Doctoral research
If you're interested in joining a dynamic community of talented researchers from around the world to explore research questions that matter, we would like to hear from you.
Our research topics
Within the Information Management academic group we are especially keen to receive PhD research proposals in the following areas:
- artificial intelligence – applications (eg different industry sectors, social use cases) through to novel perspectives on ethics, including the cross-cultural;
- new humanism – critique and design in digital culture, counter-balancing forces (eg wellbeing), decentralization and disintermediation, open data;
- analytics and decision – sentiment analysis, decision support, smart contracts and Decentralized Autonomous Organisation.
Doctoral students join a lively and supportive community of research students, becoming an integral part of the School’s research culture. We welcome approaches from suitably qualified graduates, particularly those with a relevant master's degree and sufficient funding who may wish to undertake research projects in the specialist areas of the group, leading to a PhD. As a research student, you will be encouraged to attend conferences to present your work and develop joint publications with your supervisors.
The group has great supervisory experience and is keen to supervise high quality research students in members’ specialist research fields. Recognition of the quality of supervision offered by Group members has resulted in funding for doctoral students from research councils.
Please feel free to browse our group members to identify a potential supervisor(s), develop your research proposal, share this with the identified supervisor(s) and confirm they are willing to be named in support of your application. You are encouraged to ask for feedback from them to develop your research proposal. Then you should be ready to formally apply.
Proposed PhD projects
An integrated framework for UK SME internationalisation in the technology sector
Project reference
LB24-EG (please quote this in your application).
Proposers
Project description
SMEs are increasingly pushed towards complex growth paths to keep up with evolving technological developments and bolster their competitiveness as suppliers in global value chains. Therefore, traditional SME internationalisation models imbued with a limited geographical span and characterised by lower levels of digital advancement and sustainability awareness, are no longer viable. Western domestic markets’ recession provides impetus to SMEs to grow internationally, while fuelling governmental initiatives to re-conceptualise their export strategy to support their SMEs in becoming export-ready and competitive in their internationalisation endeavours.
With the UK facing increased barriers since Brexit and demonstrating a disappointing performance of exports to other parts of the world, the question that is raised is whether the support which has been provided in recent years to UK exporters or prospective exporters is currently well geared to cover the changing needs for UK SMEs to develop new exporting ties in new, less familiar geopolitical spaces. The evolving nature of the UK regulatory, geopolitical and economic landscapes necessitates a dynamic approach to supporting SMEs especially in the areas of technology. Therefore, focusing on the optimal framework for the UK Government to ensure SME competitiveness of the technology sector while preserving the know-how and intellectual capital/property of these companies becomes a priority.
Development of a tool to formulate artificial intelligence implementation roadmaps for SMEs
Project reference
LB24-UJ (please quote this in your application).
Proposers
Project description
Over 99% of businesses in the UK are SMEs. In 2022, 82% of SMEs lacked the skills, resources and knowledge of planning and adopting advanced technologies such as AI at the right time in the organisational lifecycle. Hence, there are massive inefficiencies and wastage in operating in a dynamic business environment, eventually leading to bankruptcy. Therefore, it is important to identify and prioritise applications of AI that highly affect SMEs and go further to develop a parametrised software tool to formulate AI implementation roadmaps for SMEs to overcome business failures and minimise the cost of operation.
This study aims to develop the above-mentioned software tool to formulate AI implementation roadmaps for SMEs. The study has a greater impact on SMEs in defining their future and understanding the right route to be taken in achieving business goals using AI.
There are a few SMEs, particularly medium-sized enterprises, who are tapping into AI for business excellence. With the rapid advancement of technology, use of AI is becoming not only limited to large organisations. The adoption of AI will be a must for SMEs in no time. Therefore, this project will help to bridge the lack of digitalisation in SMEs by enabling applications of AI in SMEs which is of high national and international importance. Thereby, you will be able to get involved in one of the very few projects which investigates this niche area of AI in SMEs. This will be a great chance to take part in a project that will have real-world impact. This project and the chance to work with world-leading experts will help to upskill yourself and your career progression.