Associate Professor Hamieda Parker

Biography

Dr Hamieda Parker lectures the Operations Management core course and the Global Supply Chain Management elective course on the MBA programme. She also lectures the Operations and Innovation Management Course on the Postgraduate Diploma in Management Program. Her doctoral research examined collaborative new product development involving new technology based firms and she completed the empirical work for this study as a Sainsbury Fellow based at Oxford University. She is an active researcher, and has conducted research in a number of different sectors, as well in different countries, South Africa, Britain and the USA.  She has also done research in very diverse environments, from examining multinationals in developed countries to small micro businesses in developing country contexts. She was awarded the Harvard- Mandela Fellowship to further her research on entrepreneurship amongst impoverished communities. At Harvard she conducted research on entrepreneurship amongst the Afro-American and Immigrant communities based around Harvard University. She presented her research at the Du Bois Seminar Series at Harvard during the Fall Term 2003.  Her current research is closely linked to her interest in improving the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector and the development of innovation capabilities in firms. This research has been supported by the NRF, and since 2010 she has received funding for this research under the NRF Rating Track Initiative. She worked as a process and product development engineer after completing a Chemical Engineering degree (UCT). In this role she successfully developed a number of innovative products and coordinated multifunctional teams for the resolution of production and operations related problems. On completing her MBA at UCT she was selected to go to the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania in the USA, as a business consultant at the Wharton Entrepreneurship Centre. There she was awarded a certificate for completing the Advanced Entrepreneurship Program.  While at Wharton she lectured on the basic Business Planning Course and she provided strategic, operational and marketing consulting services to a portfolio of companies ranging from start-up to $10 million in sales.

Research Interest

Operations; Supply Chain Management; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and New Product Development