Research agenda

How emerging organisational forms and initiatives shape individuals and institutions.

Research interests: Organisation studies; emerging organisational forms; work and careers; public policy; global higher education; mixed-methods research; mapping emerging and undertheorised phenomena.

Research leadership: Led four mixed methods research projects from design and ethics approval through multi-stakeholder data collection, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and dissemination; secured four ethics/IRB approvals and managed large primary and secondary datasets.

 Published peer-reviewed articles:

Kumar, N., & Misra, D. (2026). "It is like we are foot soldiers, and they are our generals": Inequity in professionalisation of research in Global Engagement Centres. Globalisation, Societies and Education. (Link)

Kumar, N., & Khan, F. (2026). Organisational and relational drivers of teacher motivation in resource-constrained schools: roles of leadership, climate, and trust in the leader. Journal of Educational Administration, 1-16. (Link)

Kumar, N., & Misra, D. (2024). International centres of overseas universities in global south: Lessons from India. International Higher Education. (Link)

Kumar, N., Cook, EJ., Fayda-Kinik, FS. & Maisuradze, L. (2024). ICTs influence on knowledge sharing in higher education: A pre-AI systematic literature review. European Journal of Education. (Link)

 Book contract signed with Palgrave Macmillan:

Global Engagement Centres and the Internationalisation of Higher Education (with D. Misra, IIT Delhi and UCL). Under contract with Palgrave Macmillan, the book will appear in the Palgrave Studies in Global Higher Education series.

Manuscript under review:

Organisational identity of international university centres. (with D. Misra)

• Status: Received comments and rejection after desk clearance at Organisation Studies; revised submission targeting Studies in Higher Education. 

Accepted as a book chapter

Who Doesn’t Want to Decolonise? Situating the Indian Indigenisation Agenda amidst the Global Decolonial Turn. (with E. Dubey)

• Status: Accepted as a book chapter for Transforming the Field of Higher Education in India: From Policy to Practice, (Eds.) D. Misra & C.K. Howson (SRHE/Routledge Book Series – Research into Higher Education)

Other writings:

Misra, D., & Kumar, N. (2026). India’s higher education boom needs a public data system. The Financial Express (India). Newspaper article on 21st September 2026 (Link)

Kumar, N. (2024). Book Review: Elgar Encyclopedia of Nonprofit Management, Leadership and Governance. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. (Link)



Kumar, N. (2023). Decolonising Indian business and management education, knowledge and practice. United Kingdom Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET). (Link)

Manuscripts in preparation:

• Career liminality and family entanglement in early-career transition through fellowship programs (with S. Gustafsson, University of Bath; Target journals: Human Relations; Journal of Vocational Behavior)

• Mapping fellowship programs in India: Emerging models and narratives of youth engagement (with A. Sarin, IIMA; Target journals: World Development; Journal of Development Studies)

• Sociopolitical development of fellows: Role and influence of fellowship programs (with A. Sarin; Target journals: Sociology; Work, Employment and Society)

• Myth versus reality in fellowship programs: Fellows’ narrative accounts of competing logics and navigational strategies (with A. Sarin; Target journals: Business and Society; Work & Occupation)

• Mapping as a methodology to study understudied and undertheorised phenomena. (with A. Sarin and P. Raj, UCL; Target journals: Organisational Research Methods; Sociological Methodology)

• To whom does the street belong? Unravelling the discourses on India's Street Vendors Act, 2014 (with V. Jha, O.P. Jindal Global University; Target journals: Development and Change; Policy Studies Journal).