Research topics

At Leeds University Business School we have identified a number of topics, across our seven departments that we would particularly welcome applications for PhD study.

Research areas do not have specific funding attached to them, although the areas can be incorporated into a scholarship application. For details of available scholarships, please visit our fees and scholarships page. 

In addition to the research themes below, you could also suggest your own topic, but you must ensure that you closely define your research area within Leeds University Business School.

Accounting and Finance

• Asset pricing and financial markets
• Banking and financial intermediation
• Behavioural finance
• Business history
• Corporate finance
• Corporate governance
• Credit management
• Financial accounting and auditing
• Organisations: ownership, governance and performance
• Pensions
• SME finance
• Sustainable finance and ESG
• Venture capital and private equity

Find out more about our Accounting and Finance research area

Analytics, Technology and Operations

• Operations and supply chain management
• Supply chain resilience and sustainability
• Supply chain technologies and analytics
• Information systems and information management
• Information behaviour
• Digital transformation and innovation
• Decision support systems
• Operational research
• Decision Sciences and Optimisation
• Behavioural Decision Research
• Psychology of Decision Making & Risk
• Multi-criteria Decision Analysis
• Business and Data Analytics
• Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, Unstructured Data Mining
• Natural Language Processing
• Risk Perception and Communication
• Choice Modelling
• Locational Analysis

Find out more about our Analytics, Technology and Operations research area

Economics

• Work, labour and organisation
• Financialisation and globalisation
• Development and wellbeing
• Environment, infrastructure, innovation and the circular economy
• The macro economy and macroeconomic policy

Find out more about our Economics research area

International Business

• The theory of the multinational enterprise (MNE)
• The governance of global value chains (GVCs)
• Emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs)
• International business policy, SDGs and “grand challenges”
• International business, migration and society 
• Global health and international business
• Cross-cultural management, diversity and inclusion

Find out more about our International Business research area

Management and Organisations

• Organisational strategy
• Global supply chains
• Leadership and performance
• Technology and innovation
• Strategic management
• Innovation management
• Sustainability
• Entrepreneurship in challenging contexts
• Social and sustainable ventures
• Resilience and wellbeing
• Organisational behaviour
• Corporate purpose
• Corporate governance

Find out more about our Management and Organisations research area

Marketing

• Consumer buying behaviour
• Analysis of consumer heterogeneous preferences and discrete choice analysis
• Retailing and store choice analysis
• Branding and brand equity
• Formulating and implementing sustainability marketing strategies: Bridging the gap
• Marketing strategy making
• Emergent marketing strategy and decision making in marketing organizations
• Corporate responsibility and sustainability
• Green marketing and advertising
• Business ethics
• International marketing
• Cross cultural buyer-seller relationships
• Export marketing strategy and performance
• Sustainable strategies of multinational corporations
• Standardisation/adaptation of international service offerings
• International marketing process standardisation/adaptation

Find out more about our Marketing research area

People, Work and Employment

• Between professions and precarity: the new world of work
• Changing structures of governance and organisation
• Employment, skills and occupations
• Labour mobility, migration and citizenship
• Markets, flexibilisation and social protection
• Voice, representation and social movement
• Digitalisation, automation, platformisation, and the future of work
• Inequalities within work, employment and employment relations

Find out more about our People, Work and Employment research area