Professor of Entrepreneurship & Strategy and Research Associate for Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Strategy at The Business School, Edinburgh Napier University-Scotland and Senior Management Consultant and Partner at Cloud Analytika-London-United Kingdom
Topic of Presentation: “Innovation Culture as a Driver of a Firm’s Innovation Excellence: Evidence from Apple and Huawei”
Dr. Okanga is the Research Associate for Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Strategy at The Business School, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland-UK and a former Associate Professor for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Strategy at the Department of Business Management, University of Johannesburg-South Africa. Okanga is also a Senior Management Consultant and Partner at Cloud Analytika-London-UK. He holds a PhD in Business Management from the University of Johannesburg. Having lectured across Business Schools like Milpark Business School, MANCOSA and London school of Business-South Africa over the past thirteen years, Dr Okanga’s teaching and research interests span across strategic management, innovation, digital business management, business analytics and intelligence analysis, strategy, entrepreneurship, strategic marketing and operations management. He also holds an MBA (Entrepreneurship & Innovation) Degree from Edinburgh Napier University (Scotland) and an MBA (Masters of Business Administration) Degree from the Management College of Southern Africa, Masters of Laws-LLM (with Specialisation in Multinational Corporate Laws & International Environmental Law) from the University of Johannesburg and LLB (Bachelor of Laws with specialisation in Commercial and Corporate Laws) Degree from the University of London-UK. Besides working on several government and private business projects in partnership with other Consulting Firms as a Management Consultant at Cloud Analytika-London, UK and The South African Institute of Strategic Management and Business Research, Johannesburg-South Africa, Dr Okanga is also a visiting adjunct Professor at the Uganda Management Institute, Kampala-Uganda. Okanga is a widely published scholar and is also a member of the Scientific Committee and Reviewers’ Board for GlobalKS (Academic Conferences & Global Knowledge Sharing), Vilnius, Lithuania. In addition to inter alia being a Winner of the University of Johannesburg Postdoctoral Research Excellence Award 2018, Dr Okanga is also a Member of the Editorial Board of Universal Journal of Financial Economics-Singapore as well as an External Examiner for several Universities around the world.
Professor of Economics and Statistics, California State University, Los Angeles, USA
Title of Keynote Address: Machine learning in Economics and Finance: A promising interplay between Statistics and Computer Science
Sunil Sapra is a Professor of Economics and Statistics at California State University, Los Angeles. He has also taught at State University of New York at Buffalo and International School of Management, Paris and has been an ASA/NSF/Census Fellow at the United States Bureau of the Census, Washington D.C. He earned his Ph.D. in Econometrics from Columbia University, New York. The main areas of his research are Econometrics and Statistics. His current research focuses on nonlinear and nonparametric regression and time series analysis, high-dimensional data analysis, robust estimation (especially high-breakdown point estimation), semi-parametric estimation of econometric models, resampling techniques, and the counting process approach to transition data analysis. He has published more than 80 articles in statistics and econometrics journals. His research on semi-parametric econometrics, missing data problems, nonlinear statistical and econometric models, robust statistical procedures, limited dependent variables and duration data analysis has been published in journals. He teaches Econometrics, Business Statistics, Forecasting, and International Economics. His research has been cited widely in statistics and econometrics textbooks and journals. He has been listed in Who’s Who among American Teachers and Educators (11th Edition, 2007). He received the Outstanding Professor Award from California State University, Los Angeles in 2003.
Dr. Muhammad Abdur Rahman Malik
Dr. Muhammad Abdur Rahman Malik is Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at LUMS University in Pakistan. His areas of research interest are creativity, personality, leadership, and motivation. He has presented his research in top global conferences such as Academy of Management, European Academy of Management, and British Academy of Management. His research has been published in journals such as Journal of Organizational Behavior, Personnel Review, and Applied Psychology.
Mr. Ademola Emmanuel Ayodele
Mr. Ademola Emmanuel Ayodele is a Lecturer at Faculty of Management Sciences in the Department of Finance, Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria. He is currently a PhD candidate at Wits Business School, South Africa. He has several publications in monetary and development economics, financial development, agricultural finance, and banking issues both international and local journals.
Ms. Mengni Fu
Ms. Mengni is a current research student and upcoming PhD candidate at the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management in Griffith University, Australia. She holds a master’s degree in Financial Management from Australian National University. Her current research interest is in the application of self-service technologies in hospitality services, particularly focusing on the post-pandemic era and Generation Z.
Ms. Marzieh Aghileh
Ms. Marzieh Aghileh is a Ph.D. student at University of Minho, Portugal. She held her B.Sc. and also MSc in Industrial Engineering. Her research interests are in the scope of Project Management, Optimization, Innovation, and Knowledge Management. She has published several papers for international conferences.
Ms. Purba Bhattacherjee
Ms. Purba Bhattacherjee has pursued a B.COM (accountancy) and M.COM(finance) from JWC, Jamshedpur. As a budding researcher, she is pursuing PhD in finance and working as a visiting faculty for the course “Quantitative Techniques” at XIM University, Bhubaneshwar. Her area of interest is ESG investments, financial reporting and financial distress.
Ms. Ece Nur Değirmenci
Ms. Ece Nur Değirmenci is a graduate of Istanbul University. She received her master degree at Marmara University in 2021. She is a PhD student and research assistant at Gebze Technical University. She is studying on the fields of management and organization, organizational behavior and strategic management.
He is Prof. Dr. Siswoyo Haryono, M.M., M.Ed., a Ph.D. and a Professor of HRM at the Ph.D. in Management, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. His current position is as a permanent lecturer and researcher at the UMY Research and Innovation Institute. He wrote several books on HRM and SEM Methods for Management research, all of which got Intellectual Property Rights.
Dr. Okanga holds the University of Johannesburg’s PhD (Business Management), Edinburgh Napier University’s MBA (Innovation and Entrepreneurship) and a UJ Postdoctoral Research Fellows’ Excellence Award. Having held the Associate Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship position at the University of Johannesburg-South Africa. Dr. Okanga is presently the Associate R&D Management Researcher at Edinburgh Napier University-Scotland, a Consultant at Cloud Analytika-London and a visiting Associate Consultant at Uganda Management Institute-Kampala.
Engr. Dr. Chinedu Ogwus is Head, ECP/GSR Purchasing in Contracts & Procurement of TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited, Lagos, with 20 years Oil & Gas experience, with PhD in Ethical Leadership of the St. Thomas University, Florida USA. He is Chartered Manager (CMgr) and Fellow of CMI UK, and a licensed Chartered Engineer (CEng) UK and int’l Professional Engineer IntPE(UK).
Aaron Pohlmann is a Ph.D. candidate and research assistant at the University of Tuebingen since 2020. His research focus lies in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, with a focus on their early stages. Other fields of interest include (social) networks as well as environmental and cultural aspects of entrepreneurship.
Skaistė Jurėnė is a Ph.D. student at the Vilnius University Kaunas faculty. Her research area is audience engagement and development, creative and cultural industries, creative cities, and clusters. Existing theoretical knowledge of the CCI sector is supplemented by more than five years of practical experience as a theatre manager.
