Dr Ali Bayat

702 MacRobert Building, Kings College, Aberdeen, AB24 5UA· ali.bayat@abdn.ac.uk

Ali is a management scholar and a data scientist. His research addresses contemporary business challenges in leadership, governance and sustainability. His award-winning research in corporate governance is published in international peer-reviewed journals and has been featured in press releases. He regularly presents at management and finance conferences and delivers invited talks at workshops and seminars.

Ali advocates a decision-making model that blends domain expertise with empirical evidence. While intuition still guides managerial judgement in many organisations, the rise of big data and advanced analytics now enables practitioners to rigorously test strategic questions. He has expertise in Bayesian modelling, econometrics and machine-learning methods for solving strategic management, governance and sustainability problems, and he collaborates with corporate, public-sector and nonprofit partners to help them develop evidence-based strategies.

As an educator and mentor, Ali has lectured in executive programmes and served as Programme Director of the MBA Global programme at the University of Aberdeen. He designs and delivers advanced courses in evidence-based decision making, big-data analytics, research methods, corporate governance and sustainability strategy.

He earned his MSc and PhD in Business Management from Alliance Manchester Business School and has been an Assistant Professor in Business Management at the University of Aberdeen since 2018.

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Research

Data and Decision

Data is now your most candid adviser: every process, meeting, and transaction leaves a digital fingerprint that reveals how the organisation really runs, and leaders who turn those signals into insight will outpace rivals. The payoff lies in clearer, faster calls on capital, operations, and talent, provided evidence is framed for specific choices, translated by experts who bridge statistics and strategy, and underpinned by firm rules on data quality and bias. This intersection of digitisation, big data, and evidence-based decision making is the core of Ali's research agenda; he studies how organisations can design these translator roles, build trustworthy data pipelines, and ultimately convert their digital footprints into durable advantage.

Governance, ESG and Sustainability

Governance is not a compliance checkbox; it is the practical system that keeps decision makers accountable and helps organisations steer through uncertainty. Management today is less about writing plans and more about enforcing fairness in resource allocation, rewarding genuine performance, and stripping out the noise and bias that invite manipulation. Whenever leaders allocate capital, assess talent, or set targets, they are exercising governance. ESG and sustainability enter that conversation not as slogans but because investors, regulators, and customers increasingly price environmental and social factors into risk and opportunity. Ali's research examines how evidence-based governance (from board oversight to day-to-day resource decisions) can keep firms financially resilient while meeting the responsibilities that the market now demands.

Publications

ESG rating uncertainty: Causes, consequences and potential remedies

Working Paper, 2025

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The cultural foundations of corporate control: An empirical enquiry

European Corporate Governance Institute Finance Working Paper, 2025

Bayat, A., Goergen, M., Kawalek, P.

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CEO political ideology and payout policy

Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 172, 107375 (2025)

Bayat, A., Goergen, M.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2024.107375 · Open Access PDF

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The impact of CEO political ideology on labor cost reductions and payout decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic

Journal of Corporate Finance, Vol. 90, 102692 (2025)

Bayat, A., Goergen, M., Koutroumpis, P., Wei, X.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2024.102692 · Open Access PDF

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Skills

Research

With a background in management research, Ali brings a deep understanding of the challenges that top executives face, from shaping corporate strategy and guiding leadership teams to tackling board-level governance issues. He is also well-versed in sustainability, with expertise in ESG strategy. This blend of skills enables him to provide research-grounded recommendations on leadership, governance, and sustainability challenges.

Bayesian Modelling

Bayesian modelling blends an organisation’s expertise with fresh data to recommend the best course of action. It makes uncertainty explicit and helps leaders weigh risks before deciding. It proves valuable when data are scarce or expert judgment is essential. Ali examines what seasoned professionals know, merges those insights with data and applies Bayesian methods to support more informed, risk-aware decisions.

Econometrics

Econometrics applies economic theory and statistical methods to business and economic data. It enables rigorous hypothesis testing, precise forecasting, and measurement of causal effects. It proves ideal for impact studies and policy evaluation. When executives need evidence for strategic choices, econometrics reduces uncertainty and boosts confidence in decisions. Ali has long used various econometric techniques in his research and is ready to apply them in a business context to address managerial challenges.

Machine Learning

Machine learning uncovers hidden patterns in large, complex datasets. Techniques such as deep neural networks and transformer models excel at forecasting trends, detecting anomalies, and automating decision processes when organizations hold rich data on operations, customers, or markets. Where appropriate, Ali deploys these tools to help executives anticipate challenges and seize new opportunities more accurately.

Selected Courses

Data, Evidence and Managerial Decisions

This MBA course provides an introduction to evidence-based decision making. It is built on the premise that executives make better decisions when they trust evidence and have the skills to use it. The course helps students make better personal and professional choices. Its aim is to enable students to solve real-world business problems or discover new opportunities by using the available data and evidence.

Big Data in Business Operations

This undergraduate course provides an introduction to the rise of AI and the role of data in business operations, showing how big data supports the effective management of modern organisations. The course offers a gentle introduction to data analytics and highlights the importance of data in decision making across various business functions. Students will work with different datasets to develop solutions in areas such as quantifying social impact, ESG, business strategy, human resource issues, marketing, and promotion.

News

How CEO Politics Shape Dividend Payouts
How CEO Politics Shape Dividend Payouts

Read about my recent research with Marc Goergen on the impact of CEO political preferences on payout decisions.

Business School Research Summary

University of Aberdeen Business School provides a summary of my research.

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Invited talk at Robert Gordon University
Invited Talk at Robert Gordon University

I was invited to give a talk at Robert Gordon University.

23rd Workshop on Corporate Governance and Investment
23rd Workshop on Corporate Governance and Investment

I organised the 23rd Workshop on Corporate Governance and Investment at The University of Aberdeen.