All Staff Members | University of Cumbria

Biography

I have been a lecturer in the Institute of Business, Industry and Leadership since 2021, focusing on research methods together with innovation, responsibility and sustainability. My research interests include sustainable business models in the digital platform economy; stakeholder involvement in organisational governance; mentoring and leadership; and psychological issues in groups and organisations. Prior to working at the University of Cumbria, I gained 15 years of experience in the UK voluntary sector, with 10 of those years in a senior management role. I am a member of the Chartered Management Institute and the Organization Design Community.

Qualifications and memberships

PhD in Digital Innovation awarded in 2019 from Lancaster University, thesis titled “The Entrepreneur as System Architect: designing narrative forms of open source business model”.

MRes in Digital Innovation awarded with Distinction in 2013 from Lancaster University, which included a dissertation length project, “Sustainable micro-business: can virtual guilds offer a solution?”.

MA in Social Enterprise Management, awarded with Distinction in 2011 from Liverpool John Moores University, which included a dissertation, “The Effectiveness of Stakeholder Involvement in Social Enterprise Management”.

Member of the Chartered Management Institute (MCMI) since 2006.

Academic and research interests

Sustainable business models in the digital platform economy.

The potential of digital platforms to enable guild-like organisational networks.

The potential of artificial intelligence to facilitate data collection and analysis for participatory design.

Group dynamics and unconscious issues in organisations that operate for social or environmental benefit.

Research supervision

The wider applicability of open source in business, particularly business models.

The potential of AI in a business context.

Sustainable business models that can enable the Fifth Industrial Revolution.

The potential for guild-like organisational models and networks.

The balance between stakeholder involvement and decision-making in organisations that operate for social or environmental benefit.

Group dynamics in an organisational context.

Design and narrative approaches to entrepreneurial research.

Publications

Academic journal articles

Larner, J. and Walldius, Å. (2019). The Platform Review Alliance Board: designing an organizational model to bring together producers and consumers in the review and commissioning of platform software. Journal of Organization Design, 8:14, 1-11.

Larner J., Cheverst K., MacDonald M., Hoile, C. and Soutar, A. (2017). The open source guild: creating more sustainable enterprise? Journal of Management Development, 36:1, 71-80.

Larner, J. and Mason, C. (2014). Beyond Box-Ticking: A Study of Stakeholder Involvement in Social Enterprise Governance. Corporate Governance, 14:2, 181-196.

Academic conference presentations

Larner, J. (2020). Annotated portfolios for market design in the sharing economy. Presented at the NordiCHI Workshop Sharing & Cooperativism: Designing For Economies, October 2020, Tallinn, Estonia.

Larner, J. (2019). Reflective ethnographic design of collaborative economy models using annotated portfolios. Ethnographies of Collaborative Economies Conference, October 2019, Edinburgh, UK.

Larner, J. and Walldius, Å. (2018). The Platform Review Alliance Board. JOD Conference: New Trends in Organization Design, May 2018, Sandbjerg, Denmark.

Larner, J. and Walldius, Å. (2017). Exploring a new producer-consumer interaction model for facilitating collective action in the collaborative economy. Democracy and Participation in the 21st Century Conference, July 2017, Lisbon, Portugal.

Larner, J. and Mullagh, L. (2017). Critical reflection on data publics: a multi-methodology perspective. Data Publics Conference, March 2017, Lancaster, UK.

Larner, J. (2016). Using personas and scenarios in co-creating stakeholder involvement in organisational governance. International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISIRC), September 2016, Glasgow, UK.

Larner, J. (2016). Broadening Collective Networks for Sustainability: Can the Open Source Guild be a Solution? Design Patterns, Principles, and Strategies for Sustainable HCI workshop at the CHI 2016 conference, May 2016, San Jose, USA.

MacDonald, M. and Larner, J. (2015). Co-Created Personas: Engaging Stakeholders in Organisational Design. The Working and Communicating with Communities event reflecting on A Cross-Cultural Working Group on Good Culture and Precariousness, June 2015, Lancaster, UK.

Larner, J. (2014). Value-led Personas: A Methodology to Promote Sustainable User-centered Design? NordiCHI Doctoral Consortium, October 2014, Helsinki, Finland.

Larner, J. (2013). Open source guilds: enabling micro-businesses to create a sustainable community of practice? Digital Economy Conference, November 2013, Salford, UK.

Larner, J. (2012). The Psychological Implications of Stakeholder Involvement in Social Enterprise Governance. International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISIRC), September 2012, Birmingham, UK.

Other publications

Larner, J. (2022). Larner J., Reflective ethnographic design of collaborative economy business models using annotated portfolios in Ethnographies of Collaborative Economies across Europe: Understanding Sharing and Caring. London: Ubiquity Press.

Larner, J. (2021). The Open Source Platform Federation Business Model in Becoming a Platform in Europe – On the Governance of the Collaborative Economy. Edited by Maurizio Teli and Chiara Bassetti. pp. 179–209. Delft: Now Publishers.

Larner, J. (2019). The entrepreneur as system architect: Designing narrative forms of open source business model (Doctoral dissertation, Lancaster University).

MacDonald, M., Soetanto, D.P., Luig, K., Brouwer, J., Gerőházi, E., Szemzo, H., Maskell, J. and Larner, J. (2014). Conceptual model of SME network economy business and e-marketplace. EU FP7 Proficient Project Report.