Research Areas - Ph.D Programme

Course outline

The PhD programme offers flexible supervision between UNNC and the University of Nottingham UK (UNUK). Depending on the proposed research, students may be required to spend part of their studies at UNUK, but students will be registered at UNNC, and graduates will be awarded a University of Nottingham UK degree which is also recognised by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

The Division of International Business is part of the Nottingham University Business School.  The following list of research areas is illustrative, and applicants with interests in other areas are welcome to discuss their ideas with the Head of Division.

• Ownership structure of Chinese listed firms, and its impact on firm performance and capital structure decisions.The Chinese banking sector development and performance.The liberalization of Chinese stock market and overseas cross-listing.
• Investment strategy and pension finance.
• Mergers and cross border acquisitions
• China and WTO
• East-Asia regional trade agreements
• Environment regulations, food security and trade
• Global corporate strategy. Foreign direct investment (FDI) to China and Chinese firms' overseas strategies and management. Business in emerging markets. SME Financing in China. 
• Industrial R & D and innovation
• Game Theory. Behavioural and Experimental Economics. Culture and Economics.
• Tax competition & international taxation. Tax evasion, avoidance & compliance. Corporate taxation, transfer pricing & corporate governance. Behavioural decision making at the individual and corporate level. Behavioural corporate finance Compliance behaviour relating to the law (rules & regulation).
• Marketing Ethics - the social responsibility of marketing towards consumers, Consumer Privacy - the impact of marketing activities on consumer privacy, Relationship Marketing - uses of relationship marketing and loyalty schemes particularly in China, Consumer Behaviour - consumer decision making, loyalty and shopping habits.
• Macroeconomics, including globalisation and China issues;
• Carbon credits; and Alternative Energies
• Optimal investment problems. Mathematical Finance. Pension Mathematics. Risk management.
• Theories of decision making under uncertainty and the Chinese Economy.
• Entrepreneurship - academic and non-academic entrepreneurs; Opportunity Identification; Human and Social Capital; Social Entrepreneurship.
• Knowledge management. Greening organisations, Postmodernism/Poststructuralism and business ethics (CSR).
• Manufacturing automation, manufacturing flexibility, restructuring and strategic management of the automobile industry. Technology and organizations -the applications and impact of Internet technologies on organizational operations and management.
• Reward systems, organizational support and their relationships with organizational commitment and turnover in the Chinese context. HRM in the SME context.

Course structure

Supervision between the campuses to be settled for each individual student.

For more information contact:

Professor Gus Hooke

Acting Director of Nottingham Business School China

Tel. +86574 88180996

gus.hooke@nottingham.edu.cn|