PhD Business

With an international reputation for business research excellence, Nottingham University Business School offers a superb opportunity to develop your research skills through PhD study. Our PhD programme combines academic theory with good practice.

You will be assigned two supervisors appropriate to your field. Please make sure that we have a supervisor who shares an interest in your proposed area of research before applying.

We offer PhD pathways in:

Our research areas include:

A research degree provides you with a launch-pad to a successful career in academia, commerce, industry, the public sector or as an entrepreneur.

To help you in the transition to independent research, you will normally be expected to complete several assessed taught modules during your first and second year of study. These are designed to provide generic, as well as subject specific training for relevant pathways.

You may also be required to take up to 20 credits of other modules within the school/faculty.

This module covers:

This module considers in detail 'academic practice’. It explores the underlying practices that support academic research, and developing academic citizenship, broadly speaking, involves ‘being an academic’ and ‘reflecting on being an academic’ in a challenging yet supportive environment.

It will:

The module introduces qualitative and quantitative research designs covering a range of data collection techniques. The module introduces you to the use, interpretation and presentation of an appropriate selection of techniques for the analysis of interview data, and other qualitative data sources.

In terms of quantitative research designs, the module covers measurement issues - validity and reliability issues, descriptive analysis and techniques to test for differences and for relationships.

50% advanced qualitative research methods, covering key aspects of qualitative data collection, management and analysis. Potential topics include:

50% advanced quantitative research methods, including:

This module covers:

This module covers:

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You should select one of the following modules which are delivered by the School of Economics. Attendance will be subject to meeting any pre-requisites and at the discretion of the Module Convener.

This module covers the following:

This module examines central theoretical aspects from modern microeconomic theory, paying particular emphasis on game theory, imperfect competition and incomplete information.

All PhD students are expected to attend our seminar programme and relevant research workshops. Seminars take place regularly, usually on Wednesday afternoons, and are given by a range of internal and external speakers. Research workshops occur on an ad hoc basis and you will be advised by your supervisors about attendance.

In addition to the seminar programme, we offer a doctoral seminar programme that focuses specifically on the needs of PhD students. The focus of the programme is on the research process, particularly the more informal aspects of doing research and getting it published.