business Model for CASKFILL and CASKLOG - £5,000
- Paton, Steve (Principal Investigator) Ates, Aylin (Co-investigator)
- £5000 budget
- 13-Jan-2024 - 30-Jan-2024
- Boosting Strategic Capability: Process and Product Management in Small Satellite Innovation
- Ates, Aylin (Principal Investigator) Paton, Steve (Co-investigator)
- Demand for high-quality, timely data from space has never been greater and the increasing commercial interest means businesses must adapt to respond to the global opportunity.
Following an active period of acquisition, integration and expansion Clyde Space is now planning the next phase of growth, with a focus on building and launching its own constellation of satellites to establish a leading position in the supply of Space-Data-as-a-Service.
Strathclyde University will support development of a scalable organisational operating model to facilitate efficient and effective revenue growth and capability development in the short-, medium- and long-term through the implementation of innovative solutions. - 01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2022
- KTP - Leonardo
- Paton, Steve (Principal Investigator) Ates, Aylin (Co-investigator) Sminia, Harry (Co-investigator)
- 04-Jan-2019 - 03-Jan-2021
- Entrepreneurship Masterclass: Creating and Maintaining Competitive Advantage
- Shaw, Eleanor (Principal Investigator) Ates, Aylin (Academic)
- Creating and sustaining a competitive advantage has become increasingly difficult in an ever-changing and dynamic environment. Businesses need to be adept at strategic thinking and strategic analysis and find ways to enhance impact, value and performance. This Masterclass taught approximately 25 business owners and entrepreneurs the tools and techniques to stay ahead of the game.
- 20-Jan-2019 - 19-Jan-2021
- Development of Green and Sustainable Ship Recycling Industry for Indonesia (Newton Fund)
- Kurt, Rafet (Principal Investigator) Ates, Aylin (Co-investigator) FARIYA, Siti (Researcher) Gunbeyaz, Sefer Anil (Researcher)
- 01-Jan-2019 - 28-Jan-2021
Contact
Dr
Aylin
Ates
Reader
Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation
Email: aylin.ates@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 553 6122