Professor Don Webber

FHEA BSc(Hons.) PG(Cert.)TLHE MA PhD

Management School

Head of Entrepreneurship, Strategy and International Business Subject Group

Chair in Managerial Economics

Don Webber
Profile picture of Don Webber
d.j.webber@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Professor Don Webber
Management School
Sheffield University Management School
Conduit Road
Sheffield
S10 1FL
Profile

Look out for Don's third book:

Bennett, L., Webber, D.J. and Brooks, C. (forthcoming) Developing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Place, Processes, People. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham


Don’s research focuses on two main areas, which each have numerous dimensions:

  1. Productivity and economic growth as understood under the two-dimensional perspective (see paper with Gissell Huaccha below). This 2D perspective questions whether GDP and GVA reflect productivity efficiency, productive effectiveness, and/or technological improvements. Instead, the 2D perspective relates GDP and GVA to market power, persuasive advertising, and in particular demand management as forces that drive up the GDP and GVA measures of growth and productivity.
  2. The academic research ecosystem – i.e. how universities and the people within and outside of them enable, enhance, constrain, or belittle, etc. each other’s academic research activities and the prominence of their findings. This has huge implications for our ability to produce research output for the benefit of society.

Don is open to media approaches to discuss topics of economic growth, productivity, tariffs, austerity, and the levelling up agenda.

Don is very interested in supporting our next generation of academic researchers and working with them to achieve their potential, including PhD students. Prospective PhD students researching the above or closely connected topics are encouraged to contact him for further discussion. He is very open to quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research.

Don has written over 100 academic peer-reviewed articles and led or collaborated on £2.3m of externally funded research. His work has been discussed at the United Nation's International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Welsh Government and elsewhere.

Research interests
  • Productivity
  • Health
  • Education
  • Regions
  • Heterodoxy
Publications

Books

  • Hughes E, Webber D & Parry G (2024) MIGRATION, MOBILITY AND THE CREATIVE CLASS.. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Webber DJ (2021) How to Enhance Your Research 100 Practical Tips for Academics. Edward Elgar Publishing. RIS download Bibtex download

Edited books

  • Bosworth G, Chapman P, Newbery R, Steiner A & Webber D (Eds.) (2025) Rural Entrepreneurship: Harvesting Ideas and Sowing New Seeds. Leeds, England.: Emerald Publishing Limited. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

  • Squires G & Webber DJ (2020) Fluctuating regional house price affordability and the irrelevance of mortgage rates. 2018 Joint Asia-Pacific Network for Housing Research and Australasian Housing Researchers Conference, APNHR and AHRC 2018 - Proceedings (pp 135-152) RIS download Bibtex download

Preprints

Research group

Entrepreneurship, Strategy and International Business

Grants
  • (2016 - 2018) Welsh Government ‘Understanding productivity variations between England and Wales: A Reassessment’ with Anthony Plumridge and Michael Horswell)
  • (2015 - 2016) Welsh Government ‘Understanding productivity variations between England and Wales’ (with Anthony Plumridge and Michael Horswell)
  • (2014 - 2016) Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Bristol and Bath by Design (with Hoskins, S., C. McMahon, A. Noonan, G. Parry, G. Morton and A. Taylor) http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/30375/1/2016%20BBxD_FinalReport_.pdf
  • (2012 - 2014) Joseph Rowntree Foundation ‘'How can employment and skills policy or practice reduce poverty?’ (with Page, D., Veliziotis, M. and Johnson, S.) http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/does-poor-health-affect-employment-transitions
Teaching interests

I believe in research-led teaching and incorporate this into my teaching practice through, for example, the use of contemporary case studies and findings from my own research.

PhD supervision

Prospective PhD students who wish to study productivity (very broadly defined), health, education and/or geographically-related issues are encouraged to contact Don for further discussion. He is very open to qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research.

Professor Don Webber supervises:

He has previously supervised:

NameThesis titleYear of completion
Alex RickettsAn investigation into South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service's use of social media for community disaster resilience2025
Laura BennettUnderstanding the mechanisms of entrepreneurial ecosystems: An examination of place, processes, people, and perspectives.2023

Are you interested in applying for a PhD?

Find out how to apply