Ambi Ambituuni

Ambi Ambituuni

Department of Management
Associate Professor in Project Management

Contact details

Address
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Ambi Ambituuni is an Associate Professor in Project Management and a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. His multi-disciplinary research work focuses on the intersection between systems and society mainly from two approaches. On one hand, his work focuses on the optimization of sociotechnical systems from the perspectives of sustainable governance, risk management and projects in society. On the other hand, he takes a critical perspective on the role of actors within systems and organizations. Ambi has published in many 3 and 4 star Chartered ABS journals and remains an active member of the project management community at national and international levels.

Qualifications

  • PhD, School of Civil Engineering and Geoscience (Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK)
  • MSc Project Management (Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK)
  • BSc (Hons) Building (Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria)
  • PG Cert in Learning & Teaching in Higher Education (Coventry University)
  • NEBOSH National Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety
  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
  • Member Associate for Project Management

Biography

Dr Ambi Ambituuni received his undergraduate degrees from Ahamdu Bello University, Zaria and proceeded to undertake an MSc in Project Management from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen after a few years working in the construction and telecommunications industry in Nigeria. He received his PhD from the School of Civil Engineering and Geoscience from Newcastle University where he worked on the risk management of petroleum transportation and distribution in Nigeria. 

Ambi is experienced in the management and leadership of teaching and learning and has held vital roles in the development of faculty-wide strategies. He has in-depth programme enhancement, leadership and development experience at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He oversaw many accreditation processes on various programmes. His industry experience also spans the oil and gas, and transport industries. He is a recipient of the prestigious Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) for both MSc and PhD and has won numerous research and executive training grants as the PI or Co-I from prestigious funders like NERC, AHRC, PTDF and DCMS. Ambi moved to University of Birmingham in 2022 and continues working very closely with industry in his research and teaching activities.

Teaching

Ambi’s teaching is research informed. He has been the module leader of project management courses for UG, MSc, MBA and Executive MBA programmes. He is always interested in the gamification of pedagogy and the use of computer simulations to provide employability skills.

Postgraduate supervision

Ambi has supervised over 60 MSc and MBA dissertations and 2 PhD students to completion. His current PhD supervision interests focuses on the broad areas of: Project and energy transition; Sustainability by and for projects; Transparency and anti-corruption; Projectification and governance issues; Managing risks in a safety-critical environment; Governance of extractive industries and the intersection with livelihoods, communities and conflict risks; Optimization of construction and operation of safety-critical assets; Risk resilience, recovery, reliability and systems integrity

Research

Research interests 

Ambi’s research interest covers Project and energy transition; Sustainability by and for projects; Transparency and anti-corruption; Projectification and governance issues; Managing risks in a safety-critical environment; Governance of extractive industries and the intersection with livelihoods, communities and conflict risks; Optimization of construction and operation of safety-critical assets; Risk resilience, recovery, reliability and systems integrity 

 Current projects 

Ambi is currently working on an AHRC funded research project that aimed at to developing an interdisciplinary network of academics and practitioners to innovatively combine livelihood studies, storytelling and risk management to develop an inclusive culturally informed livelihood recovery measures for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria? 

Through the public performance that took place in November 2022, Ambi and his team have generated and provoked ongoing community discourse on the plight of the IDPs. The team have created an active network of CSOs and members of the press to advocate for governmental and non-governmental interventions. 

The next stage of the project will leverage on this network to develop policy propositions and a risk management framework of interventions 

 

Publications

  • Ambituuni, A., and Azizsafaei, F., Keegan, A. (2022). HRM operational models and practices to enable strategic agility in PBOs: Managing paradoxical tensions. Journal of Business Research 133 (2021)170-182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.048 
  • Ejiogu, C., Ejiogu, A., and Ambituuni, A., (2021). Corruption fights back: Localizing transparency and EITI in the Nigerian “penkelemes”. Governance. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12530 
  • Ambituuni, A., (2020) Delivering major infrastructure projects effectively and efficiently. In Ochieng, E., Zoufa, T., and Badi, S. Planning and Management of Global Strategic Infrastructure. Routledge.
  • Ambituuni. A., E. Ochieng., and J. M. Amezaga. (2019).  Optimising the integrity of safety critical petroleum assets: A project conceptualisation approach. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. 66(2) pp. 208 – 223 
  • Ejiogu, A., Ejiogu, C. and Ambituuni, A. (2019). The dark side of transparency: problematising the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as a public sector transparency, accountability and anti-Corruption initiative. British Accounting Review 51(5) 100811. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2018.10.004 
  • Ambituuni, A., Ejiogu, C., Ejiogu, A., & Omar, M. (2019). Operational dilemmas in safety-critical industries: The tension between organizational reputational concerns and the effective communication of risk. Journal of Management & Organization, 1-18. doi:10.1017/jmo.2019.27 
  • Ejiogu, A., Ambituuni, A. and Ejiogu, C. (2018). Accounting for Accounting’s Role in the Neoliberalisation processes of Social Housing in England: A Bourdieusian Perspective on the introduction of Co-regulation. Critical perspective on accounting. Volume 80, October 2021, 102053. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2018.07.002 
  • Achterberg, H. L., Omar, M., Ambituuni, A., Roll, O., (2018) Facts or gut feelings: Analysis of external pricing antecedents for SMEs in Germany. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 886-901. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSBED-12-2017-0398 
  • Ambituuni, A., Amezaga, J.M. and Werner, D. (2015) 'Risk assessment of petroleum product transportation by road: A framework for regulatory improvement', Safety Science, 79(0), pp. 324-335. 
  • Ambituuni, A., Amezaga, J. M., Werner, D. (2015). "Risk management framework for safe transportation of petroleum products in Nigeria: Learning from past accidents and good practices." Risk Management 17(4): 329-351. 
  • Ambituuni, A., Hopkins, P., Amezaga, J.M., Werner, D., and Wood, J.M. (2015) Risk Assessment of a Petroleum Product Pipeline in Nigeria: The Realities of Managing Problems of Theft/Sabotage. in ‘Safety and Security Engineering V. 49–60. 
  • Ambituuni, A., Amezaga, J., Emeseh, E., 2014. Analysis of safety and environmental regulations for downstream petroleum industry operations in Nigeria: problems and prospects. Environmental. Development. 9, 43–60. (Q1 SJR Journal)  

•Urwin, G. and Ambituuni, A., (2020). Managing Project Knowledge. European Academy of Management EURAM 2020 Conference Proceedings. 37 p. 

• Ambituuni, A., and Azizsafaei, F., Keegan, A. (2019). Linking HRM to organizational agility in project-based organizations: an agile-oriented HRM perspective. European Academy of Management EURAM 2019 Conference, Lisbon, 26-28 June 2019. 

• Ambituuni, A., Omar, M., Ejiogu, C. & Ejiogu, A. (2018). Analysis of practices and implications of the use of information manipulation to support image repair during the disclosure safety critical incidents: the European Academy of Management EURAM 2018 Conference, Reykjavik, 19-22 June 2018. 

•Tschochohei, M., Ambituuni, A. Omar, M., He, Q., (2018). Investigating the drivers behind successful knowledge management activities in the context of German consultancy firms. 32st Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management (BAM), 4-6 September, 2018. UWE 

•Ejiogu, A., Ejiogu, C. and Ambituuni, A., (2018) Localizing Transparency and EITI in the Nigerian ‘Penkelemes’' British Accounting and Finance Asso (BAFA) conference, 10 – 11th April 2018, London

 

•Ambituuni, A., Ejiogu, A. and Ejiogu, C. (2017) “Trick or treat? Analysis of legitimation of a global extractive industry regulatory norm in a national regulatory space”, the 31st Annual Conference of British Academy of Management (BAM), 5-7 September, 2017, Warwick.

 

•Tschochohei, M., Omar, M., Ambituuni, A., He, Q., (2017) “Developing a comprehensive model of knowledge management processes and success factors: A study of German consultancy firms”. The 31st Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management (BAM), 5-7 Sept, 2017, Warwick

• Ejiogu, A., Ambituuni, A., and Ejiogu, C. (2017) “The role of accounting in the regulatory reform of social housing in England: A Bourdieusian Perspective”, 10th International Critical Management Conference (CMS) – 3rd -5th July 2017, Edge Hill Business School, Liverpool. 

• Ejiogu, A., Ejiogu, C. and Ambituuni, A. (2017). “The dark side of transparency: Problematising the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as a Public Sector Transparency, Accountability and Anti-Corruption Initiative”. The Accounting, Society and the Environment Research Workshop, October 2017, Heroit Watt University, Edinburgh 

• Ejiogu, A., Ejiogu, C. and Ambituuni, A. (2017) “Accounting for Accounting’s Role in the Neoliberalization Processes of Social Housing in England: A Bourdieusian Perspective”, the Accounting, Society and the Environment Research Workshop, May 2017. Edinburgh. 

• Ambituuni, A., Ejiogu, A. and Ejiogu, C (Forthcoming). Institutionalisation of anti-corruption in infrastructure projects. The role of the Global Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST). Technology Forecasting and Social Change. (in development) 3* ABS journal 

•Ambituuni, A., Ejiogu, A. and Ejiogu, C (Forthcoming). The power of discursive legitimation practices in the implementation of a global regulatory norm in Ghana. International Public Management Journal. (Newly Submitted) 3* ABS journal

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