Centre for Business in Society
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.
Over thirty full-time research staff, the Faculty’s professoriate, more than forty Doctoral students, as well as colleagues within the Faculty undertaking their research sabbaticals, are located in a dedicated hub created around the Costa café meeting zone within the Faculty of Business and Law.
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.
The Circular Economy and Sustainability
- Sustainable Supply
- Ethical Consumption
- The Circular Economy
Economic and Regional Development
- Inclusive Economies and New Development Frameworks
- Urban and Regional Development
- Business History and Economic Impact
Sector, Economic and Financial Studies
- Post-Financialisation Impact
- Securing Investments
- Responsible Personal Finance
Data, Organisations and Society
- Data Use in Organisations and Strategy
- Data Privacy and Surveillance
- Date Security and Protection
Structure and Support
CBiS is made up of six constituents:
- The core of full-time dedicated research fellows and staff undertaking the projects at the heart of the Centre’s activities.
- A growing cohort – now close to forty– of Doctoral researchers, who are in addition to the many PhD students located alongside staff within the four Schools of the Faculty.
- A cohort of practitioners undertaking their Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA), now housed within CBiS.
- Staff from the Faculty joining our vibrant research community while undertaking their research sabbaticals, away from the day-to-day distractions of their Schools and teaching commitments.
- 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.
- 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 Costa 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 studentship or DBA.
Current Vacancies
Please see our recruitment site for current staff vacancies.
Data, Organisations and Society Conference 2018
Data availability has increased exponentially in the last decade, paving the way for a new business environment. As such growth accelerates, a better understanding is needed of the opportunities this new phenomenon provides and of the innovation, ethical, social, privacy and security challenges it poses.
This one day conference aims to bring together academic, practitioner and public policy researchers to present and discuss current research relevant to these issues.
From the Grounds Up: The Coffee Shop Industry and the Circular Economy
This study aims to explore how businesses and consumers can engage in the circular economy, the facilitators and inhibitors for doing so, and the importance of these actions for sustainable economies and societies. The UK and Germany are used as two case studies for exploring how and why the coffee shop industry takes part in the circular economy.
Disability Sport Conference 2018
Following on from the success of the first three conferences held in 2012, 2014 and 2016, the Centre for Business in Society will be hosting a further international, inter-disciplinary conference for academics and practitioners in the field.
The conference is aimed at anyone with an interest in using sport for people with disabilities as a tool for health, inclusion, peace and development etc.
ESRC Festival: Community Food Growing in Lambeth
Senior Research Assistant Lizzi Bos was recently awarded £800 to run an event as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science week in November, with a team from CBiS. The event aims to showcase community food growing in Lambeth, London and draws upon Lizzi's doctoral research.
