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Business and Management Studies (PhD)

2023-24 (also available for 2024-25, 2025-26)

This course is eligible for Doctoral loan funding. Find out more.

Start date

18 September 2023

1 October 2023

15 January 2024

15 April 2024

1 July 2024

Duration

The maximum duration for a PhD is 3 years (36 months) full-time or 6 years (72 months) part-time with an optional submission pending (writing-up) period of 12 months.

Sometimes it may be possible to mix periods of both full-time and part-time study.

If studying on a part-time basis, you must establish close links with the University and spend normally not less than an average of 10 working days per year in the university, excluding participation in activities associated with enrolment, re-registration and progression monitoring. You are also expected to dedicate 17.5 hours per week to the research.

Application deadlines

For July 2023

24 April 2023 for Home, International and Scholarship students. The July 2023 intake is for full-time PhD students only

For October 2023 

09 June 2023 for International and Scholarship students 

30 June 2023 for Home students 

For January 2024 

20 October 2023 for International and Scholarship students

17 November 2023 for Home students 

For April 2024 

26 January 2024 for International and Scholarship students 

23 February 2024 for Home students

About the research degree

A PhD is the highest academic award for which a student can be registered. This programme allows you to explore and pursue a research project built around a substantial piece of work, which has to show evidence of original contribution to knowledge.

A full-time PhD is a three-year programme of research, culminating in the production of a large-scale piece of written work in the form of a research thesis that should not normally exceed 80,000 words.

Completing a PhD can give you a great sense of personal achievement and help you develop a high level of transferable skills which will be useful in your subsequent career, as well as contributing to the development of knowledge in your chosen field.

You are expected to work to an approved programme of work, including appropriate programmes of postgraduate study (which may be drawn from parts of existing postgraduate courses, final year degree programmes, conferences, seminars, masterclasses, guided reading or a combination of study methods).

You will be appointed a main supervisor who will normally be part of a supervisory team that will advise and support you on your project.

Entry requirements

The normal level of attainment required for entry is:

  • a Master's degree or Honours degree (2:1 or above), normally with a classification of merit or distinction, in a discipline appropriate to the proposed programme to be followed.
  • appropriate research or professional experience at postgraduate level, which has resulted in published work, written reports or other appropriate evidence of accomplishment.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.5 overall with no element lower than 6.0, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our Where are you from information pages.

What can I research?

There are several research topics available for this degree. See below examples of research areas including an outline of the topics, the supervisor, funding information and eligibility criteria:

Outline

This study focuses on Research and Development (R&D) institutes in the United Kingdom, aiming to comprehensively assess the effects of both time-lags and data uncertainty on efficiency evaluations through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Recognising the significance of R&D in the UK's innovation landscape, the research seeks to address the following key questions: How do varying time-lags impact efficiency assessments in UK R&D institutes? How does data uncertainty affect the accuracy of these assessments, and what are the combined implications for productivity growth calculations?

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

Employees increasingly take wage-paying jobs while pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities (i.e., hybrid entrepreneurship). Hybrid entrepreneurs can contribute to wage-paying employers by sharing knowledge gained in the entrepreneurial endeavour. However, hybrid entrepreneurship presents challenges for wage-paying employers to reconfigure their human resource management (HRM) practices and incentive designs to create new forms of person-organisational fit, which can lead to desirable outcomes such as knowledge sharing and employee well-being. This research aims to explore how wage-paying employers design HRM practices in response to hybrid entrepreneurship with employee motivation and abilities in mind, and how such practices affect employees’ person- organisation fit and subsequent behaviours (e.g., benefit sharing & turnover).

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

A Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) is a vehicle that can understand its surroundings, move, navigate and behave responsibly without human input, and at the same time has connectivity functions enabling it to be proactive, cooperative, well- informed and coordinated (Nikitas et al., 2021a). CAVs, despite a wealth of potential benefits spanning from increased accessibility levels and productivity improvements to congestion, emission and noise reduction (Liu et al., 2020) threaten to kill millions of driving-based jobs (Nikitas et al., 2021b). This could generate serious labour market disruptions and new unprecedented layers of employment-related social exclusion. The proposed study will pro-actively explore expert and public attitudes referring to CAVs and their impact on future employment to inform equitable policy planning and propose skill enhancement programmes that will safeguard human employment.

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

This PhD project will be of interest to applicants with a background in consumer research and marketing, and an interest in the natural environment, sustainable living, and responsible consumption. The research is premised on the assumption that if we are to preserve the planet for future generations it is imperative that contemporary consumer culture shifts radically to engender a more compassionate relationship with the natural world.

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

A 'digital human', a highly realistic digital entity, resembles humans in look and behaviour and can converse with humans (Silva & Bonetti, 2021). Digital humans can present information, help humans learn skills, and support people with disabilities (Alsokkar et al., 2023). Research suggests that performing a task with digital humans improves humans' attention and memory abilities (Fabio et al., 2021). While computer manipulation allows rendering human-like gaze for digital humans to communicate warmth (Cuello Mejía et al., 2023), competence is influenced by the anthropomorphism of a digital human (Pizzi et al., 2023). Further, even if digital humans have human-like appearances and voices (Tastemirova et al., 2022) and are high in behavioural realism (Guadagno et al., 2007), humans still only trust digital humans when guidance is for a predictable outcome (Lin et al., 2023). Moreover, in several cultures and religions, humans seek emotional support, connection and guidance from the same sex (Liu & Yao, 2023). The existing literature, therefore, builds on the idea that humans suspend their disbelief that digital humans are inherently false (Golf-Papez et al., 2022). The research question that guides this study is: How do humans perceive receiving emotional support, connection and guidance from digital humans?

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

Does travel by non-Western immigrants aid or hinder social integration into the host communities, such as the UK? Assimilation by migrants into host communities is a multi-faceted process that can be accelerated or inhibited by several factors (McKercher & Yankholmes, 2018). One of those factors is pleasure travel. How quickly, how fully and the process of travel learning undertaken by migrants may be a key indicator of successful social-cultural assimilation into a new home community.

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

Increasing numbers of people fleeing war, persecution or economic crisis pose a grand challenge to the British government and local communities. In response, a number national and local level policies were initiated to foster refugees’ long-term integration into society and the labour market in particular, especially when the number of arrivals peaked since 2015 (McCollum & Findlay, 2015). For instance, The Refugee Employability Programme (REP) is a Home Office initiative for the specific needs of refugees. Similarly, the Refugee Employment Network (REN) brings together local authorities and business to ensure refugees in UK have access to paid work. However, a report reveals that refugees in the UK have a disproportionately low employment rate of 51%, compared with economic migrates who have an employment rate of 88%. Such gap narrows over time but remains present even after more than 25 years of residence in the country (Kone et al., 2019). An vital limitation seems to be various actors taking initiatives at a local, regional and national level without any kind of coherent strategy or actual exchange of information (Fernández-Reino & Brindle, 2024).

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

The decision-making process for corporate sustainability in Multinational Corporations (MNC) are driven by strategic priorities identified at either the global and/or regional levels. However, the implementation of these globally and/or regionally designed corporate sustainability strategies takes place at the national/country-level across different subsidiaries of the (MNC). In such instances there could be dichotomous differences between local stakeholder issues and those which are being addressed through the MNCs sustainability strategy, specifically in relation to social sustainability. As such, questions arise as to how subsidiary managers could utilise their managerial agency to influence the local-level implementation of corporate sustainability strategies.

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

Public transport (PT) is the backbone of any local, regional, national and international transport system (Nikitas et al., 2015) and the cleanest form of mass mobility in sustainability terms (Nikitas et al., 2021). It is also the main mode of travel for vulnerable social groups like low-income, disabled, elderly, and people without cars such as students (Dadashzadeh et al., 2021, 2022, 2023). Millions of road users cannot travel to address their daily activities when PT services are disrupted by natural disasters such as heavy rain/snow, flood, earthquakes, OR human-made crises such as pandemics, wars, shortage of staff due to strikes and system malfunctions. This is very frequent lately and has evolved to a massive problem for the UK economy. There is still limited understanding of the challenges and needs for both supply (PT service providers) and demand (PT users). This project aims to address this gap by determining the factors that underpin the provision and uptake of PT services during disruptions and suggesting evidence- based solutions to make PT more resilient.

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

The climate emergency together with increasing governmental and stakeholder pressures, have propelled business corporations, specifically those operating in high-polluting industries, to adopt transformational changes within their business models. A key mechanism which facilitates such change is, the adoption of innovations. However, innovating for sustainability, can create conflicts in relation to the achievement of economic, environmental and social objectives of the business. In such instances, businesses need to resolve these ‘paradoxes’, in order to implement sustainable business transformations.

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

Adoption of emerging technologies has contributed considerably to microbusinesses’ (MBs) ability to effectively overcome challenges, collaborate and interact with their business customers, and improve firm performance. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a system's ability to interpret and learn from data mimicking human intelligence and it is part of a new generation of technologies that introduce novel approaches in the business context. In a survey of executives, Ransbotham et al., (2019) found that 90% of respondents agree that AI presents an opportunity for their organisation and Nafizah et al., (2024) has also argued that adoption of AI and machine learning by microbusinesses can lead to increased market share and higher revenues. Given the importance placed on MBs for economic growth in the United Kingdom, it is imperative to identify drivers and outcomes of adoption of new technological advancements so that these organisations succeed and remain competitive. However, there is currently a gap in the literature exploring this in the context of B2B MBs acceptance of AI practices. Therefore, the questions this research aims to answer are: RQ1: What are the main antecedents and consequences of acceptance of AI practices by B2B MBs in the UK? RQ2: How could AI practices help B2B MBs improve their business performance?

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

Environmental policies play a crucial role in enhancing economic welfare and sustainable development. Understanding the effectiveness of such policies is vital for addressing global environmental challenges such as climate change and resource depletion. There are often trade-offs between environmental policies and macroeconomic objectives. This research aims to examine the impacts of environmental policies within the transport sector, using microsimulation analysis for analysing welfare effects. Specifically, the study will explore how environmental policies targeted at the transportation sector affect sectoral and economic growth, income distribution, household welfare, poverty and inequality. By identifying effective policy instruments, this research aims to contribute valuable insights for informed decision-making. The study can be conducted in either a developed or developing country and can also be implemented at the regional level using a regional social accounting matrix.

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

Aim: To research the impact of diversity of senior leadership, and their access to finance, upon productivity, focusing on SMEs across the private, public and third sector.

The Project comprises three strands: 1. Measuring Productivity 2. The Impact of Diversity of SME Leadership on Productivity 3. The Impact of Diversity on Organisational Plasticity

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

The research will look at the impact of recent digital technologies on firms’ internationalization strategies. Data will be collected through a questionnaire survey. The proposed relationships will be tested using regression analysis/structural equation modelling.

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

Office for National Statistics (2021) commented that the number of job vacancies in hospitality was at a record high, with three in ten hospitality businesses experiencing recruitment difficulties. According to the Financial Times (2022), hospitality businesses in the UK have lost 2 million workers since the end of 2019. Hospitality businesses in the UK have experienced recruitment difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit, demographic changes to the UK population and the poor image of hospitality work amongst many people (Jenkins, 2023). One possible solution to staffing problems in the UK hospitality industry is the recruitment of older workers. The research question for this project is: “To what extent can the recruitment of older workers in the UK hospitality industry help alleviate staff shortages?”.

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Outline

The ideas of transitional entrepreneurship seminally proposed by Pidduck and Clark (2021) suggest the potential of entrepreneurship to aid marginalized persons/groups to transition from a state of marginalization, probably characterized as a state of penurity to something more sufficient. We would be interested in receiving proposals that consider intersectional samples so that present the potential develop a theory of transitional entrepreneurship that transcends specific groups of marginalized peoples. The supervisory team would also encourage proposals that seek to uncover marginalized narratives in the qualitative accounts of marginalised groups and individuals in the emerging tradition of entrepreneurial journeys (Garud et al., 2014; Garud & Giuliani, 2013). The theoretical positioning may include concepts such as liminal entrepreneurship (Prashantham & Floyd, 2019) bricolage (Tasavori et al., 2018) nascent necessity entrepreneurship (Garcia-Lorenzo et al., 2018) institutional voids (Webb et al., 2020) and potential broader concepts like open strategy (Dobusch et al., 2019; Dobusch & Kapeller, 2018) which would allow for the potential for strategizing in transition to be considered as inclusion, transparency and closure (boundary decisions).

Funding

Please see our Scholarships page (link provided below), to find out about funding or studentship options available

https://research.hud.ac.uk/research-degrees/researchscholarships/

Deadline

Deadlines for applications can be found at the link below:

http://www.hud.ac.uk/researchdegrees/howtoapply/

Supervisors

How to apply

Huddersfield Business School has staff, research groups and centres that conduct cutting-edge research across a number of business and management subjects, including accounting and finance, logistics, operations and hospitality management, people, management and organisations, and strategic, marketing and economics.

Business and Management covers a broad range of subject areas across four departments:

  • Accountancy and Finance
  • Logistics, Operations and Hospitality Management
  • People, Management and Organisations
  • Strategy, Marketing and Economics

There are different ways to find the right research topic for you:

  1. Find a supervisor and design your own research project – explore the Huddersfield Research Portal to find research and researcher expertise to find the area you’re interested in.

  2. Browse our listed funded opportunities.

Student support

At the University of Huddersfield, you'll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you'll soon discover that you're never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey. Find out more about all our support services.

Researcher Environment

Our postgraduate researchers contribute to our thriving research [culture] community at Huddersfield, in return, we provide an experience that enhances your potential and inspires you to think big and become a globally competitive researcher.

Join our community of like-minded people who are passionate about research and gain access to world-leading facilities, advanced research skills training, and expert career advice.

Reduced inequalities

  • We recently ranked 6 out of 796 global institutions for reduced inequalities in the Times Higher Impact ratings – this recognises our research on social inequalities, policies on discrimination and commitment to recruitment staff and students from underrepresented groups.**

World-leading

  • We are in the top 50 UK universities for research power, and nearly two-thirds of our research environment is classified as world-leading and internationally excellent.***

As a researcher, you’ll gain access to our Researcher Skills Development Programme through The Graduate School, to help broaden your knowledge and access tools and skills to improve your employability. The programme is mapped against Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework (RDF), you’ll benefit from Vitae’s career support as well as our own programme. We also have a team dedicated to improving the academic English needed for research by our international PGRs.

Our training is delivered in a variety of ways to take advantage of online platforms as well as face-to-face workshops and courses. You can access a range of bespoke training opportunities and in-person events that are tailored to each stage of your journey;

  • Sessions on PhD thesis writing, publications and journals, post-doctoral opportunities, poster and conference presentations, networking, and international travel opportunities

  • opportunity to work and study abroad via the Turing Scheme through The Graduate School

  • Externally accredited training programme with Advance HE (HEA) and CMI

  • Online research training support accessed through a dedicated researcher module in Brightspace, the University’s Virtual Learning Environment

  • We also hold a series of PGR focussed events such as 3 Minute Thesis PGR led research conference informal events throughout the year.

**THE Impact Rankings 2022

*** REF2021

Important information

We will always try to deliver your course as described on this web page. However, sometimes we may have to make changes as set out below.

When you are offered a place on a research degree, your offer will include confirmation of your supervisory team, and the topic you will be researching.

Whilst the University will use reasonable efforts to ensure your supervisory team remains the same, sometimes it may be necessary to make changes to your team for reasons outside the University’s control, for example if your supervisor leaves the University, or suffers from long term illness. Where this is the case, we will discuss these difficulties with you and seek to either put in place a new supervisory team, or help you to transfer to another research facility, in accordance with our Student Protection Plan.

Changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, for example the University being unable to access its buildings due to fire, flood or pandemic, or the University no longer being able to provide specialist equipment. Where this is the case, we will discuss these issues with you and agree any necessary changes.

Your research project is likely to evolve as you work on it and these minor changes are a natural and expected part of your study. However, we may need to make more significant changes to your topic of research during the course of your studies, either because your area of interest has changed, or because for reasons outside the University’s control we can no longer support your research. If this is the case, we will discuss any changes in topic with you and agree these in writing. If you are an international student, changing topics may affect your visa or ATAS clearance and if this is the case we will discuss this with you before any changes are agreed.

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by the University’s Terms and Conditions and a framework of regulations, policies and procedures, which form the basis of your agreement with us. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to abide by them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan, where you will also find links to the full text of each of the regulations, policies and procedures referred to.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.