Kunal Basu has been appointed to serve on the editorial board of Business Ethics Quarterly
Doug Holt has been appointed as editor of Journal of Consumer Culture.
ESRC Retail Industry Business Engagement Network (RIBEN)
The Oxford Institute of Retail Management is partner in a four-university consortium to have been awarded £1.5mn by the Economic and Social Research Council in September 2008 to fund a five-year programme for improving business engagement between social science academics and the retail sector, in support of improving international competitiveness. Called RIBEN, the network will host 15 CASE doctoral studentships, a series of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and placements, and an innovative SME voucher scheme, where businesses can apply to ‘cash in’ a voucher for coaching or tutorial support from faculty in the member Universities. An annual high-profile meeting will showcase research underway and practitioner case studies; six-monthly workshops will focus on regional knowledge and skills transfer. Jonathan Reynolds is Associate Director of the Network and the partner Universities working with Oxford are Southampton, Leeds and Surrey, creating a ‘hub’ which builds on the extensive strengths in retail management research within those institutions.
Reynolds, J. and Ezrachi, A. (2009) Advertising, promotional campaigns and private labels, in Private Labels, Brands and Competition Policy: The Changing Landscape of Retail Competition, Ed. Ariel Ezrachi and Ulf Bernitz
Doug Holt was the keynote speaker at the Sociology of Consumption Conference, Boston in July, speaking on 'Why Is There No American Climate Change Movement? Barriers to Political Mobilization' and also spoke at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
OXIRM is developing a new research project on Indian retailing development. Indian retailing is largely ‘unorganised’ at present, with rapid change beginning; policy issues of many kinds are exercising both governments and businesses. The project, to be run by Malobi Kar and Richard Cuthbertson, aims to examine the drivers of urban and rural consumer decision making and through scenario exercises to examine issues in the development of the retail sector.
Jonathan Reynolds gave invited keynote papers at two international research and policy conferences in autumn 2008. He spoke on the State and Evolution of Academic Research into Store Brands at the Forum in Store Brands: Research, Industry & Administration held at the University Complutense de Madrid. He also gave a paper entitled, ‘Can E-Commerce be a Player in Sustainable Growth?’ at an EU Presidency meeting hosted in Paris by the French Minister for Commerce Hervé Novelli, on behalf of European Member States.