Professor Bahare Afrahi

Committed to high-quality education in entrepreneurship and innovation, I employ design thinking and experiential learning methodologies to keep my courses current and impactful. Beyond classroom instruction, I have initiated global PhD training and programmes that serve the broader business community.

Qualifications

• Design Thinking
• Innovation for Humanity
• User Experience (UX)
• Stanford University Teaching and Learning Innovation Certified
• Fellow of Higher Education Academy
• Teaching from Back of the Room

Course director

• Business Management and Entrepreneurship BSc (Hons)

Courses taught

• International Business Management MSc
• Business Management BSc (Hons)
• International Business BSc (Hons)
• Marketing and Advertising BSc (Hons)

My current PhD students are:

• Rebecca Halifax (2026)
• Bahareh Heidari (2024)
• Sopreye Thompson (2022)

My Past PhD students include:

Dr Unisa Dizo-Conteh (2020). Dizo was one of our most dedicated PhD candidates. His work focuses on Diasporas Networks, where he successfully defended his contribution to knowledge in 2024 and gained his PhD.

Qualifications

• Structural Equation Modelling
• FDS
• Imopact Evaluation
• General Quantitative Analysis

Specialisms

• Business Exit
• Work Disengagement - Work Engagement
• Entrepreneurs Health and Well-being
• Business Stress, Recovery from Stress among Business Owners
• Leadership of Innovation
• Innovation Management

Scholarly affiliations

• External examiner, University of Essex
• British Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Group
• Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Group
• European Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ECSB)
• The Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (CCSBE)

Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence 

2023-2026 £210,000

Help to Grow Management Programme 

Help to Grow Management Programme, £4.7 million, funded by Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) 

‘Help to Grow Management' project is funded by BEIS and is a growth programme for small business owners. It includes training, peer to peer knowledge transfer, and one to one business coaching. It helps the owner managers to develop the skills and the confidence to make difficult decisions about how to keep their enterprise afloat and boost growth and productivity.  

Help to Grow Management programme is a four-year funded project (2021- 2025) that not only generates over £4 million for Kingston University but also assists small business leaders in growing their businesses and allows us to carry industry project partnerships (two partnership projects have already received additional funding). Help to Grow Management program, has provided training to more than 350 business leaders across London and South Central in our first year of the project, and bringing over £2.5 million in income for Kingston University from August 2021 to January 2023. Within the programme, we have been fostering commercial partnerships with BEIS, allocating resources, and planning the programme delivery.  

To date, we have provided training for more business leaders than any other university across the country, with over 350 business leaders trained under my leadership. Additionally, I am a member of the curriculum design that oversees the development of case studies for the Help to Grow Management Programme across the UK. 

Our success has been recognised through various achievements, such as a visit from the Small Business Minister, Paul Scully and further funding for the industry partnership projects. I have also established networks of businesses that approach Kingston University and each other for support and attracted guest lecturers from participating businesses for KU students.  

Programme links 

• Help to Grow programme
• Help to Grow government campaign
• News article – Kingston's Help to Grow Management is more than just a management course

Small Business Leadership Programme 

Small Business Leadership Programme, £870,000, funded by BEIS 

The Small Business Leadership programme (funded by BEIS) at Kingston University was run in 2020 and brought in £870K to the business school. We successfully recruited of 294 business owners, and organised 12 cohorts, the most among the consortium members, over five months. This directly supported 294 business leaders and senior management team members from 260 companies. The condensed, 10-week programme was delivered online and included a mix of workshops, mentoring, and group work, providing opportunities for businesses to expand their networks and explore key topics such as leadership, innovation, employee engagement, operational efficiency, marketing, sustainable practices, and finance. Through the programme, entrepreneurs were able to improve their business resilience and recover from the impacts of Covid-19, while also developing capabilities for future growth and productivity.  

Programme links

• Small Business Leadership programme  
• News article – Kingston University supports small businesses hit by the Covid-19 pandemic by delivering government-funded leadership programme

Business Basics Programme

Business Basics Programme was another BEIS-funded project aimed at assisting 25 local businesses in adapting to digital technology. The project was a success, bringing in £50,000 to Kingston Business School over four months.  

Through the Business Basics Programme, we were  able to demonstrate the positive impact of personalized mentoring for micro businesses. Participating businesses were able to achieve their goals and priorities because of the one to one mentoring. This project helped to support the re-accreditation of the Small Business Charter, showcasing Kingston Business School's commitment to community partnership, knowledge exchange, and management knowledge. Also, this initial success led to further funding opportunities, including the Small Business Leadership Programme and the Help to Grow Management Project. 

Impact summary 

The impact of the Business Basics for the participating businesses was universally positive to participating businesses based on achieving (or contributing to the achievement) of business goals identified at the beginning of the programme.   

The impact of the Business Basics Kingston Business School was demonstrating the positive impact of personalised mentoring for microbusinesses in these businesses achieving their priorities and goals. The programme also supported the re-accreditation of Small Business Charter, demonstrating the school's community partnership, knowledge exchange, and management knowledge partnership.   

Impact of the projects

The Small Business Leadership, Help to Grow, and Business Basics projects have had a direct impact on the learning and employability of our students, who have gained valuable placements and consulting experience working with local businesses. Through these programmes, our students have developed the management capabilities needed to exploit the potential of people and digital technologies, analysed costs and benefits to make informed decisions, maximised the benefits of digital and new technology to increase productivity, and encouraged innovation and improved employee engagement within their businesses. 

Students' feedback and evidence

• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Qualifications and Professional expertise

• Project Leadership
• Project management
• Entrepreneur in Residence
• Small Business Solutions

• 2023. Better Health, Better Business. Entrepreneurs' recovery from work. Impact Case Study
• 2023. The Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS). Impact Case Study
• 2019. International Review of the Features and Functioning of Digital Business Diagnostic Tools: Supporting SME Productivity Growth and Inclusive Entrepreneurship This study for OECD, led by Robert Blackburn with Hang Do, and Bahare Afrahi, develops case studies of digital diagnostic tools for small business owners in four countries (UK, Ireland, France, and Australia).
• 2019. The Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS): Guesss is an international research project that examines the entrepreneurial intentions and activities of students using a geographical and temporal comparison. The eighth GUESSS edition was conducted in 2019 with 50 countries; more than 1000 universities, and more than 122,000 students took part.
• 2019. Productive Entrepreneurship: The project highlighted a range of effective policy approaches to developing a broad base of productive start-ups throughout the economy. The report provided an overview of policy approaches that have stimulated productive entrepreneurship across sectors and territories through support programmes and policy reforms delivered by the central government, directly or through entrepreneurship support institutions, subnational governments and other intermediary organisations.

Qualifications and expertise

• Quantitative Research
• Data Analysis
• Policy Impact

Professional and scholarly affiliations

• Field Expert: UK parliament

I am currently:

• Leading the planning, design, organisation, and delivery of work-related learning in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes as the founder of Kingston University Innovation Playground, and Director of Help to Grow Management.
• Working with our employability, placement, business development, and students' teams on future skills curriculum to help prepare students for the job market and entrepreneurship alike, through SMEs collaborative projects, hands-on work experience in user experience, design thinking, and other entrepreneurship-related modules within Kingston Business School and across various degrees. Also, curating opportunities for external people and companies to get involved with the school through the partnership collaboration with renowned Stanford University School and other higher institutions across the world (latest initiative).
• Leading the introduction and development of new educational initiatives that support learning and teaching and incorporating them into best practice through the Growth project, a 4-year government-funded user-driven and design-thinking-led project to help business leaders innovate that brought over £4 million to Kingston University.
• Leading the Help to Grow Management Programme, which has delivered leadership and management skills training to over 500 UK SME owner-managers since 2020.
• Providing high-quality teaching in business subject areas through undergraduate and postgraduate teaching activities, as well as professional courses taught, including Innovation, Organisation Design and Agile Teams, High-Performance Organisations, and Innovation for Autistic Entrepreneurs. My current students' feedback has been above 4.5/5, and I have won the 'friendliest staff award' by students across the University.
• Supervising PhD, MSc, and Undergraduate students and providing guidance on academic and pastoral issues.
• Currently serving as an external examiner for Birkbeck University London (MSc Innovation and MSc Marketing) and for the National Commission for Further and Higher Education in Malta.