Centre for Business in Society

About us

The Centre for Business in Society - CBiS - is our home for specialist researchers within the Faculty of Business and Law. CBiS is responsible for nurturing and developing the research culture and expansion of dedicated research activity.

In this vibrant and collegiate environment, a number of research clusters have emerged, supported by a research team able to provide the bidding, networking, events, data and publicity assistance necessary in today’s research environment.

The Centre’s dedicated research professors and readers support these clusters as well as mentoring researchers forging their own research agendas. This mentoring reaches beyond CBiS, as we work alongside the research leads in each of the Faculty’s four discipline-based Schools to provide support to colleagues undertaking research alongside their teaching. In this way, the strong research momentum building across our Schools is both supported and linked into our Centre’s core research themes.

This brief overview outlines our areas of interest, which reflect the growth of research within the Faculty of Business and Law and at Coventry University.

CBiS’s Research

Interrogating the impact of organisations on economies and societies.

Through understanding the impact of organisations’ activities, behaviours and policies, our research seeks to promote responsibility and to change behaviours so as to achieve better outcomes for economies and societies.

Core Themes

CBiS’s research groups are examining aspects of sustainability and ethical consumption in the circular economy, as well as investigating new models and policies in economic development to reflect changing societal values and realigned public spending.

Emerging business impacts on society have led to new research teams exploring the economic and social impact of financialisation at the national, organisational and individual level; behavioural change interventions to enhance societal well-being; and the impact of the digital economy in terms of data innovation and strategy, data protection and privacy.

CBiS’s mantra is to explore the impact of business on society and in recent years the digital economy and the financial crash present two of the most powerful areas of such impact.

Sustainable Production and Consumption

• Sustainable Supply
• Ethical Consumption
• The Circular Economy

Economic Development and Inclusive Economies

• Inclusive Economies
• New Economic Development Frameworks
• Greening Growth

Sector, Economic and Financial Studies

• Post-Financialisation Impact
• Securing Investments
• Responsible Personal Finance

Data, Organisations and Society

• Data and Strategy
• Data and the Digital Economy
• Data and Society

Structure and Support

CBiS is made up of six constituents:

1. The core of full-time dedicated research fellows and staff undertaking the projects at the heart of the Centre’s activities.
2. A growing cohort – over 80 – of Doctoral researchers, who are in addition to the many PhD students located alongside staff within the four Schools of the Faculty.
3. Numerous cohorts of practitioners undertaking their Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA), housed within CBiS.
4. Associate Research Staff from the Faculty joining our vibrant research community as well as staff undertaking their research sabbaticals, away from the day-to-day distractions of their Schools and teaching commitments.
5. A team of research professors and readers selected for their proven track record in research leadership, networking, supervision and mentoring, who guide the research themes and mentor individual researchers.
6. A support team selected to manage projects, facilitate funding bids, oversee budgets, organize events and seminars, manage networking, seek publicity for our outputs and create the research family that is CBiS.

The Faculty’s commitment to research and those undertaking these projects has been reflected in the provision of a dedicated research leadership team and tailored facilities and resources deliberately collected together in a central area of the Faculty of Business and Law, located around the inviting and sociable café area in the Faculty’s newly refurbished Jaguar building.

By creating such a dynamic and collegiate community, CBiS is well-placed to support the needs of its researchers and collaborations, resourcing the growth of its research clusters, partnerships and networks, while developing the careers of those researchers associated with the Centre.

Study with us

Find out how you can apply for a PhD or DBA.