Faculty
Dr. Balaji S. K. Swaminathan
Associate Professor
Alliance School of Business
Dr.Balaji teaches Entrepreneurship, Strategic Management related courses and is part of the General Management area in the School of Business. His teaching philosophy is of an interactive classroom and an inclusive one for students from varied backgrounds and academic learning styles. The pedagogies that he adopts are aimed at kindling the innate student inquisitiveness and it resonates well with both graduate and post-graduate learners.
He was awarded PhD from Madurai Kamaraj University for his thesis on the “Non-resident Indian Entrepreneurs in the Middle East region” in 2011. He holds an MBA (1995) in marketing from the same University. He started a sales career with UPS worldwide (1995) and moved on to advertising and public relations in Mumbai, handling consumer & technology brands like SCO Unix and Geometric Software, a Godrej company to name a few (1996-1999).
He started off on academic career in 1999 at the Department of Entrepreneurship studies of the Madurai University and was also a consultant for the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development. His international experience started with the Ministry of Manpower of the Sultanate of Oman (2003) as part of the degree college conversion project from polytechnics. He was part of the college conversion project from colleges of education to colleges of applied sciences (2006-2020). His stint in the private universities like, University of Buraimi, (2020-21) and with the University of Bedfordshire partner (UK), Majan University College, (2021-23) and Oman College (Yarmouk University partner) as Assistant Professor and Program Director (2023-24) all in the Sultanate of Oman, has earned him varied experiences of graduate and post-graduate level teaching and administration across cities and student backgrounds.
He is a distinguished academician with 22+ years of academic experience and has been teaching Entrepreneurship to non-business students since 2010. He has been a member of several quality assurance initiatives at the steering committee level. He has contributed to course materials for online programmes. He is a practitioner of mindfulness meditation and professes anxiety-free work.
- Microgrid Sustainability – A New Business Model for Oman - GMSARN Journal- Q3-Q4 Scopus Indexed Journal Nov 2024 Greater Mekong Subregion Academic and Research Network Energy Engineering and Power Technology Journal (First Author)
- Does Entrepreneurship Education ensure Entrepreneurial Competencies?
https://rsisinternational.org/ | May 2024
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.803014S
“INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL
SCIENCE (IJRISS) ISSN No. 2454-6186 Volume VIII Issue III March 2024 - From Viewing to Doing: Engaging Undergraduates with AI and Wikis, in Moodle – LMS to Scaffold “Teaching and Learning Team-Working in Research Proposal Writing” https://rsisinternational.org/ | Oct 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51244/IJRSI.2024.1114SDAICO5
“INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL
SCIENCE (IJRISS) ISSN No. 2321-2705 Volume XI Issue XIV October 2024 - Sustainable Development- What we learnt from the Pandemic- UTAS-Annual Conference Proceedings April 2021 UTAS-CAS-Sur, “The Sustainability Components Business Opportunities for Existing and New Businesses”
- “Entrepreneurial Competencies of NRI Entrepreneurs in Global Competitiveness” National Conference on Entrepreneurship and Management Proceedings with ISN No. March 2011Anna University, Madurai, TN, India,
- International FDP | Data Analysis using R-Programming, July 2020, Excellence Brings Success | New Delhi, India
- International FDP | Case writing and analysis skills, Ballari Institute of Technology and Management, Ballari Department of Management Studies, July 2020
- CEE (Certified Entrepreneurship Educator) | Capacity-building for teaching Entrepreneurship- 2015-2016, SME Development Fund and Ministry of Higher Education | Muscat, Oman
- International FDP | Business Analytics-Science of Data-Driven Decision-Making, June 2015, Indian Institute of Management | Bangalore, KA, India
- International Diploma | International Diploma in IT Skills, June 2012, University of Cambridge International Exams
- Staff Development program | Instructional Technology, February 2006,Ibra College of Technology, Sultanate of Oman
- Higher Education and Industry Symposium: Bolstering Connections towards Oman 2040 December 2020 CAS-Nizwa, UTAS-CAS-Nizwa “An Exploration in Engaging Undergraduate Learners of Entrepreneurship Using Wikis in Blackboard-LMS to the Scaffold”
- WIPO – Oman Workshop on IP Education and Training April 2017, Ministry of Tourism “Professional Development-Competencies Captured for Retraining Lecturers in Entrepreneurship Education”
- National Symposium on Frontiers in Information Technology, Business Intelligence and Analytics November 2015, College of Applied Sciences-Rustaq, “Topic Modeling Using R, an Exploration with Entrepreneurial Competencies as Dataset”
- National Workshop on Academic Writing in English May 2014, College of Applied Sciences-Ibri, “Cognitive Retroactive Transfer of Learning”, CAS-Ibri
- International Conference on Business & Management April 2013, Dofar University Salalah “Entrepreneurial Competencies of Omani Small Business Entrepreneurs – A Study of the Al Dahirah Region Entrepreneurs”
- 2nd International Conference on Higher Education and Quality Assurance, June 2010 Grand Hyatt Muscat- Mazoon College Conference, “Looking Beyond Quality Audits- Can we Build Learning Organizations?”
- ICET 54th World Assembly 2009, December 2009, Sultan Qaboos University “Can Quality Audits Be Used to Build a Learning Organization- an Academician’s Perspective to Systems Thinking“
- National Conference on Recent Trends in Information Technology, May 2006, Ibra College of Technology, Ibra, Oman, “Entrepreneurial Competencies of E-Business Entrepreneurs”
Trainings and Workshops Conducted (Selective List)
- "Technology-driven Teaching and Learning: Theory and Practice", October 2020 UTAS (University of Technology and Applied Sciences) Colleges Online, Sultanate of Oman
- “The World of E-commerce” SWC (System Wide Coordinator) Workshop, September 2009 CAS, Ibri, Sultanate of Oman
- Quality Assurance Workshops, CAS, Nizwa- September 2009, CAS, Sur-March 2009-CAS, Rustak
- March 2010, CAS, Ibri- November 2010, Sultanate of Oman - 2012-2013 - Quality Audit “Learning by Sharing – Logistics and Coordination “November 2009
Institute of Health Sciences Auditorium – Wattayah, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Conferences Chaired
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- International Conference on Startups and Post Covid 19 Indian Economy August 2020, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, TN, India | Session Chair
- National Symposium on Emerging Issue Challenges and Opportunities in May 2018 Business and Management, Ibri College of Technology, Sultanate of Oman | Session Chair and Jury Member
- Business Students Research Conference – Confluence April 2018, College of Applied Sciences-Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman | Session Chair and Jury Member
