Kingston University London

Research is an essential part of the day-to-day life of Kingston Business School and is embedded in its intellectual activities and development. With a Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) rating of 3A, we have a vibrant research community engaging staff, research students and associates from government, industry and commerce, in a wide variety of endeavours from definitive pioneering academic research to highly focused consultancy for clients.

The excellent quality of our research is reflected in the international reputation of our professors and lecturers through publications and prize winning conference papers as well as substantial external funding from both the private and public sector, including HSBC Bank, Nokia and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Research activity is undertaken within individual departments as well as in specific research groups.

Department of Strategy, Marketing and Entrepreneurship research activity

Areas of research include:

• branding and brand extensions;
• qualitative research and quantitative analytical methods;
• strategic marketing decisions;
• international marketing;
• services marketing;
• relationship marketing;
• integrated marketing communication;
• retail management; and
• Internet marketing.

The Department also develops co-operative research units where interested staff work together, supported by research. assistants.

The Consumer Research Group

The Consumer Research Group has received funding from the ESRC and support from the marketing industry, particularly by being given access to market databases. Expertise in the unit covers such areas as: consumer loyalty, customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction, shopping behaviour and branding.

Business to Business Marketing Research Centre

The Industrial Marketing Research Unit works with industrial companies on a contract basis.  This helps to fund its research and is responsible for the Department of Strategy, Marketing and Entrepreneurship's doctorate programme. Expertise in the unit covers: channel management and selection, channel relationships and relationship marketing in general, industrial market segmentation.

eCommerce Research Group

The purpose of this group is to act as a focus for research on internet shopping.  Projects include internet grocery shopping quantitative research and the comparison of online and offline purchase patterns using loyalty card data.

Other research

Additional areas of research include green marketing, business venturing and the use of multimedia. Staff are also involved in cross-national research studies collaborating with European, American and Australian/New Zealand colleagues.