PhD 2009 brochure

Doctoral Programme2009

2 | Warwick Business School

Join our WBS Doctoral Programme and you will become a member of a dynamic, highly esteemed, and international research community. Consistently ranked amongst the best in the world, our PhD programme is also one of the largest in Europe with nearly 200 doctoral researchers from over 40 different countries. Our size and international dimension makes WBS a vibrant and exciting place to study.

Studying for a PhD is challenging but also exciting and rewarding if you have the right qualities and motivation. You can expect the defining features of academic life to shape your experience at WBS – innovative ideas, rigorous critical enquiry, international perspectives, and relevance to policy and practice. As well as researching for your PhD you will have the opportunity to collaborate with recognised experts, produce leading research, participate in seminars and conferences, and contribute to teaching activities. The skills and networks you develop will be invaluable in your future career, whether in academia or in other fields.

Our comprehensive research training programme, recognised by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), will equip you for the challenges of research in the social sciences. Our PhD in Finance offers additional training in finance-related methodologies, if this is your area of interest.

We offer a number of scholarships and bursaries as well as a research and conference travel allowance. Added to this, the high quality facilities we provide in beautiful campus surroundings help to strike a balance between work and leisure. IT resources and support, specialist library services, and careers advice are just some of the advantages you can expect. With all the amenities you need in one place, including excellent sporting and entertainment facilities and easy transport links to London and elsewhere, WBS is an ideal base for your research.

We look forward to welcoming you to our Doctoral Programme.

Professor Andrew Sturdy Associate Dean (Doctoral Programme)

Welcome to WBS

wbs.ac.uk/students/doctoral | 3


I came to study at WBS for a PhD in 1996. For me it was the obvious place to choose because of its reputation and position in the rankings. Of course I also had a supervisor whose research interests coincided with my own.

I was impressed by the resources such as the access to so many books and journals, and having an office to share with other PhD students, but the thing that stood out most for me was the sense of being part of a PhD community. The environment plus the number and quality of the students here enables us to learn from one another. It was competitive but in a healthy sense as, in trying to outperform each other, it pushed us to achieve our best.

We made the most of the opportunity to compare our work, broaden our understanding and take advantage of the diverse knowledge represented across the different years and groups. WBS also provided the basis for scholarly collaboration and a lifelong network of friends and colleagues whose career development and success we are able to feed off and support.

I left WBS to take up a lectureship at the University of Aberdeen before moving to the University of Nottingham where I was later promoted to Senior Lecturer. I was attracted to return to WBS in March 2007 by the variety and scale of the work that is possible here as well as the strong links with industry. In comparison to some other institutions I also feel that I am able to contribute more directly to decision making and it is a pleasure to work with the high calibre students that WBS attracts.

Dr Jimmy Huang Reader in Information Systems


Our subject strengths

Enterprise TeachingFocusing on enterprise and entrepreneurship, research interests include:

h SME finance

h public policy towards SMEs

h enterprise culture

h small businesses and fast growth SMEs.

Members of the group also belong to the Centre for Small & Medium Sized Enterprises.

Industrial Relations & Organisational BehaviourA critical social science perspective informs our research in the areas of:

h industrial relations

h human resource management

h organisational analysis

h organisational behaviour.

Members of this group are active within various professional and practitioner organisations including: the Industrial Relations Research Unit; the Innovation, Knowledge & Organisational Networks Research Unit; and Warwick Organisational Theory Network.

Information Systems & ManagementOur information systems research focuses on the theoretical and application-oriented issues facing the adoption and diffusion of ICT in the private and public sectors. We seek to improve understanding of how ICT impacts on people and organisations. Research interests include:

h IS strategy, development and project management

h IT governance

h global software development and offshore outsourcing

h business transformation and complexity

h applications of specific technologies

h IS in small and medium enterprises.

The group shares an interest in knowledge management and social theory with the Innovation, Knowledge & Organisational Networks Research Unit.

Our faculty is made up of around 180 academic staff who belong to a subject group, research centre, or research unit, sometimes working across more than one. As a doctoral researcher at WBS you will be fully integrated into the subject group to which you are attached, and where you will have the opportunity to contribute to research and, in many cases, teaching activities. This not only connects you with others who share similar or related research interests, but provides the best possible foundation for your professional future.

Subject groupsWBS is divided into subject groups, each with a specific focus. We also have research centres and special interest groups which often span disciplines and operate on national and international levels. Subject groups have their own web pages, where you can find out much more about their teaching and research, including topics where PhD applications are especially welcome.

W wbs.ac.uk/faculty/subjects W wbs.ac.uk/faculty/research

AccountingResearch is informed by two major perspectives: a critical interpretive perspective which seeks to understand the role of accounting in management practice, and a capital market perspective which evaluates the relevance of accounting for valuation and decision making purposes. Research interests include:

h financial accounting, reporting, and statement analysis

h management accounting

h auditing taxation

h accounting education and professionalisation.

FinanceResearch activities span the broad area of money and markets, specifically:

h corporate finance

h international finance including linear and nonlinear modelling of exchange rate movements, and work on foreign exchange market microstructure

h financial markets and options.

Members of the group are involved in the Research Boards and Education Faculties of the ESRC, the Warwick Finance Research Institute, and leading professional institutes.

Marketing & Strategic ManagementInformed by a multidisciplinary approach, our research interests are concerned with marketing and/or strategic management, and include:

h decision making, positioning, processes, modelling risk and performance, new organisational forms, policy and corporate governance

h consumer behaviour

h market entry, market planning, methodological and managerial issues in market segmentation, market structures, global retail, and service marketing

h adoption, change and diffusion of technologies.

Operations ManagementResearch activities focus on the design, planning, control and improvement of operations in the manufacturing, service, private, and public sectors including:

h lean thinking and continuous improvement

h service excellence

h supply chain management

h performance measurement

h health service excellence.

Operational Research & Management Sciences Research focuses on the practical application of operational research investigating how OR methods can be used to improve real world problem situations, as well as in strengthening its theoretical basis in model and methodology development in:

h practice of OR

h improving OR performance within organisations such as the health service, electricity and finance industries

h OR strategy.

Public Management & Policy This group brings together expertise in research and teaching in the area of:

h public sector management and policy

h public services.

The group forms the teaching unit of the Institute of Governance & Public Management (IGPM).


Basically there are two ways of choosing your supervisor. The first is the ‘you finding the supervisor’ approach. You have a rough idea and know what you are interested in but are not exactly sure what topic you are going to do. On the web site you search through the faculty and find the area that you are interested in, and then you can contact potential supervisors and discuss possible projects you can work on together. In that way you can find out exactly what the supervisor wants.

The second is the ‘supervisor finding you’ approach. If you know specifically what you are going to do, then you just go through the normal process; you write your research proposal, fill in an application form and send it in to WBS. The admissions secretary will pass on the information to the relevant group and they will read your ideas to see whether they are interested in having you as a student.

Both approaches can work depending on whether you know exactly what you want to do or not. But the first is much more likely to achieve a good match. Remember, you will have to work closely with your supervisor for a number of years and they will have to work with you!

Xuhui Yang current doctoral researcher, Marketing & Strategic Management group


Finding a supervisor

Achieving a good matchGetting a good match between you and your supervisor is essential. Take some time to browse our online expertise directory and explore the sections relating to our faculty’s and subject groups’ research interests and academic expertise. This will help you decide whether the research interests of our staff match your ideas. We strongly encourage you to discuss your research ideas with one or more prospective supervisors before applying.

You might also find it helpful to browse details of research projects currently being undertaken by our doctoral researchers on our web site.

W wbs.ac.uk/students/doctoral W wbs.ac.uk/faculty/members

Get to know their workWhen you have identified a prospective supervisor for your research, we strongly advise you to read some of their publications to gain a better understanding of their research interests. This will enable you to decide whether you need to refine your research idea to ensure a match, or whether to search for a different supervisor.

If your chosen supervisor is unable to supervise your research, you may be advised to choose another person, or to defer your entry in order to work with them at a later date.

I am a qualified Chartered Accountant, Consultant and Academic. I have operated as Strategic Adviser to Governments and Chief Executives and held Head of Finance and Resources positions.

I thought I knew it all, but the faculty inspire insight and facilitate foresight unlike any other experience, training or qualification that I have undertaken.

Laurence Ferry current doctoral researcher, Accounting group

Now that you have an idea of the range of broad subject areas we offer, the critical step in your application is identifying the member or members of WBS faculty whose research interests correspond with your intended research topic. You will need to choose at least one supervisor who is a specialist in your chosen field. A second supervisor may also be involved at this stage or will be appointed towards the end of your first year of study with us.

The majority of our established faculty supervise doctoral research and all are actively involved in research, publishing in leading international journals, and working with research boards, private and public sector organisations, and professional institutions.


The shape of our Doctoral Programme

Other trainingYou may have the opportunity to follow some taught postgraduate modules from our Specialist Masters Portfolio.

w wbs.ac.uk/students/masters

You will also be encouraged to take up the wide range of personal and professional skills development opportunities offered by the University. We work closely with other University departments including the Careers Service to deliver training specifically tailored to meet the needs of our doctoral researchers. If you become involved in teaching, an introductory training course is compulsory and you will be supported by teaching staff in the relevant subject group.

Sharing your researchThere will be many opportunities available to you for networking and disseminating your research. In addition to events organised by our Doctoral Programme team and WBS, research seminars organised by your subject group will offer you the chance to exchange ideas and present your research. As a member of your subject group you will have the facility to create your own web pages.

You will also benefit from a conference allowance to attend conferences and make high level presentations of your research to different audiences.

StructureYou will usually be attached to a specific subject group or research centre. Some of our doctoral researchers have an affiliation with more than one group if their research area is cross-disciplinary. If your specialism is finance, you should consider our PhD in Finance, detailed on page 11.

Doing a PhD is a serious undertaking. The minimum registration period for our Doctoral Programme is three years full-time. You will register initially for the degree of MPhil. When you successfully complete the compulsory research training in the first year and present a satisfactory research proposal to the Upgrading Panel, your registration will be upgraded from MPhil to PhD at the end of your first year.

The requirement for the PhD is a thesis of around 80,000 words which you will produce under the guidance of your supervisor. The degree of PhD is awarded solely on the basis of this thesis and an oral examination or viva voce, the main criterion for the award being that the thesis makes a significant contribution to knowledge.

All full-time researchers are required to submit their thesis within four years from the start of their registration. Part-time PhD students must finish within six years.

SupervisionIn designing and undertaking your research project, you will be advised by one or two supervisors with appropriate research expertise and interests. Your main supervisor will be nominated when you are offered a place on our Doctoral Programme; a second supervisor may also be appointed at this stage, but certainly will be by the end of your first year of study.

It is your supervisor’s task to guide your work and you can expect your learning relationship with them to change over time. Early on they may help to give shape to your thesis, direct you to certain texts, suggest that you consider other alternatives, and steer your plans in a certain way. Later, when the focus and direction of your thesis has been established, your supervisions may well take the form of a dialogue in which you discuss particular problems or issues that concern you. As you develop more autonomy in your work it is quite common for you to determine the pattern of your supervisions with your supervisor monitoring your progress.

Year one: research training programmeDesigned and delivered by staff with a high degree of expertise in research methodologies, and complying with the Economic and Social Research Council’s requirements, our research training will enable you to develop many skills as a researcher in social sciences, not just those you will need to complete your thesis.

You will undertake four compulsory core modules which are delivered through a combination of weekly lectures, seminars, and day schools. A structured feedback process throughout the year ensures that modules can be fine-tuned if necessary and any specific needs or gaps in content can be addressed.

Core modulesThree modules are assessed through coursework. In order to upgrade from MPhil to PhD you must pass the coursework requirements of two of these: Philosophy of the Social Sciences and either Qualitative or Quantitative Research Methods.

Philosophy of the Social Sciences the nature of social science, issues of theory construction and problem formulation, and paradigms of social enquiry and explanation.

Qualitative Research Methods fieldwork access, observation, interviewing, documentary analysis, and case studies.

Quantitative Research Methods the use of descriptive and inferential statistics, sampling, multivariate analysis, and statistical packages like SPSS.

A final core module is not assessed, but is a key part of your research training at WBS:

Research Planning and Management Skills covers all skills relevant to thesis preparation, conference presentations, journal submissions, and your future career.

Years two & threeAfter year one you will be encouraged to attend a continuing programme of training and development events according to your specific needs including more advanced and specialised research methods, research planning, and careers and professional skills development workshops.

I definitely benefited from the research training. It provided me with an introduction to various philosophies, because in my particular area, organisation studies, there are different standpoints and ways that you can look at things.

We got an introduction to these and to the methodologies which can be used to explore things from a philosophical standpoint. I did receive invitations to research methods events outside Warwick from the ESRC, who are were funding me, but our seminars here were so good that I tended not to go to these others!

Dr Diane Skinner PhD (Warwick)


Being a doctoral researcher at WBS is a great experience. My supervisors are top researchers in the field and are committed to helping me shape my ideas, enhance my research capabilities, and build my confidence. I also have many opportunities for intellectual exchange with great minds from all over the world.

Hazel Huang current doctoral researcher, Marketing & Strategic Management group


Three areas of the WBS Doctoral programme stand out: supervision, colleagues, and community.

The supervision process is very important for a young researcher, because it forms the backbone of the way one conducts research in the future. I meet my supervisor regularly to discuss work, and our collaboration on research is ongoing.

I am very content with the degree and ease of interaction with the staff in the Finance group and the fact that I feel free to knock on anyone’s door for a chat or for some help, if needed.

Life at WBS is dynamic and very enjoyable, not only within the doctoral and research community, but the University community as a whole.

The international community is very large, which brings a lot of diversity to the events organised.

Gino Cenedese current researcher on our Doctoral Programme in Finance


PhD in Finance

Course structureOur PhD in Finance has a minimum registration period of three years full-time. Initially you will register for the degree of MPhil. On successful completion of the research training programme and presentation of a satisfactory research proposal your registration will be upgraded from MPhil to PhD status. You will then complete a thesis of around 80,000 words, under the guidance of your supervisor.

The degree of PhD is awarded solely on the basis of this thesis, the criterion for the award being that the thesis makes a significant contribution to knowledge.

As a doctoral researcher within the Finance group you will have the opportunity to participate in the group’s weekly internal and external research seminars and there is a generous conference allowance available to assist you in attending conferences and presenting your research.

SupervisionIn designing and undertaking your research project, you will be advised by one or two supervisors with appropriate research expertise and interests. Your main supervisor will be provisionally nominated when you are offered a place; a second supervisor is normally chosen towards the end of the first year of study. For further insights into the supervision process see page 8.

Year one: research training programmeThe taught courses in the first year will provide structured and high level post-masters training in theoretical and empirical research methods in finance. These are compulsory for all researchers registered for the degree. You must pass all the assessed modules in order to upgrade to PhD.

The modules will be delivered mainly through lectures and seminars with additional workshops and day schools as required.

Core modulesThree modules are assessed through coursework and final examination:

Theory of Finance asset pricing, corporate finance, and derivative securities.

Quantitative Methods in Finance financial econometrics and quantitative techniques.

Frontiers of Research in Finance latest research in the fields of international finance, investments and portfolio management, asset pricing, behavioural finance, corporate finance, derivatives, and microstructure of markets.

There are two further core modules:

Methodology of Social Science designed to enable you to understand the philosophy and paradigms which underlie research in finance within the wider context of the physical and social sciences. Assessed by coursework.

Planning and Managing Research focuses on issues such as research process and design, coping with conferences, getting published, and writing skills for researchers. Non-assessed.

Elective modulesYou will also be required to complete two modules selected from one of the WBS finance-related Masters or the PhD in Economics programme at Warwick.

W wbs.ac.uk/students/masters W www.warwick.ac.uk/go/econphd

Years two & threeYou will be encouraged to undertake additional training in year two and beyond to broaden your understanding of social science research as well as research in the finance area. In particular, you will be encouraged to take the Philosophy of Social Sciences and Qualitative Research Methods modules from the main WBS Doctoral Programme, attend research seminars and benefit from a range of other courses to improve your personal and professional skills throughout your period of study. See page 8 for details.

Given the specific quantitative skills needed in finance, the research training provided for finance students is different to that of the rest of the Doctoral Programme. The Finance group offers training in essential topics in the finance area. Furthermore, as part of the training programme, the Finance group organises weekly seminars and workshops. PhD students and staff members attend the workshops series, so we all have the opportunity to share our work, learn presentation skills, and get the necessary feedback on our work. External researchers present their current work in the seminar series, which provides us with knowledge at the forefront of research on many topics. All this training put together provides a coherent and thorough preparation for good research.

Elvira Sojli current doctoral researcher, Finance group


In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (2001), WBS was one of only three UK business schools to achieve the highest 5* rating, only awarded for research of international excellence. Our research influences the academic, business, and policy communities and underpins all our teaching.

This research-led ethos is driven by the motivation of our faculty and doctoral researchers to develop new ideas, as well as challenge existing thinking through their contributions to key debates. We do not set research agendas for individuals or groups, nor do we promote a particular methodology or approach. Rather, through our positive research culture, the range of disciplines and approaches, and strong links with industry, trade unions, and governments, we provide an environment in which all our researchers can flourish.

We also lead by example. Enthusiasm for individual research is championed by our most senior staff, especially our Dean, Howard Thomas, who continues to publish leading research on strategic management issues.

Our research output can be seen in the 600 to 700 works, ranging from books and research articles to conference proceedings, that we publish each year. These result from individual and team research, including cross-subject

Research at WBS

collaboration across our faculty and with other leading experts around the world.

With one of the largest and highest ranked doctoral programmes in Europe, we are proud of our leading role in developing the next generation of researchers. Join us and you will be an integral part of the WBS research community; not a student so much as an academic colleague in training. In addition to the excellent support and facilities we provide, we are fully committed to helping you fulfil your research potential.

Professor David Storey, Associate Dean (Research)


research at WBS

The practice of corporate governance: an accounting perspective

Professor Thomas Ahrens (pictured) and Dr Rihab Khalifa of the Accounting group are conducting a research project on corporate governance together with Professor Chris Chapman of Imperial College. Conceived as a pilot project at this stage, it will build upon on a well-established body of accounting research concerned with questions of accountability, audit, and governance, and will determine the scale of a larger study to come.

Thomas Ahrens describes the context, ‘After two decades of corporate governance debates and report after report on how to improve the practice of corporate governance (eg Cadbury, Greenbury, Hampel, Turnbull, Higgs, etc) we are still facing an unending stream of corporate scandals. Why? Because Enron and Worldcom demonstrated that rules without principles are not effective. In the UK, scandals during the early 1990s such as Polly Peck, BCCI, and Barings showed that abstract principles need the support of practical understandings. These are complexes of know-how that do not arise from principles or rules, and cannot be imposed by regulators, but emerge over time through practice because the knowledge of how to do something well depends on experience; it requires sustained work in a particular field. This research is concerned with discovering how such understandings can be recognised and understood so that they may become part of the general practice of corporate governance and its regulation.’

Attempting reform in the area of corporate governance is not without its challenges. Individual incentives and economic and regulatory frameworks impose limitations and unlike audit, for example, corporate governance has no champion or professional group of experts. Similarly, though it holds implications for everyone from directors to shareholders, ultimate responsibility remains unclear. In addition, whilst corporate governance reports articulate rules of good governance and generate codes of practice, corporate governance is perceived as mandatory regulation; companies know they must comply but they have not fully grasped its potential benefits.

The significance of this research lies in its implications for the vast ambitions that are tied to corporate governance. Corporate governance reports have focused on shareholder value through transparency and accountability; firms should use shareholder capital in the most efficient manner thereby leading to an optimal allocation of resources in the economy. An even grander ambition, that has been difficult to put into practice, is to make business responsive to a wide range of stakeholders from employees to the environment! Corporate governance is set to become the cornerstone of ethical business.

The project will identify the extent to which these ambitions are practical and perhaps even counterproductive. Rihab explains, ‘By using practice theory – a strand of social theory that seeks

to overcome distinctions between explanations that focus either on agents or structures – rather than ask whether the actions of people cause things or if people are at the mercy of social and other structures, we want to explain the functioning of corporate governance as a joint outcome of choice, action and circumstances.’

Recent research into the effectiveness of audit committees and communication between boards and shareholders has shown it is possible to conduct such interactions in ways that generate new benefits for firms. Subtle communications with audit committee members can diffuse cases of internal fraud or misuse of resources before they lead to a showdown at the Board. Communication with shareholders and investors can strengthen the Board’s strategic thinking and help to implement strategic initiatives throughout the company. Rihab points out, ‘Practice theory suggests that a key challenge to implementing improvements within corporate governance lies within companies’ failure to realise the potential benefits. Organisational members’ ability to use corporate governance requirements to enhance management strategy requires what we call ‘practical understanding of the corporate governance debate.’ We are seeking to do this by asking why practical understandings should become part of the corporate governance debate, how it has been possible to have omitted them thus far, and what the benefits of articulating those understandings as part of the process of regulating corporate governance are?’

As well as publishing the research findings, Rihab hopes to set up a seminar that will bring practitioners and academics together. She says, ‘Depending on the scope of the full-scale project, there may be other opportunities to disseminate the findings and ensure that practical understandings are incorporated into the regulation of corporate governance.’

The project is also conceptually similar to the projects of a number of doctoral researchers who are exploring accountability relationships in various empirical settings and industry sectors. Rihab adds, ‘Within the Accounting group my role as the Doctoral Programme Committee Chair is also to help integrate our PhD students – there is no doubt that this degree of shared focus on accountability helps to ensure that their work is fully recognised within the group’s research agenda. We are looking forward to welcoming new doctoral researchers to the group.’


While investigating public broadcasting André had observed the groundswell of alternative media networks and activism on the Internet and, as emerging phenomena, they seemed subjects ripe for further investigation. In 2005, together with colleagues Steffen Bohm of the University of Essex and Sian Sullivan from the University of East Anglia, he was awarded £45,000 from the ESRC’s ‘non government public action programme’ to further investigate the alternative media sector.

The focus of the project is a variety of open source web-based news site which has spread rapidly around the globe. The content of these sites is often created through a system of open publishing by which ‘anyone’ can upload a report (written, audio, or video) directly to the site through ‘an openly accessible web interface.’ As with other sites which depend on user-generated content, the guiding philosophy is that site users are no longer passive receivers of information mediated by media corporations but active producers of meaning, able to express their opinions and exercise their freedom of speech directly, and without fear of recrimination.

The team are specifically looking at web-based alternative media throughout the world. André explains, ‘The objectives of the study are twofold. Firstly, it is an examination of a popular uprising of people who want to contest the status quo; how is it organised? What is its structure? How does such an organisation sustain itself? Secondly, it implies a critique of what management corporations do. Can alternative media organisation offer alternative ways of organising? How does a structure shaped by shared ideologies and identities impact on the organisation? What kind of culture or economy emerges in an organisation which operates on values based on commitment and respect? As a virtual organisation how does the lack of a physical space impact on its operation?’

The project has been extended but the initial findings are already proving interesting:

A non-corporate alternativeMany commentators have noted that today’s media is increasingly dominated by corporate behemoths like CNN and News Corporation. Alternative media organisations have set up models of making and distributing news that reject this corporate control. By developing a space for user-generated content, alternative media has been able to reject the restrictive editorial policies of corporate media.

This means that journalists disseminate some of the more controversial material to audiences which CNN or the BBC would never touch. Alternative media organisations have also developed radical new ways of organising the production of media content. They have built online communities who work in a democratic, bottom-up fashion. This means that people are not restricted by the scripts, hierarchies, and contracts that rule the world of mainstream media.

In many ways, the alternative media sector has been well ahead of the game. André says, ‘Alternative media organisations invented things like blogs, user-generated content, and online communities. They developed ways of harnessing the voice of people online and enabled them to put their own view across. It is only now that large corporates like News Corporation and Google are catching up. Social web sites like MySpace and YouTube now try to copy the models initially invented by alternative media movements such as Indymedia. The problem is that the main objective of these so-called Web 2.0 initiatives is to commercialise the Internet by targeting a huge amount of online advertising to a lucrative group of users. Alternative media movements are non-commercial; they see the Internet not as just another cash cow, but as a way to give millions of people a voice to campaign for a better, more equitable world.’

In their study the researchers’ starting point was that alternative media plays an important political role as it challenges the ideological structuring of mainstream media, and gives political activists access to a publishing platform that they would not otherwise have. However, what André found was a variety of complexities and oddities that often make it difficult for alternative media collectives to organise effectively.

Alternative media: redefining news and organisation

Shared values and collaboration might seem the ideal ingredients for organisational harmony but in an ongoing research project into the alternative media sector, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Dr André Spicer, Associate Professor in Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour (IROB), suggests that the reverse may be true.


research at WBS

An open closed shop; no entry to the uninitiatedAndré describes how the participants typically take a user identity which is different to their real name. Questions of identity start to emerge from this. ‘This difference between the online and offline presence raises lots of issues,’ says André.

‘Who is in? Who’s out? Are you an activist or not? Although users/members apparently share an ethos of activism there is no specific definition of what activism is.’ While alternative media collectives are often explicitly open for everyone to join and contribute, in reality they are sometimes rather closed entities ruled by identity politics involving specific dress codes and languages. Thus there is an ongoing challenge for alternative media to recruit newcomers to their groups and keep themselves open to new ideas and people who might not share their political convictions.

Agile in theory but slow in practiceTypical of many such organisations structured around shared values and commitment to a common purpose, the alternative media collectives often explicitly reject standard organisational tools. This is positive because it means they can develop output quickly. There is a greater degree of spontaneity, willingness to take risks, and immediacy in their ability to respond to breaking news. However, André points out, ‘The irony is that there is much time spent in talking about how they will plan and organise things. The need to arrive at decisions by consensus can slow things down and ultimately counteract their potential to be flexible and respond quickly.’ Nevertheless, the benefit of grassroots consensus decision making is that each member has the opportunity to participate in the structuring of the organisation. In corporations the discourse of empowerment has existed for a long time but what one sees, however, is that there is often an illusion of participation; employees are given the impression of participation, openness and empowerment, while the real decisions are still made at the top. In contrast, alternative media movements try to implement radical grassroots organisational processes that involve everyone.

Low personnel but high personal costsAlternative media is often driven by people who share common passions but this too can present challenges. ‘It’s very intense and because their identity is bound up in what they do, it has a high impact on their lives. People are brought together by a sense of kinship and personal commitment and devote enormous and unpaid amounts of time and passion to what they do. This is hard to sustain over time and they often suffer from burn-out or end up feeling disillusioned. Since it’s informal, when things go wrong there are no external rules you can appeal to or formal structure to keep it together – things start to break down.’ This is sometimes called

‘activist burn-out’, which may be seen in many radical political movements. That said, corporate environments are not immune to the phenomenon of burn-out as there is frequently little opportunity to take a step back or even leave the organisation.

Calm at the eye of the stormThroughout their research the team have observed in particular how the practice and ideology of openness sometimes gives way as the community turns in on itself. This sometimes leads to atrophy and the result is reduced opportunities for protest. Contrary to expectations, the dynamism one might expect to find at the centre of such networks shifts; the centre spins off clusters of people who become dissatisfied and want to set up new ventures. These are often more dynamic, more interesting, and able to move very rapidly.

André concludes, ‘Alternative media organisations do amazing things. They have produced some of the most interesting and daring news coverage available. In an increasingly concentrated media landscape they are vital in ensuring that the truth gets out there. They have produced some alternative ways of organising news media based on principles of cooperation and participation. But to continue to make these vital contributions they must be aware of the dangers of turning in on themselves.’

More about research at WBSThis article was first published as a feature on the WBS web site. You will find more articles on current research in our online press centre.

W wbs.ac.uk/news


An evolutionary perspective on knowledge management in practice

Taman Powell came to study for a PhD at WBS with over ten years’ experience in corporate business and has been awarded the Bentley College/HEC Outstanding Student Paper Award by the Academy of Management. Taman receives support for his research from the ESRC. Now in his final year, he offers an insight into knowledge management in practice in the field of management consulting.

What interested you about knowledge management as a subject of research?Knowledge is seen as the key to improved business performance. Consequently, knowledge management has become an increasingly fashionable topic. There is a commonly held perception that knowledge is a good whose value can be extracted and shared with little or no marginal cost. When you consider that companies currently spend around 3.5 percent of their total revenue on knowledge management programmes, it’s not hard to see the value they attach to it. However, knowledge management has become a much abused term and frequently companies implement knowledge management initiatives with little success or understanding of why they then failed to achieve the desired results. The idea that knowledge management can exert such a positive influence on a company’s performance is very appealing and I was interested in exploring this disconnect between ideals and realisation.

Why did you decide to focus your research on management consultancies?Having previously worked at a senior level for Accenture, management consultancies presented the ‘classic’ subject for a research project of this kind. Their work is viewed as being highly knowledge intensive and consequently they are seen as being at the forefront of knowledge management practices. Management consultancies are also frequently tasked with implementing knowledge management initiatives for their clients.

The rhetoric of knowledge management is highly compelling as it offers companies a means of controlling knowledge that can be standardised and managed, thereby enabling everyone to have access to the ‘best’ knowledge. Often the result is more an information management than a knowledge management system. All too often companies express frustration at employees’ apparent non-compliance and when things go wrong criticisms are aimed at the implementation. My sense was that this is connected to a deeper set of issues concerning the fundamental concept of knowledge and the underlying assumptions behind such knowledge management practices.

I decided to approach five consultancies and look at high, medium, and low performing project teams in each to find out if different companies do things differently and if so, why? I also wanted to know whether high performing teams employed different knowledge management practices to low performing teams. Essentially, I was interested in understanding ‘What are the explicit and emergent knowledge management practices? and, ‘Under what conditions do they, or don’t they work?’

Where does your study fit in relation to existing theories on knowledge management?There are a number of challenges related to the study of knowledge and knowledge management. Over the centuries, the term knowledge itself has presented a challenge for theorists seeking to define and describe it empirically. I decided to look at it from two perspectives; as a tacit and explicit asset and as an individual and social entity. This offers four different types of knowledge whereas typically knowledge is described as being of only one kind.

Tacit knowledge is hard to articulate. For example, many of us are able to ride a bike but remain unable to explain how we do this. Explicit knowledge, on the other hand, can be expressed and transferred in formal language.

From a social perspective, whether organisations have knowledge, or whether this is simply the application of human qualities to non-human entities, has been the subject of much debate. However, while an organisation cannot create knowledge without individuals, as Brown and Duguid point out, ‘a great deal of knowledge is both produced and held collectively.’ Many theorists have contributed to this social perspective arguing that knowledge is distributed throughout the organisation’s members as well as being embedded in its routines and culture. Spender (1996) adds this social perspective to the explicit/tacit knowledge typology (Polanyi, 1958, Nonaka, 1991) to develop a model including four distinct types of knowledge.


research at WBS

Explicit conscious objectified

Tacit automatic collective

Individual Social

Figure 1 The different types of organisational knowledge (adapted from Spender 1996)

In this model conscious knowledge (individual explicit) is found to be easily transferable (though may be internalised differently by different communities) whilst it is not possible to articulate automatic knowledge (individual tacit). Automatic knowledge is required for action, whilst conscious knowledge represents the sense-making associated with that activity; for example, the difference between having a recipe and understanding the cooking methods it requires. Objectified knowledge (social explicit), while easily transferable, is dependent upon the rules that legitimised it, and on collective knowledge (social tacit) to interpret it. Though academic in theory, this is significant as each suggests a different approach to creation, transfer, learning, and use.

In terms of knowledge management, Nonaka (1994) proposed a model of knowledge conversion based on

‘an assumption that knowledge is created through conversion between tacit and explicit knowledge’. Hansen et al (1999) argued that organisations either follow a knowledge management strategy of codification (when knowledge is ‘carefully codified and stored in databases, where it can be accessed and used easily by anyone in the company’) or personalisation (when ‘knowledge is closely tied to the person who developed it and is shared mainly through person-to-person contacts. The chief purpose of computers at such companies is to help people communicate knowledge, not to store it.’)

From these theories it is clear that organisations rely on different types of knowledge and therefore need to focus their knowledge management efforts on either the codification or personalisation strategy. In my research I wanted to investigate how these approaches changed over time, effectively adopting an evolutionary perspective, as well as how the explicit knowledge management practices impacted the activities of consulting team personnel, effectively adopting a practice perspective.

Can you outline some of your key findings?My research so far would suggest that organisations transition through various approaches of knowledge management. Different approaches are often dependent on size and, whilst initial approaches may be quite naïve, organisations’ formal approaches to knowledge management can be seen to evolve over time as they practice and learn through experience. Most organisations start with a codification approach but after a time they shift their focus to the personalisation strategy. I hypothesised that the personalisation strategy would be succeeded by attempts to formalise a social network in order to foster effective knowledge management.

However, when I looked at project teams, it was apparent that an organisation’s formal approach to knowledge management had next to no impact on how people on the ground conducted knowledge management. Project team members employ emergent knowledge approaches. Their first instinct was to seek knowledge from trusted sources, ie friends or colleagues, rather than from strangers or a database. When you are seeking something you do not know much about, it’s hard to know what

‘knowledge’ exists and therefore difficult to evaluate the quality of that knowledge. Added to that, most project teams already possess a significant amount of knowledge and expertise so by appealing to their ‘community of practice’ it is easily shared and communicated. These outcomes beg the question whether organisations are wasting their resources focussing such a high percent of them on the codification approach to knowledge management.

What are the implications of this for knowledge management practice?Overall I would say my research suggests that the way we are managing knowledge needs to be readjusted. My research does not support the extant views of knowledge which define it as static and endorse a selection of approaches based on firm-level characteristics. There is a call for the identification of an evolutionary perspective of knowledge management. In terms of practice, the next stage would be an attempt to facilitate and leverage the emergent knowledge management practices that take place in all organisations. However, this poses greater challenges for management as the actions required, and the outcome expected, from facilitating these emergent practices is less clear than with codification and personalisation.

Similarly, the identification of a significant disconnect between firm-level and project-level practices suggests that firm-level practices need to be realigned to take into account how work is actually performed. In doing so, we need to escape from the mindset that IT is the panacea for the challenges posed by knowledge management

All of this points to the need for a broadening of knowledge management tools and techniques to cover a more complete perspective of knowledge. The majority of formal approaches deal with the exploitation of explicit knowledge and, whilst there is an evolution of practice under way, there is still a long way to go before we have an effective model of how to manage knowledge in organisations.

ReferencesBrown J S & Duguid P (1998) Organising Knowledge. California Management Review, 40(3), 90–111

Hansen M T, Nohria N & Tierney T (1999) What’s Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge? Harvard Business Review, 77(2), 106–16

Nonaka I (1991) The Knowledge-Creating Company. Harvard Business Review, 69(6), 96–104

Nonaka I (1994) A Dynamic Theory of Organisational Knowledge Creation. Organization Science, 5(1), 14–37

Polanyi M (1958) Personal Knowledge. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Spender J C (1996) Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Memory: Three Concepts in Search of a Theory. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 9(1), 63-79


Small, satisfying but not all that beautiful: employee commitment and the small firm

Professor Paul Edwards, Sukanya Sen Gupta, and Chin-Ju Tsai of the Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU), report on how pragmatism may have a greater role to play than unerring loyalty amongst employees of small firms.

Small firms, employing fewer than 250 employees, account for about 60 percent of employment in most modern economies. The situation of workers in these firms has attracted a less than commensurate interest among researchers.

A limited but important line of debate has been characterised by three positions:

h ‘Small is beautiful’ close working relationships and the absence of bureaucracy generate harmony

h Autocracy small firms often pay low wages and operate in competitive markets, leading to autocracy in the workplace

h Contingency small firms are shaped by their market situations, and little if anything of their workplace relations depend on size alone.

Though the third is an advance on the first two, it leaves open the question of just what it is about the market that leads to certain workplace relationships rather than others. And in extreme form it denies that enterprise size plays any role at all.

New research we have conducted under the ESRC/EPSRC Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM) programme, has moved beyond these stereotypical positions. It is based on two sources.

Firstly, our primary research has addressed employment relations in 89 firms, in 32 of which data on employee attitudes were collected (with a total sample of 384 employees). These firms were chosen to offer as specific a view as possible of distinctive types of small firm. With one exception, the firms had fewer than 100 employees. They also came from three tightly defined sectors: ICT, media and TV production, and food manufacturing.

The second source was the authoritative 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) into the size of firm and employee attitudes – a collaborative work embracing WBS colleagues David Storey and George Saridakis from the Centre for Small & Medium-sized Enterprises, and Robert Blackburn of Kingston University. The survey has data on over 600 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 4,000 of their employees.

There were three key findings, the first being that there is a genuine size effect which, other things being equal, tends to promote employee satisfaction at work. Secondly, the effect works differently in different sectors. Lastly, satisfaction does not mean harmony or shared interests between managers and workers.

Size and ‘morale’The WERS analysis addressed an index of ‘employee needs’, made up of employee reports on 22 items including satisfaction with pay and views of how fairly managers treated workers. Even after allowing for a wide range of factors embracing employees’ individual characteristics, such as age and education, and those of their workplaces, including sector and a set of HR practices, the index showed a more positive picture the smaller the size of the firm.

The more detailed study of 89 firms supported this result. Though the three sectors were deliberately chosen to be very different, on several key indicators such as employee attitudes to management and satisfaction with job autonomy there was remarkable similarity across all the firms.

Interviews with managers and some of the employees in the Warwick sample, together with more in-depth investigation in six firms, suggested a key reason for the result. Workers and managers work alongside each other, and the level of effort expended by managers is visible to workers. As we will see, this does not mean that there is a sense of harmony. However, it does mean that there is awareness of a shared endeavour.


research at WBS

Wage-effort bargains and the sectoral contextThis generic tendency within small firms was shaped by two factors. The first is the overall market situation of the firm. The firms studied had established niches in their markets which meant that rewards were felt to be reasonable. For those adopting an ‘autocracy’ perspective, such a position might be written off as unusual. But the WERS evidence shows that small firms often have considerable longevity and also that market conditions as a whole are not worse than those facing large firms.

Indeed a minority of small firms are under intense pressure. Other research conducted by Paul Edwards and Monder Ram shows that wages here can be extremely low. It also examines the ways in which illegal employment is produced and reproduced among small firms. Even under such conditions, however, straight autocracy is rare, and there is, instead, a form of negotiated order based on family and often kinship ties. Shared misery and negotiation to make the best of a difficult situation characterise such workplaces. Even under extreme conditions small firms are not characterised by autocracy. Under more standard conditions, there is a degree of space within which a reasonable balance of reward and effort can be struck.

The second factor relating to the firms studied is the distinct balance of effort and reward. In the food firms, for example, low wages were balanced by a largely undemanding pace of work and the fact that workers could find space to develop personal relationships. This was underpinned by the limited degree of mechanisation, so that the anonymity of work in large and rationalised plants was absent. In media companies, by contrast, there was a demanding work pace, and pay was not high for professional staff; the benefits lay in the interest of the job and the distant prospect of media stardom.

Satisfaction but not harmonySome images of the small firm suggest wholly common interests as reflected, for example, in the sharing of rewards and of risk. Even in the two professional sectors, these images were inaccurate. Any kind of profit sharing was extremely rare. Most firms paid basic salaries, sometimes with a bonus at the end of the year. Such bonuses were rare, and their size and distribution was entirely in the hands of managers. Other aspects of reward were also subject to management discretion. Generally, fringe benefits such as sick pay were absent, but valued employees might be allowed some paid time off. Such choices were made by managers as they saw fit. Employees were treated not as equals but as staff to be assessed. Performance in the two professional sectors was thus appraised in some detail, and even some of the food firms had developed detailed appraisal schemes.

Workers were plainly aware of these arrangements. They made a clear distinction between themselves and managers. They also recognised that promotion opportunities were often limited, and could see the reasons for this, namely, the small size of the firms and the lack of space at the top. While they also valued the training that was available within their current jobs, they could still see the realities of ownership and control.

In summary, workers in small firms are reasonably satisfied because of the benefits of informality and the sectorally distinctive structure of the wage-effort bargain. But they are constrained by their own skills in terms of the jobs that they can seek, and satisfaction is in relation to what they can reasonably expect. It is not a reflection of deeper contentment, still less a conscious choice of jobs. They also recognise a divide between them and their managers. Pragmatic acceptance, rather than deep-seated loyalty, characterised their views of their jobs.

For more information on this project, see the paper by Chin-Ju Tsai, Sukanya Sen Gupta and Paul Edwards, ‘When and Why is Small Beautiful?’ in Human Relations, December 2007.


At Warwick you’re part of a large community that encompasses several thousand staff and students and you do get a real sense of community here. I pursue a number of interests outside my PhD. I used to row competitively at university and I now coach the rowing team which I really enjoy. I’m also a member of the triathlon club and run exercise classes for them which is great. Warwick also gives you lots of other opportunities to network in other clubs and societies. One of the things that I love about it is the Arts Centre. I enjoy going to the theatre and there is always something interesting to go and see. I love the place!

Nick Wake current doctoral researcher, Operations Management group


Life at WBS

LibraryThe University of Warwick library offers superior facilities having recently had a £3.5 million pound refurbishment to house its collection of over one million books. Extensive online resources including over 25,000 electronic journals and databases, official publications, newspapers, inter-library loans and specialist collections for business research make it easy for you to access the information you need. Specialist subject librarians are available to support staff and researchers. In addition the Modern Records Centre makes available primary sources of British political, social and economic history with particular reference to labour history and industrial relations.

W www.warwick.ac.uk/go/library W www.warwick.ac.uk/go/mrc

Leisure & entertainmentWarwick Students’ Union is one of the biggest in the UK and is the centre of campus social life. Spread over five floors, it features several bars, restaurants and cafes as well as a welfare and advice centre, and several flexible spaces that function as clubs, marketplaces, and gathering points.

w www.sunion.warwick.ac.uk

CultureAnother main cultural attraction of the campus is Warwick Arts Centre. With its concert hall, cinema, two theatres, and art gallery, as well as a restaurant and bar, it attracts some of the biggest names in the arts including Peter Brook, Buena Vista Social Club, Ray Davies, Russell Brand, Cheek by Jowl, Bryn Terfel, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Derren Brown.

W www.warwickartscentre.co.uk

Cosmopolitan & scenic environmentThe University of Warwick campus is a spacious and attractive environment, with everything you need on a single site. It is home to a vibrant, international community providing you with a stimulating and supportive setting for your studies.

The campus offers a vast array of entertainment and there’s still plenty of space to relax in the quiet tranquillity of the Warwickshire countryside. We offer a great balance between urban and rural life; you are close to the city whilst living in beautiful calm surroundings with lakes, meadows, and woods. London is just over an hour away by train and you are 10 minutes from historic Coventry, and around 20 minutes from Birmingham International Airport, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Warwick.

On campus there’s every conceivable service: supermarket, bars, cafes, restaurants, post office, hairdresser, launderette, banks, travel agency, and health centre – just some of the facilities which make it easy for you to deal with everyday life while concentrating on your studies.

w www.warwick.ac.uk/go/campus

Aside from the range of cafes and restaurants available across the campus you will also have use of the WBS staff lounges and kitchen facilities providing you with the opportunity to meet other members of faculty and staff in relaxed surroundings.

SportsSuperb provision is made for sports activities at the University. We have an Olympic standard floodlit athletics track and all-weather pitches supporting outdoor sports including football, rugby, hockey, and cricket. There is also a 5km ‘trim track’. Tennis players are well provided for with both outdoor and brand new indoor courts. The Sports Centre offers a 25m swimming pool, squash courts, extensive weight training and fitness suites, regional-standard climbing centre, martial arts and table tennis facilities, a sauna, and three multipurpose sports halls. There are also over 75 sports clubs, from Aerobics to Zhuan Shukuan.

W www.warwick.ac.uk/go/sportatwarwick W www.warwicksport.co.uk/clubs

Accommodation & amenitiesSome postgraduate halls of residence are available for 50 weeks of the year, some are available on shorter lets. Most study bedrooms have en-suite bathrooms, shared kitchen and lounge facilities, direct-line telephone points, and all have Internet access. There are also some rooms and houses on campus that are suitable for students with partners or families.

Some students opt to become resident tutors providing them with campus based accommodation in return for taking on pastoral responsibilities for the students in their residence.

If you prefer to live off campus, the University can offer places in shared houses reserved for postgraduates. These properties are located in nearby Coventry, Royal Leamington Spa, and Kenilworth.

Whatever you decide, Warwick Accommodation can help you find a place to live.

w www.warwick.ac.uk/accommodation

Study facilitiesAt WBS we offer the majority of our full-time doctoral researchers a dedicated desk and PC in a shared office with access to other office facilities such as copiers, faxes, phones etc. With access to networked computer rooms, our part-time doctoral researchers are also able to make the most productive use of their visits to WBS. Our unique online study environment, my.wbs, is specially designed to enable you to network and share resources with other students and staff and keep up to date with all the WBS news. Our Information Systems Support Unit are on hand to offer support with IT queries and a range of specialist programmes and applications is available through the WBS systems network, as well as the usual office software.

The University offers state-of-the-art language learning for over 15 languages at a range of levels. Computing facilities are equally excellent, with a high speed connection to the Internet available in all study bedrooms on campus. There are Wi-Fi hotspots provided by over 60 wireless access points in a range of public and communal areas around the University and WBS.


Fees & funding

FeesEvery doctoral researcher is charged an annual fee in British pounds, which will cover the cost of registration, tuition, supervision, and examination. It does not cover the costs of travel, residential accommodation, meals, study materials, or books.

Fees for 2009–10 will be finalised and approved by the University in early 2009, after publication of this brochure. The fees for 2008–09 are shown below as a guide. Please see our web site for the latest information.

2008–09 fees

UK & EU applicants (GBP)

Applicants outside the EU (GBP)

full-time part-time full-time part-time

£3,300 £1,980 £10,250 —

Doctoral applicants are required to register at the beginning of October, as the research training course starts at this time.

Both full and part-time students are expected to attend research training courses during the first year. The part-time option is normally only open to doctoral researchers who are resident in the UK and can attend the weekly training in year one. It is not possible to register part-time for our PhD in Finance.

Funding opportunitiesIn most cases, you need to hold an offer of a place on our Doctoral Programme to be eligible for funding. Please check the eligibility criteria before you apply. We recommend early application by March 2009 at the latest.

There are a number of different funding opportunities available. We have several WBS Scholarships and bursaries available to support exceptional applicants to our Doctoral Programme and full details are available on our web site. For up to date information on the availability of other funding sources we recommend that you refer to the Graduate School Portal on the University of Warwick web site.

W wbs.ac.uk/students/doctoral W www.warwick.ac.uk/go/gsp

I had also applied to three other business schools but when I received my offer I came to Warwick to see if I could really imagine living and studying at a campus university. I talked to a PhD student who was being supervised by my potential supervisor. He told me about the Doctoral Programme and about my fantastic supervisor. I realised then how lucky I was to receive this offer and that I would definitely accept it.

WBS is a great place to do a PhD.

Cora Werbelow current doctoral researcher, MSM group

A PhD is a large commitment, both in terms of time and money. We charge a fee for registration and supervision, and you will also need to finance the costs of living.

The good news is that there are a wide range of opportunities for funding, which you can research through the links on our web site and that of the University of Warwick Graduate School.


My funding came from the Chartered Accountants’ Trust for Education and Research of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. It allowed me to undertake the PhD on a part-time basis whilst working elsewhere in another academic institution. The supervision here at WBS is intellectually demanding, enjoyable, and has enlightened me to new ways of thinking.

Dr Penelope Tuck PhD (Warwick)


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If, like me, you prefer not to work at home, you will really appreciate the effort that WBS makes to provide office space. You can build up relations with other students to counter the lonely nature of research; friends who understand exactly what you’re going through and can provide help and support both emotionally and academically.

There are lots of opportunities for teaching for those who want it. Teaching experience is essential if you’re looking for an academic career but it develops your transferable skills too. I’ve learned a lot and enjoyed it so much that I am currently doing a post-graduate award in teaching which will be a formal qualification to acknowledge my efforts.

A big part of a PhD is learning how to present your work. Seminars are good for this and Warwick attracts a really impressive list of international speakers. Other academic departments and even student societies organise events well worth attending, such as the annual Economics Summit.

Anni-Maria Pulkki PhD


Our Doctoral Programme begins in October at the start of the academic year; as the first year includes the taught programme, it is not usually possible to start at any other time. In most cases formal applications must be made by June at the latest for entry in October of the same year. However, you are advised to apply as early as possible, particularly as funding is often dependent on securing a place by a given date.

If you are currently studying for your doctorate elsewhere and wish to come to us on a Visiting Student basis, you will need to follow the same procedure as any other candidate but your start date will be more flexible and fees will be charged on a monthly pro-rata basis.

Applying to us

EligibilityCompetition to join our Doctoral Programme is very strong; you’ll need to demonstrate you have the intellectual capabilities, and the stamina, drive and commitment to complete a ground breaking piece of work through independent study.

You will need a minimum of an upper second class honours degree from a British university or an equivalent from an overseas university and a relevant specialist masters degree, ideally with a distinction. If you have a generalist masters degree, such as an MBA, you will need to demonstrate specialist knowledge such as through your masters dissertation or prior experience.

If you do not have a masters in a relevant subject you will be required to follow an appropriate masters programme for a preliminary year prior to doctoral registrationapplying. WBS offers several courses in our Specialist Masters Portfolio, and we can guide you on the most appropriate choice.

Many of our doctoral researchers will have already done a substantial amount of training in social science methods and methodology before they enter the programme. However, if you are a strong candidate from a discipline outside the social sciences, management, or business studies fields who wishes to convert, we would still welcome your application. Our doctoral community includes people with backgrounds in computing, engineering, maths and medicine as well as economics, psychology, and sociology.

English language requirementsIf your first language is not English you should be able to demonstrate that you have a high level of oral and written fluency in English. We will require a copy of any relevant English language certificates from you. The following are the minimum standards acceptable:

h International English Language Testing System (IELTS) with a score of at least 7.0

h Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) scoring 620+ (paper), 260+ (computer) or 105+ (Internet).

In all cases, applicants will be interviewed, either in person or by phone. If your spoken and/or written English is considered to be not quite good enough, you may be invited to attend a pre-sessional English language course at the Centre for English Language Learning and Teaching at the University of Warwick prior to entry in order to obtain a Warwick English Language Test (WELT) score of at least ABB/BBB.

W www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/celte

Your proposalIn addition to the minimum academic and English language requirements, your research proposal is a key part of the selection process. It is your opportunity to demonstrate your research potential to a prospective supervisor.

We will expect you to provide evidence of your ability to plan and organise independent research, and of the relevance of your research topic to debates in chosen literature as well as the interests and expertise of an academic here who could supervise your study.

All the details you need to apply, including detailed guidelines on how to write your proposal and submit it online, are available on our web site. It is absolutely crucial that your research proposal is written to the specified guidelines – please don’t risk rejection simply because you haven’t read them.

W wbs.ac.uk/students/doctoral

Admissions enquiriesClemencia Rodas-Perez Admissions Co-ordinator

t +44 (0)24 7657 2687 e [email protected]

General enquiriesLesley Inness Programme Co-ordinator

t +44 (0)24 7652 4754 e [email protected]

Recommended readingPhilips, E M & Pugh, D S (2000) How to get a PhD. Open University Press

Smith M J (1998) Social Science in Question. Sage Publications

Blaxter L, Hughes C & Tight M (1997) How to Research. Open University Press

Becker H S (1989) Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book or Article. University of Chicago Press

Johnson P & Duberley J (2000) Understanding Management Research: An Introduction to Epistemology. Sage Publications


Your PhD & beyond

The quality and excellence of a doctorate from WBS is internationally recognised. Graduates from our Doctoral Programme are employed all over the world in top academic institutions and global organisations. Some develop careers as researchers or engage in academic work where research may only be one aspect of their role; others become consultants and advisors in the public and private sectors. Whether you are considering a career in business or academia, your PhD from WBS will open doors for you.

Alumni & networksWe are particularly proud of the WBS Alumni Association, which includes not only graduates from our Doctoral Programme, but also our Undergraduate Programme, Masters portfolio, the Warwick MBA, and the Warwick MPA.

One of the most effective tools available to you is networking with current and former students, many of whom will be working in senior positions throughout the world. Even before graduation you can become part of an active alumni community, attending events, social and educational, in the UK and overseas.

As an active association, it is about much more than a group of people who have passed through the doors of WBS. They all share a pride in WBS and value this experience. Currently, we have an active community of nearly 24,000 graduates representing 132 countries across the world. They share one common experience: studying at WBS.

w wbs.ac.uk/alumni

If you’re hoping to go into academia after your PhD, it’s a good idea to get some teaching experience before you finish. I started in my first year and by my final year I was employed full-time as a Teaching Fellow within the Operations Management group. The key is to build up steadily – that way when you come to an interview you’re likely to have the edge over many other new PhDs.

Dr Alistair Brandon-Jones PhD (Warwick), Assistant Professor in Operations & Supply Management, School of Management University of Bath

I finished my PhD at WBS in 2003. When I started out I was not sure which area of business I wanted to work in, but I think it is very important to follow your interests in terms of what you want to research, even if you are not exactly sure where this will take you. My experience is that the skills you gain during the PhD open a wide range of doors and allow you the flexibility to change direction in your career. WBS has an excellent reputation and, together with the rigorous approach that characterises doctoral level studies here, it definitely stands out in business. It has been instrumental in my career successes and confidence in engaging with top-tier management.

Dr Miriam Quintana PhD (Warwick), Manager of Specialised Master Programmes, Deusto Business School, University of Deusto


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For more information visit: w wbs.ac.uk/students/doctoral

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WBS believes this document is accurate, but accepts no liability for errors or later changes. See our web site for the latest information.

Doctoral Programme Warwick Business School The University of Warwick Coventry CV4 7AL UK

w wbs.ac.uk/students/doctoral t +44 (0)24 7657 2687 e [email protected] f +44 (0)24 7652 3719

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