Dr Akash Puranik
PhD, BBA, MBA, PGCE, MRES

Akash has taught across undergraduate, postgraduate, MBA, and degree apprenticeship provision within UK higher education. At Solent, he leads and supervises research‑intensive modules including Final Major Project and Research Methods (postgraduate and apprenticeships) and teaches Strategic Management at undergraduate level.

Prior to and alongside his role at Solent, Akash designed and delivered modules for MBA and business programmes at the University of Wales, Glyndŵr University, Arden University, and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. His teaching experience spans strategy, marketing, business environment, consultancy skills, teamwork and communication, research methods, and community engagement, delivered across face‑to‑face, blended, and fully online formats.

Akash’s research lies at the intersection of informal organising, collaboration, and strategy‑in‑practice, with a particular focus on ethical and moral decision‑making in everyday collaborative work. Methodologically, his work centres on qualitative and ethnographic approaches, including reflexivity, disorder, and methodological “messiness” in research practice.

Puranik, A. & Gibbs, R. (2026 forthcoming). Strategic Partnership Management. Routledge (final manuscript submitted).

Puranik, A. & Scullion, R. (2025). Online lecturer: a lonely performer – how relational pedagogies are (re)enacted in digital spaces. Journal of Organizational Ethnography

Puranik, A. (2021). Exploring informal collaborations: Organising for social good beyond formal structures. Doctoral thesis, The Open University.

Cooper, M. & Puranik, A. (2014). The elements driving higher education students’ choice of institution. The International Journal of Learning in Higher Education, 20(3), 1–12.

Select conference publications:

(2023) Online lecturer: a lonely performer, International Critical Management Studies Conference, Nottingham.

(2021) The human work of collaboration, International Symposium on Process Organization Studies.

(2021) Theory‑building through a processual structurationist perspective, First Colloquium on Philosophy and Organization Studies.

(2019) (Dis)ordering within and through a chaotic method, Annual Ethnography Symposium, Portsmouth – Best Paper Presentation.

(2019) Making sense of mess, International Critical Management Studies Conference, Milton Keynes.

(2018) Matter(s) of access, International Symposium on Process Organization Studies.

(2017) Conceptualising informal “good for community” collaborations, International Symposium on Process Organization Studies.

(2017) Collaborating informally to create social value, Voluntary Sector Studies Network Conference.

(2016) Social capital within collaborative charitable events, British Academy of Management Conference.

• STAR Award for Excellence in Research and Knowledge Exchange (2025)
• Vice‑Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contribution (2020)