Marketing – doctoral research

Our research topics

Within the Marketing group, we are especially keen to receive PhD research proposals in the following areas:

• consumer behaviour, cross-cultural consumer behaviour, digital consumer behaviour (e.g. social media, mobile apps), customer engagement, consumer identity
• marketing strategy, innovation, international marketing strategy, services marketing and management and transformative services
• branding, brand image, brand management, and international brand issues and sustainability.

In addition to this however, group members are willing to consider PhD research proposals. Please use the list to identify a potential supervisor(s), develop your research proposal, share this with the identified supervisor(s) and confirm they are willing to be named in support of your application. You are encouraged to ask for feedback from them to develop your research proposal. Then you should be ready to formally apply.

Belinda Dewsnap

• marketing strategy development
• marketing planning
• marketing leadership

Sahar Mousavi

• branding
• customers’ engagement in social media and virtual communities
• the use of gamification in improving online customer brand engagement
• applying gamification to new product development

Nina Michaelidou

• consumer behaviour, as well as cross-cultural consumer behaviour.
• brand image/ brand equity in the commercial and charity and non-profit contexts
• social media advertising, usage and motivations
• social marketing, ethics and health behaviours

Thorsten Gruber

• customer complaining behaviour and service failure and recovery, esp. using social media and digital devices
• customers behaving badly (e.g. customer rage, customer deviance)
• the bright and dark side of AI and (service) robotics
• the use of technology in higher education (e.g. ChatGPT)
• customer relationship with and experience of technology (e.g. virtual reality, metaverse, hyperreality)

Anne Souchon

• organisational decision-making
• export decision-making
• Net Promoter Score

Georgios Tsimonis

• artificial intelligence in digital marketing (e.g. personalised consumer experiences and marketing campaigns, consumer insights/data)
• blockchain-powered sustainable global brands (e.g. supply chain transparency, tracking of operations, tokenisation of brand assets)
• consumer behaviour and consumer-brand interactions in the Metaverse
• the use of AI in product and service innovation
• digital consumer behaviour (e.g. social media, ecommerce, mobile apps)

Cagri Talay

• sustainable fashion supply chains
• sustainable product development
• power asymmetry in retailer-supplier relationships
• ethical fashion consumption