School staff
Dr Crispin Coombs BA, UW Aberystwyth; MA, Manchester; MSc De Montfort, PhD, Loughborough, FHEA
Senior Lecturer in Information Systems
Dr Crispin Coombs is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems. Dr Coombs joined the School of Business and Economics (SBE) as a Lecturer in 2003 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2010. Prior to joining SBE he worked for the NHS Modernisation Agency. He has been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2007. He is an experienced and successful leader within the Business School environment, undertaking management roles covering (at various times) knowledge transfer partnerships, externally funded research projects and undergraduate visit and open days.
Dr Coombs is committed to generating research income and has secured just under £0.5 million in research funding since 2004. This income has come from a range of funding bodies including ESRC, NIHR SDO Programme, Department of Health and Department of Business Innovation and Skills. Dr Coombs is currently leading an NIHR SDO funded project as Principal Investigator studying Managers’ Decision Making. Previous funded studies have investigated the development of a Clinical Trials Support System (CTSS) using a benefit focused approach and the relationships between Critical Success Factors (CSF) in Warehouse Management System (WMS) development projects.
Dr Coombs’ research, teaching and consultancy involve all aspects of information systems and their management. Particular interests include benefits realization management from information systems, the organisational impact of information systems, the treatment of organisational issues to develop successful information systems, the application of information systems in the healthcare environment and the recruitment and retention of IT/IS professionals. He has authored over 40 articles in academic and professional journals and conferences including European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Information & Management, Journal of End User Computing, Corporate Reputation Review, European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Academy of Management (AoM), UK Association of Information Systems (UKAIS), European Conference on Knowledge Management (ECKM), European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (ECIME) and four official reports.
Dr Coombs is committed to serving the IS academia. To this end, he reviews for major IS conferences (ECIS, ICIS) on a regular basis, is a regular member of the IADIS Information Systems conference committee and has been a session chair at ECIS. He is a regular academic reviewer for the European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Information Systems and Information Technology and People. He has also been an invited grant and project report reviewer for Department of Health Policy Research Programme, ESRC and the Health Foundation.
Dr Coombs is committed to the supervision and development of research students and plans to continue his high level of activity in this area. He has co-supervised several research students to successful completion, with several more nearing completion. He is a regular internal doctoral examiner at the SBE as well as having been external examiner at the University of Sydney. Recent PhD research supervision topics include, career orientations in IT, benefits realization from ERP systems, an organizational sub-culture perspective on the diffusion of management information systems and a knowledge-based perspective on strategic change. Please contact him directly, with your CV and a preliminary research proposal, if you are looking for a place under his supervision at the SBE.
Dr Coombs is an experienced teacher and facilitator, teaching on undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA programmes. His teaching draws on a variety of mediums including case-studies, videos and lecture capture and has always been very well received. Dr Coombs has also regularly contributed to professional courses on Information Management organised by the School of Business and Economics Professional and Management Development Centre teaching delegates working in SMEs, the public sector and blue chip companies such as Thomas Cook, NG Bailey and Aggregate Industries. He has taught information management to professionals in Singapore since 2007 as part of the SBE Singapore Programme. Dr Coombs also acts the main SBE contact for the SAP University Alliance programme and contributes to the teaching of SAP at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
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