Business School research and PhD programmes

Research activities within the Business School at Brunel cover a wide-ranging and diverse field of topics, from accounting and human resource management to strategy, international business, entrepreneurship, information systems, corporate brands, and marketplace cultures.

Our academic staff involved in these programmes investigate issues such as corporate governance and social responsibility, employment relations, and digital transformation, reflecting both disciplinary depth and interdisciplinary research expertise across the school.

Our research drives forward global business and societal transformation and is applied across a wide range of international contexts. Examples include contributions to NASA's mission to Mars, humanitarian relief initiatives in Iran, biobank network development across Europe, research into the British Monarchy brand in the UK, and innovation within the public sector in Saudi Arabia, demonstrating the real-world relevance and global reach of Brunel Business School research.

Research opportunities for students 

Research students are welcomed to Brunel as valued members of our thriving, research-intensive community. Browse PhD opportunities below and find out about the funding available for students. 

Research in the Business School

Find people, projects, groups and publications in the Business School and read more about related research to this area.

Browse research projects

Meet our experts

Executive Education

Through our range of partnership programmes and strategic collaborations, we connect high-impact academic research with high-growth businesses.

Independent assessment of our research quality (REF 2021)

View REF 2021 details for Business and Management Studies (UoA 17)

AI Adoption and Governance

REF 2021

Business brains helping Uganda dairy farmers milk it

REF 2021

Research groups and centres

Accountancy and Corporate Governance

Accounting and Finance research with special interest in financial statement relevance, asymmetric information, and corporate governance.

Accounting and Auditing

Investigating current issues in accounting that include financial reporting, assurance, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and business models in large and small business entities

AI Social and Digital Innovation

Social, economic and strategic effects of AI and associated technologies. Impact of AI and related technologies on societies, organisations and individuals.

Arts Health and Social Change

This Research Group is dedicated to fostering art-based initiatives that drive social change towards inclusivity and equality in healthcare.

Banking

Our group provides world-leading research on banking and financial regulation issues which is highly impactful in influencing policy makers.

Brunel Education Research and Guidance Hub

Focusing on investigating current issues in higher education including leadership and management, knowledge-behaviour gap, student and staff information literacy, building inclusive pedagogies, coaching and mentoring, community building, E-learning in Accounting Education and curriculum development.

Circular Food Forum

Leads discussions across the “food chain” with the aim to improve resource management, through working with industries and Government to respond to global pressures of growing resource scarcity and food waste.

Economic Development and Institutions

Research activities in this area cover economic development, institutional economics, political economy, labour economics, behavioural economics, economics of conflict, economic and political aspects of European integration.

Empirical Finance

We use state-of-the-art econometrics to analyse issues with crucial business or policy implications, providing assistance to policy makers and market participants

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability

Our focus is on how individuals, businesses and societies can tap into creative and entrepreneurial flair to develop innovative solutions, in order to not only create economic value, but also solve social and environmental problems.

Global Lives

Research conducted in the Centre addresses the challenges facing society, helping to change the lives of people around the world by bringing economic, social and cultural benefits.

Healthcare Management, Culture and Leadership Group

We focus on the intersection among healthcare management, culture and leadership from an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach.

Human Geography

Aims to develop and consolidate interdisciplinary research around space, place and society at Brunel. We provide a forum for engagement with geographical research, for sharing and receiving feedback on writing and developing new collaborations nationally and internationally.

Human Resource Management and Organization Behaviour

The group's five main themes of research include excellence in workplace innovation, diversity, teamwork, social inclusion, and employee selection.

Institute of Communities and Society

The Institute focuses on the social, community, and cultural aspects of pressing contemporary issues including migration and movement, social unrest, intersectional inequalities, and institutionalised poverty.

Law, Economics and Finance

The Centre for Law, Economics and Finance aims to advance the wider societal impact of our research by engaging with policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholder.

Macroeconomics

The focus of the centre is to conduct first-rate research into macroeconomics aspects of a range of issues such as unemployment, debt and financial instability.

Marketing and Corporate Brand Management

Our research-active faculty are engaged in cutting-edge applied scholarship across a broad spectrum of marketing areas.

Marketing and Corporate Brand Management - copy

Our research-active faculty are engaged in cutting-edge applied scholarship across a broad spectrum of marketing areas.

Media, Culture and Politics research group

Our Media, Culture and Politics research group offers multidisciplinary research into the interconnection between media, culture and politics. Our focus will be on the converging crises and technological innovations that are challenging the foundations of how we have traditionally understood their roles in society.

Operations and Information Systems Management

We specialise in responsible and sustainable operation management exploring information systems, operations research, management science, and general management and strategic management knowledge and approaches across public and private industry sectors

South Asia Studies

We provide a research base for the development of new South Asia specific programmes and teaching, and bring together scholars from across the University working on South Asia from different disciplinary perspectives.

Strategy Entrepreneurship and International Business

Our themes of research range from entrepreneurial and internationalisation strategies of small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to inward and outward investment by large enterprises and supra-national governance.