Post-Covid lifestyle and mental wellbeing

Engaging in different daily social and physical activities is vital for health and wellbeing. However, rapid advancements in digital technology and the recent COVID-19 pandemic have affected this engagement because they are fundamentally changing the way we communicate, live, work, and our lifestyle in general. Our proposed research project will investigate how engaging in different leisure (e.g., physical exercise, different types of entertainment, social activities) and non-leisure (e.g., (home) office computer work; face-to-face and online meetings) activities under different living and working environments affect our mental wellbeing and cognitive performance in the digital society we live in today.

We believe that our project has a high potential for profound impact. The plan is to start the project with investigating the impact on individuals’ lifestyles in their living environments on their health, mental wellbeing, and cognition. In a second step, this can easily be expanded to other scenarios, such as the aging population, clinical populations, or employees at the workplace, which provides a profound chance for widespread impact.

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Dr Weifeng Chen
Dr Weifeng Chen - I am a Reader in Innovation Management and Strategy at Brunel Business School, specialising in innovation, technology management, and strategic decision-making. My research focuses on how organisations can harness technological innovations for sustainable growth, with a particular emphasis on AI and digital transformation, corporate strategy, and organisational change. My wider research interests include innovation ecosystems, strategic alliances, corporate governance and circular enonomy, with a focus on how emerging technologies such as AI, green tech, and smart city innovations are reshaping industries. Throughout my career, I have cultivated fruitful collaborations on joint research projects with esteemed organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union, and the British Council, as well as various industry and public sector partners both domestically and internationally. Additionally, I have contributed my expertise to consultancy initiatives, focusing on AI strategy and business model innovation and optimisation. My contributions to academia are reflected in publications within prestigious journals including the Journal of Business Research, Production Planning and Control, International Review of Administrative Sciences, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Information Technology for Development, and Regional Studies, among others.  I completed my PhD on Business Management and Innovation Strategy in 2008 and since then I have been working as an academic at Brunel.   Notably, I have had the privilege of guiding over 20 doctoral students to successful completion of their PhD under my mentorship.  As an experienced educator since 2009, I have developed and delivered a broad range of programmes and modules on strategy, management, innovation, and business models at undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive levels. My teaching experience spans international programmes in the UK, Asia (China, India, Vietnam, and Thailand), the EU (France, Germany, and Sweden), the GCC (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) and the USA. I have also served as an external examiner for management and marketing programmes and PhD examinations at various universities in the UK and internationally. Consultation and Feedback Sessions for Students Tuesday 10:00 – 11:00 Friday 10:00 - 11:00 Please contact me via email before hand to confirm the meeting time slot.  

Partnering with confidence

Organisations interested in our research can partner with us with confidence backed by an external and independent benchmark: The Knowledge Exchange Framework. Read more.

Project last modified 16/01/2024