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Research

Research Seminars

Marketing & Reputation hosts a monthly seminar series during University term-time, with presentations delivered by both internal and external speakers on a wide range of topics.

For more information and to register, please contact Angie Clark.

Our Research

Marketing & Reputation is one of six academic areas within Henley Business School at the University of Reading, and the research interests of our faculty are wide-ranging.

In the Marketing field they include customer management and the allied topics of customer experience and customer effort; services marketing and the role of internal climate and people management; digital marketing and the impact of social media upon customer and organisational behaviour; online shopping behaviour and the nature of customer experience from websites, brand management; nation and destination branding; not-for-profit marketing and health services marketing.

Within the Reputation field our research interests include brand and corporate reputation management; corporate responsibility and well-being in/around organisations; individual and organisational resilience; decision-making within a stakeholder environment; positive psychology; the reputation and relationships of charities; emotional and cognitive influences on leadership behaviour; the impact of the reputation of leaders and leadership teams on organisations; bias and prejudice in leadership decision making; unintended consequences and decision making as well as the ground breaking collaboration with our Centre for Integrative Neuroscience & Neurodynamics, to study the neuroscience behind leadership decision making and reputation.

Linked to both marketing & reputation is effective Governance. Through the Directors’ Forum, our research interests include: enhancing the performance of general managers and top teams; better understanding of board dynamics and capabilities and improving the role and contribution of board directors. Particular attention is paid to enabling stewardship, improving organisational design and leading through strategic change. Our focus is both on institutions and governments. Our research base is international and broad ranging, covering many thousands of organisations, including three governments across 42 countries.

Faculty are regularly interviewed in the media and consult for international bodies and governments, as well as large and small firms.


Our Research Centres

Three applied research centres form part of Marketing and Reputation, enabling us to work with corporate members and share our latest thinking in these areas:

The Henley Centre for Customer Management

The Henley Centre for Customer Management, under the direction of Professor Moira Clark, provides a continuous programme of highly focused research projects and workshops that explore the management of customers today. A focus on managing customer relationships and a desire to provide a memorable customer experience are two factors that distinguish organisations that lead in the provision of excellent customer service. As a result, customer management has become a tool of great strategic importance.

The Centre brings together business practitioners, industry thought-leaders, experts and academics to help organisations tackle the challenges of customer management.

Current members of the Centre include:

  • BOC & Linde Group
  • cxLoyalty
  • Huntswood
  • Mercedes-Benz Financial Services
  • National Savings & Investments
  • Roche
  • Vauxhall Finance

The John Madejski Centre for Reputation

The John Madejski Centre for Reputation, under the direction of Professor Carola Hillenbrand and Professor Kevin Money, is a dedicated research centre that works with leading organisations to improve corporate reputation amongst their many stakeholders including customers, suppliers and employees.

It explores topics such as corporate responsibility, sustainability and how to improve corporate governance by measuring and reporting on intangible assets. These may be as diverse as the management of stakeholder relationships, the impact of HR management within the organisation, marketing practice or the organisation's involvement in the community.

The Centre is sponsored by Sir John Madejski OBE DL,DLitt.


The Directors’ Forum; Governance, Board and Director Performance

Under the direction of Professor Andrew Kakabadse, the Directors’ Forum is a global research and advisory centre focusing on enhancing the performance of top teams, boards, directors and ministers of state, private, public, third sectors and government. The Directors’ Forum has attracted critical research funding from a number of bodies. The ground breaking research, supported by the Institute for Company Secretaries (ICSA) on ‘The Role and Contribution of the Company Secretary’ and ‘How to Address Conflict in the Boardroom’ have made a substantial impact. Further study on behalf of Alvarez & Marsal highlights the pathways boards need to consider to effectively navigate through disruption, paradox and discontinuity.

On the invitation of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, (PACAC) and the Cabinet Office, UK, investigation into the functioning of the British Government led to the submission of the ‘Is Government Fit for Purpose? The Kakabadse Report’. This overarching investigation is viewed as the broadest inquiry into the UK government since 1854. In similar vein, the study of the role and contribution of the Independent Director in social organisations is currently underway, covering health, sports, charities and further education. These and other penetrating investigations, provide the basis for the activities of the Directors’ Forum, which include:

  • analysis of board and director dynamics
  • counselling, mentoring and support for general managers, top teams and board directors
  • evidence determined, interventions for particular enterprises, leading to tailored development for senior managers, directors, civil servants and government ministers
  • psychometric assessment
  • advisory service on organisational redesign, leading through strategic change, how to realise greater value through enhanced alignment of systems and thinking and improved engagement with critical stakeholders
  • governance of the 4.0 economy

With these areas in mind, we wish to invite interest from potential doctorate candidates.

The Directors Forum Faculty also run the two day Board Directors' Programme and also their recent innovation of the Master of Arts, Board Practice and Directorship (MABPD). This first global practice faced Masters degree focuses on improving the performance and contribution of current and aspiring directors. With many clients across the world, ranging from the UK, Europe, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Malaysia, China and Australia, our research informs our practice.


Our Research Groups

Digital Marketing, Consumer & Society

The Digital Marketing, Consumer and Society Research Group (DMCS), under the direction of Georgiana Grigore and Rodrigo Perez Vega, works to understand the complex ways in which the adoption and use of digital technology alters markets and the marketing process, and impacts on consumer behaviours and cultures, thus transforming society.

Group members use a range of quantitative and qualitative methods to work on interdisciplinary projects. Our aim is to further knowledge of emerging consumer behaviours related to the use of digital technologies, organisational use of these same technologies to inform and persuade consumers and to develop new goods and services, and the complex interactions that result to produce new marketplace cultures and communities with related responsibility and policy implications.

DMCS recognises the multiple stakeholders who are invested in the digital economy and aims to understand and represent these marketplace actors. This is achieved through collaborations within the group and with national and international partners including academics.

DMCS further adds to knowledge through both funded and independent PhD studies where new researchers from around the world are invited to join the group to open up and challenge existing marketing theories. Acknowledging the need for new knowledge to have impact, DMCS also invites organisations to participate with the work of the group via regular engagement events, conferences, and collaborations.

Members:

Research projects and publications

Contact us

Angie Clark

Email: angie.clark@henley.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)118 378 5834