Supervisors seeking researchers

We have a number of prospective supervisors who are looking for doctoral researchers in specific areas. Please browse the list below and contact them via email if you have a strong interest in the topic.

While prospective supervisors have suggested the following topics, you must write your research proposal for the project within these topic areas yourself, not with the collaboration of a potential supervisor. Being able to plan and write a convincing research proposal is one of the main ways of assessing applicants' suitability for postgraduate research. Get guidance on writing your research proposal.

Work and jobs in the context of ongoing organisational change

Emotional experiences at work in the context of ongoing change
Event-based approaches to organizational change (qualitative or quantitative)
Leadership of organizational change and follower perceptions of leadership in change
Psychological contracts in change
Experience of change in the public sector

Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Tina Kiefer.

Demarchy and corporate governance: An experimental approach

Demarchy is a form of governance that uses the mechanism of randomly selecting people to committees or decision making bodies. Based on theoretical and empirical investigations, this research would apply demarchy to corporate governance. In particular, it would examine the antecedents and the consequences of using demarchy as compared to other forms of corporate governance, such as the democratic election of representatives for the firm’s stakeholders. A laboratory experiment would be applied to examine the validity of the developed hypotheses.

Interested applicants can ask for introductory literature from Hossam Zeitoun and should explore the relevant literature before contacting Margit Osterloh

Empirical foundations of stewardship theory

In the corporate governance literature, agency theory emphasizes that CEOs are self-interested and need to be incentivised with monetary rewards. In contrast, stewardship theory argues that CEOs are stewards acting in the best interests of their companies. This research would examine the empirical foundations of stewardship theory, in particular with regard to CEO incentives. What are the incentives for CEOs as stewards? eg:official titles? wide media exposure? Beyond a thorough research of the theoretical and empirical literature, this research would include an own empirical investigation of the incentives for CEOs as stewards.

Interested applicants can ask for introductory literature from Hossam Zeitoun and should explore the relevant literature before contacting Margit Osterloh

Discourse and identity (individual and/or collective) in/of organisations

Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Professor Andrew Brown.

Topics in employment relations

The impact of the growing importance of finance (corporate governance/financialisation) on employment relations in advanced capitalist economies
Skill formation and varieties of discrimination/exclusion across employment systems of advanced capitalist economies

Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Michel Goyer.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Entrepreneurship through new venture creation. Including aspects of wealth creation through new ventures including issues relating to: strategy, governance, financing and performance.
Entrepreneurship in established organisations (public and private). Including how established organisations innovate to create new value.
The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm-focussing on theoretical developments and applications of the RBV of the firm. The empirical component of this work is largely focussed on SMEs.

Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Professor Andy Lockett.

Financial Econometrics, including Market Microstructure; High Frequency Finance; Volatility, Survival and Count Data Processes; and Analysis of Survey Data

Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Dr Ingmar Nolte.

Banking, Corporate Finance (Capital Budgeting, Capital Structure, Payout Policy, MAs, IPOs), Corporate Governance, Insurance

Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Dr Kostas Koufopoulos.

Governance and Public Management

Healthcare Organisations and Management
Organisation and Management of Professional Practice, Culture and Identity
Safety and Risk, Especially Healthcare Organisations
Public-Private Partnerships

Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Professor Justin Waring.

Healthcare

Leadership in Healthcare
Translation of Innovation in Healthcare
Knowledge Exchange in Healthcare
Workforce Development in Healthcare

Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Professor Graeme Currie.

Revenue optimisation for railway applications

Optimisation of prices for cargo or passenger rail services subject to uncertain demand is an exciting field that currently attracts much attention from industry. Arne Strauss is looking for a PhD candidate with a strong background in mathematics, operational research, or computer science who is keen to combine mathematical concepts with real-world applications in collaboration with a major player in industry. Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Professor Arne Strauss.

Behavioural analyses of managerial decision making under the resource-based view of the firm

This topic would interest PhD students interested in performing research on decision making processes using simulation, experimental research, statistical analysis of longitudinal data sets or case study research methods. For an introduction to the topic, see Kunc and Morecroft (2010) Managerial Decision Making and Firm Performance under a Resource-Based Paradigm, Strategic Management Journal. Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Dr Martin Kunc.

Exponential Neighbourhoods in Optimisation

In many optimisation problems it is impossible to search a solution space in polynomial time. For some well known problems it is however possible to identify exponential neighbourhoods that can be searched in polynomial time. The topic of the suggested research would be an investigation of efficiency of various exponential neighbourhoods in search algorithms for various optimisation problems. See eg. Deineko V, B.Klinz and G.J.Woeginger, Exponential neighbourhoods and four point conditions for the TSP, ACM/SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), 2006, 544-533. Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Professor Vladimir Deineko.

Data envelopment analysis (DEA)

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a mathematical programming approach to the assessment of efficiency/performance of organisations. WBS has a worldwide reputation for its research in the area of DEA. Our recent doctoral students contributed to the theory and methodology of DEA by studying the performance of banks, schools, hospitals, utility companies and other organisations. Usually such studies contribute both to the model formulation and the methodology of application. Depending on the student's background and interests, there is always a scope for a greater focus on either the mathematical development or application-driven contribution. As one possibility to explore, our academic staff have a number of new theoretical developments in the area of DEA that need expanding and testing in real-world applications. Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Professor Victor Podinovski.

Consumer behaviour, branding, or CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility and Cause-related marketing
Branding (brand extension, brand alliances, co-branding, corporate branding, corporate reputation)
Consumer behaviour (emotions, brand relationship, online brand communities, consumer moral/ethical behaviours)

Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Professor Hongwei He.

Emerging markets

Emerging markets multinationals
Business and management in emerging economies
Organisational decline and renewal
Non-market strategies

Interested applicants should prepare a first draft of a research proposal before contacting Professor Kemal Mellahi.

Strategic management

the practice of strategic management in emerging/novel organisational fields (eg. green economy, creative industries, NGOs)
ethnographic investigations of innovative strategy processes/events (note: established research access to one or more organisations is considered positively in relevant doctoral proposals)
the use (and misuse) of management tools as cognitive artefacts
analysis of the process, practice and performance impact of strategic workshops/initiatives/events

Interested applicants should explore the relevant literature and existing studies before contacting Sotirios Paroutis.

Interactive Multi-Objective Optimisation

Many real-world optimisation problems involve multiple objectives.For example, an asset portfolio should provide a high expected return, but also a low risk; a supply chain should operate at low cost but with high service level; an engine should be powerful but energy efficient etc. In all these cases, a suitable trade-off between objectives needs to be found, which requires input from a decision maker in some form. This makes it necessary to combine numerical optimisation techniques and judgmental methods from multi-criteria decision analysis. Evolutionary computation is an optimisation paradigm that has shown to be particularly flexible and modifiable to integrate preference information. The hybridisation of evolutionary computation and multi-criteria decision analysis is a relatively young but very active research area with lots of opportunities for original and publishable research. Because new methods are to be developed and tested, good programming skills would be required. The following book provides a good introduction to this research area:

Multiobjective optimization: interactive and evolutionary approaches. Ed. Branke, J., Deb, K., Miettinen, K. and Slowinski, R. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2008. Chapter 7. 179-194.

Interested applicants should contact Juergen Branke.

Transnational employment regulation in multinational companies

This research would investigate one of two different types of transnational agreement negotiated between MNCs and international workforce representatives. The first involves the negotiation of International Framework Agreements between global trade union federations and MNCs, aimed at securing compliance with core labour standards. The second concerns the negotiation of agreements on employment matters between European works councils and MNCs. In both instances a key focus would be on the effective implementation of transnational agreements nationally and locally. Interested applicants should explore relevant literature before contacting Paul Marginson.

Innovation in renewable technologies

Rapidly developing household markets for renewable technologies demand both technological and business model innovation. What do these models look like? What are the characteristics of successful business models? Research in this area could consider comparative case studies as well as the growing literatures on business process innovation and business model design. Interested applicants should identify key items in the literature before contacting Stephen Roper.

Critical realism and entrepreneurship

This research would look at a topic within entrepreneurship chosen from: opportunity, growth, social entrepreneurship, enterprise policy including business advice and consultancy through a critical realist perspective. Data may be collected through mixed methods using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Applicants should explore relevant literature in critical realism and draft a proposal on the topic chosen before contacting Kevin Mole. Students do not necessarily need to have a background in entrepreneurship but a masters in any social science discipline from psychology, economics to sociology would be welcome.

The relationship between residual bias and run length in Discrete-Event Simulation

Simulation model output often includes initial transient data before the output warms-up to a steady-state. Warm-up methods are available for detecting and removing this initial bias, but the warm-up methods are not totally accurate and invariably leave some residual bias in the output data generated. This raises the question: how does this initial bias affect the length of run needed to gain accurate results from a simulation model? This research seeks to answer this question. If you are interested please explore the relevant literature and then contact Katy Hoad.

Automating Discrete-Event Simulation Experimentation Support

Discrete-event simulation is a powerful approach that enables experimentation with a model of a complex system, with a view to improving that system. However, simulation software provides very little support for directing simulation analysis and almost none for scenario comparison. The purpose of this research is to explore the potential to better support the experimentation phase (efficient and effective analysis of multiple scenarios) of simulation modelling, so that decision-makers can gain the full benefit from their simulation models. The specific objectives of the project are: to understand the manual experimentation process currently followed by users and their requirements; hence identify, test and adapt suitable methods (eg. optimisation, ranking and selection methods, experimental designs) for automated experimentation support; and develop a prototype automated support system. If you are interested please explore the relevant literature and then contact Katy Hoad.

Conceptual Modelling for Discrete-Event Simulation

Conceptual modelling is the most important, but least understood, aspect of a simulation study. When faced with the task of simulating a system, conceptual modelling involves the abstraction of a model from that system by determining what to model and at what level of detail. This research seeks to develop and test frameworks for conceptual modelling for simulation. If you are interested please explore the relevant literature and then contact Katy Hoad.

Critical Theory and Participatory Governance

Jonathan Davies's research is concerned with political power at the state-society interface. His work employs critical theory (such as Bourdieu and Gramsci) in considering how and why the global explosion of participatory governance mechanisms enrol, or fail to enrol, citizens. How do we know whether citizens are empowered or subordinated in these spaces? Can participatory mechanisms be spheres of resistance? To what extent, ultimately, is participatory governance emancipatory or a form of domination? And, what are the alternatives to it? Jonathan would welcome doctoral research proposals taking up any of these issues, or other related questions. Please contact Jonathan Davies.

Public Involvement and Citizen Engagement

This is a programme of work that focuses on different ways that service users and members of the public engage with the public, private and voluntary sectors to shape and deliver publicly funded services. Public involvement and engagement is an area of policy, particularly in health and social care, that continues to be central to reform and a point of contestation between market-orientated and collectivist discourses. My own work has particularly focused on health care and health systems across the UK, Europe and OECD countries. Please contact Jonathan Tritter.

Cross-disciplinary collaboration in healthcare

This research would focus on the ways in which different forms of expertise and disciplinary knowledge are worked together. It would require adopting a qualitative and proximal ("micro") approach. Applicants should explore the relevant literature and existing studies before contacting Davide Nicolini.

The evolution of pharmacy work

This research would examine the evolution of pharmacy and/or the work and role of pharmacists in the UK. Scope exists for a quasi-historical study informed by a neo-institutional approach or for a more empirical study of the role of pharmacists in the new integrated care team approach. Applicants should explore the relevant literature and existing studies before contacting Davide Nicolini.

The role of brand intangible assets (BIA) in analyst valuations of stocks listed on the stock market

The research seeks to conceptualise and develop an econometric model of the role of BIA in stock valuation by analysing large sets of data. Interested applicants should explore relevant literature in the areas of idiosyncratic risks in finance, behavioural economics, brand equity and perhaps Austrian Economics before contacting Temi Abimbola.

Case study of 'models' of professional identity and expertise within the accountancy profession

Through a lens of professional identity formation, this research would focus on issues relating to the inter-relations between ethicality and competency within strategy and education & training across a number of sites: (large) accountancy firms, professional bodies, tutor firms and academic departments. Interested parties should explore relevant literature before contacting Fiona Anderson-Gough.

Customer misbehaviour

While services research is rich in studies of service efficiency and effectiveness, the study of deviant, dysfunctional or aberrant 'misbehaviour' by customers is relatively ignored. Research in this area could explore and model a wide range of such behaviours. Interested applicants should explore relevant literature before contacting Lloyd C. Harris.

Emotion(s) and accounting education

This research would collect and analyse data using existing theoretical frameworks of emotions to explore their impact on accounting education and consider the implications of this on the development of accounting identity. Interested applicants should explore relevant literature before contacting Louise Gracia.

Future of trade unions

This research would look at responses by trade unions to the changes in society, work and employment. It might focus on a particular set of responses (organising campaigns, provision of individual services etc.) or a particular process involved (framing collective interests and issues, articulation strategies between different levels of the union). Applicants should explore relevant literature in the area of union renewal and revitalisation before contacting Melanie Simms. Any comparative study should be supported with a clear case as to why the comparison is relevant and how it helps to build a theoretical understanding of the issues involved.