Business and Enterprise Doctor of Philosophy - PhD

LSBU Business School offers full-time, part-time, and distance-learning research degree programmes. During this PhD course, students work with research supervisors to develop research projects to shape theory, policy and practice in the fields of business and enterprise studies. Under the direction of two research supervisors, students conduct empirical or theoretical research that will lead to new knowledge in a chosen field and are required to write a series of journal articles or thesis of 80,000 words. Previous PhD research topics have included:

Internationalisation of SMEs

Marketing strategies of multinational companies

Sustainability and project management

Managing risk in multinational corporations

Social media as innovation laboratory

Work-life balance and work-family conflict

Industry, public and 3rd Sector Collaborations
Our academics have made an impact and collaborate with a range of private, public and 3rd sector organisations as expert advisors, in contract research and consulting. Such collaborations include the European Commission's Asylum Support Office (EASO), the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science in Australia, the Swiss Olympics - Federal Ministry of the Interior in Switzerland, the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) in the UK, the British Council in the UK, the society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR, UK) and Erasmus+, the European Commission's Programme.

Enterprise through research
Enterprise as a core research narrative invites researchers to contribute work notable for academic quality and impact and all sorts of areas could fall within this theme including, but not limited to, SMEs, local economy, organisational analysis, social enterprise and society. It offers opportunities to work collaboratively on research and publications, share data, complementary methodologies and connect with enterprise activities.

Engaging with business and society
The School is also committed to ‘civic engagement’ with a mission to share practical research outcomes to improve the society around us and this is reflected in many of the impact case studies which are being generated. Our local business community is essential to the success of London and we are keen to engage in research which supports that community through systematic capture of the structure, economic impact or business lifecycle.

We therefore would like our research to be academically strong and capable of generating impact locally, nationally or internationally. We are happy to consider a broad range of research proposals within the business domain so long as they can be seen to offer the potential for rigour, originality, reach and impact.

A PhD, by definition, is an original contribution to knowledge. A research degree is different from a taught course. Research students are expected to self-direct their learning with support from a supervisory team.