Bronwyn Howell

Dr Bronwyn Howell is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Management, Victoria University of Wellington, where she serves as the undergraduate programme director for the BCom Management major. With a multidisciplinary background spanning Operations Research, Economics, Management and Public Policy, Dr Howell brings both academic expertise and practitioner experience from the information technology and health sectors to her teaching and research.

Dr Howell's educational background includes:

• PhD in Management from Victoria University of Wellington (2016)
• MBA from Victoria University of Wellington (1998-1999)

Her research focuses on the governance, policy and management of new technology projects, particularly mobile telecommunications and distributed ledger (blockchain) applications. Dr Howell examines decision-making under uncertainty, risk management, and the intersection with government funding, policy decisions and regulatory interventions. She has a particular interest in comparing technology project effects in small, remote and developing countries versus large, centralized economies, emphasizing how scale and distance impact outcomes. Her work adopts a systems view of interactions within projects, firms, industries and economies.

Dr Howell's recent publications reveal a growing emphasis on telecommunications policy, AI regulation, and spectrum allocation issues. Her research increasingly addresses indigenous rights in spectrum allocation contexts and cross-cultural comparisons of technology adoption. She critically examines regulatory challenges in digital markets and the political influences on telecommunications and internet economy markets, often drawing comparisons between different national approaches.

Dr Howell holds several notable professional positions:

• Law and Economics Association of New Zealand Fellow
• Secretary of the International Telecommunications Society
• Associate Editor of the Journal Telecommunications Policy
• Senior Research Associate of the Public Utility Research Center, University of Florida
• Adjunct Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
• Research Principal at the Institute for Technology and Network Economics

Dr Howell currently supervises doctoral research on topics including the carbon footprint of the New Zealand healthcare system, resilience in tourism SMEs, and stakeholder conflict in sports management. She has undertaken consulting projects for public and private firms in New Zealand and internationally, and has participated by invitation in forums and regulatory proceedings across multiple countries.

Based at the Institute for Technology and Network Economics, Dr Howell also maintains research affiliations with the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida and the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, where she blogs on technology policy matters. Her unique perspective is informed by residing on a lifestyle block in Te Horo on the Kapiti Coast, which grounds her understanding of the challenges of remoteness and small scale.