DPhil Management

Pinar Ozcan - Pinar specialises in qualitative research in strategy and entrepreneurship, particularly in technology markets. Her current research includes AI and business models in tech start-ups (e.g, fintech), digital transformation and platform strategies.

Ivona Hideg - Ivona’s main programme of research includes workplace equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). In her work, she focuses on gender, but also examines issues surrounding race, ethnicity, language and accent including intersection of various identities that we all hold.

Grounded in psychological theories and using experimental methodology, Ivona’s work seeks insights on root causes of inequities in the workplace, such as persistent underrepresentation of women in top leadership positions and other male-dominated fields (ie entrepreneurship).

By doing so, Ivona seeks to develop and test solutions for greater equity, inclusion and career outcomes of traditionally disadvantaged groups.

Mari Sako - Mari's main areas of expertise include global strategy, comparative institutional analysis, outsourcing and offshoring, professional services firms and professions, artificial intelligence (AI) and business models.

Her current research examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in legal services, conducted as part of a UKRI-funded programme. Doctoral applications are most welcome from students in social sciences, who can work with Mari on exploring the impact of AI on:

• business models
• the future of work
• technology startup ecosystems in professional services (such as law and accounting).

She is open to doctoral research proposals in this and related fields of research.

Matthew Amengual - Matthew focuses on the comparative political economy of sustainable and inclusive development.  His research has investigated on how institutions and contestation shape outcomes for firms, workers, and communities. 

His current work investigates labour standards in global supply chains, seeking to understand how interactions between multinational firms, suppliers, civil society organisations, and states can create conditions for improved working conditions.  He utilises a wide range of empirical approaches, including qualitative case studies and a range of quantitative methods. 

Matthew is interested in supporting doctoral students seeking to work in: 

• Governing standards in global supply chains
• Sustainability challenges in global markets 
• Institutional change and weakness in regulatory governance  

Akshay Mangla - Akshay's interests lie in questions of when, why and how states build institutional capacity to perform their core functions in developing countries. Within this broad agenda, his ongoing research investigates the causes and consequences of institutional reform initiatives within frontline agencies of the Indian state (eg primary education and the police).

He is also examining how non-state actors, including private firms and civil society organisations, engage with the frontline state during policy implementation, thereby influencing bureaucratic effectiveness and the quality of public services. He is interested in advising DPhil students working on these and related topics in the political economy of development.

Alex Connock - Alex is an Oxford academic in the media business and author of the 2022 book Media Management and Artificial Intelligence: Understanding Media Business Models in the Digital Age, plus the 2024 follow-up title Media Management and Live Experience: Sports, Culture, Entertainment and Events.

Alex is Senior Fellow at Saïd Business School, teaching Marketing and Media Business courses at BA, MBA and EMBA level.  He co-launched and ran Oxford postgraduate diploma in Artificial Intelligence for Business from 2021-3. and is Lecturer at St Hugh’s College, Oxford in Management.  

Alex’s research interests are in the fast-growing and commercially significant space where AI meets media creativity and discovery.  

Agni Orfanoudaki - Agni conducts research at the intersection of machine learning and optimisation with applications in the industries of healthcare and insurance. Her research agenda primarily focuses on developing new methods and models for healthcare practitioners using data-driven techniques. She is also studying the implications of these models on automated decision making, addressing the implementation challenges of machine learning algorithms in practice.

 Areas of interest:

• Business analytics
• Healthcare operations
• Algorithmic insurance
• Personalised medicine

Eero Vaara - Eero’s research focuses on organisational and strategic change. His work deals with:

• strategy process and practice research
• studies of radical change, such as mergers and acquisitions
• work on institutional change and legitimation
• research on multinational corporations, nationalism and globalisation.

He is a world-leading expert especially in communicative and discursive perspectives. Eero combines practically relevant topics such as strategy work and management of post-merger integration with deep theoretical and methodological reflection on organisational and strategic processes and practices.

Eric Zhao - Eric's research is cross-disciplinary in nature and sits at the intersection of strategic management, organisation theory and entrepreneurship. He is actively involved in four major research areas:

• optimal distinctiveness
• institutions and entrepreneurship
• resource and resourcefulness
• resilience and crisis.

His 2017 SMJ article 'Optimal Distinctiveness: Broadening the Interface between Institutional Theory and Strategic Management' and his solo-authored book 'Optimal Distinctiveness: A New Agenda for the Study of Competitive Positioning of Organizations and Markets' are widely regarded as foundational contributions to the burgeoning literature on optimal distinctiveness.

Violetta Splitter - Violetta’s research focuses on organisational and strategic change. In particular, her work deals with:

• strategy process and practice research
• open strategy
• open organising
• power in strategy making

Violetta is a leading expert in practice-theoretical perspectives on strategising and organising. Violetta combines practically relevant topics such as (open) strategy work with deep theoretical and methodological reflection on organisational and strategic processes and practices.

Rafael Ramirez - Rafael researches scenario planning and ground breaking research on interactive value and networked strategy, which has led to widely cited papers in the Harvard Business Review, the Strategic Management Journal and to the development of the Oxford Collaborative Strategy Lab.

Alex Nicholls - Alex's main areas of expertise include:

• impact investing
• impact measurement
• social entrepreneurship
• public policy and social innovation
• systems change
• social movements

His current research explores the materiality of impact risk - in terms of both financial and impact outcome risk, the use of AI in impact measurement and reporting, and historical patterns of ethical consumption. He is open to doctoral research proposals in these areas as well as others.

Steve New: Steve has interests across the field of supply chain management, including how firms' practices relate to questions of ethics, human rights and sustainability. He has particular interest in the impact of commercial practices and inter-organisational power.

His recent work has focussed on questions of supply chain transparency, wages within supply chains and the challenge of incorporating ESG criteria in procurement from smaller companies.

Juliane Reinecke - Juliane’s research explores how organisations can address various sustainability challenges including climate change, human and labour rights, and sustain the global commons. As no business can address these systemic challenges alone, a particular focus of her research lies in how multiple stakeholders collaborate to create novel governance solutions. Current projects include collective action for labour rights in the Bangladesh garment supply chain and the role of institutional investors, particularly pension funds, in the transition to a net zero economy.

Juliane welcomes candidates pursuing interdisciplinary approaches and/or using qualitative methodologies, such as ethnography.

Harvey Maylor - Harvey is open to a range of lenses being brought to bear on systems complexities and the ‘lived experience’ of systems leaders. Particular areas of interest include:

• What is the impact on performance of the relationship between the NEO profile of an individual and the complexities of the system that they are charged with leading?
• Is there a moral limit to the complexity we should ask organisational leaders to face? And is there an impact on the delivery of public value of high levels of complexity?
• What is the impact of systemic voids on the delivery of grand challenge objectives?
• Systems of routines: linking the areas of routine dynamics and systemic design as a tool for organisational analysis.

Kejia Hu - Kejia's work orbits around a central tenet: unlocking business value from data, but doing so together. This emphasis on harmonious human-AI interaction underlines her research, reflecting the conviction that data's true potential is tapped not just through technology but with collective human insight and collaboration.

Her expansive collaborations with Fortune 500 entities and industrial pioneers are a testament to her profound expertise, yielding research that resonates in top-tier academic journals and bears multiple research and best paper awards.

Richard Cuthbertson - Richard's research interests focus on the operations of innovation, turnaround, and transformation involving the firm, their supply chains, and third parties, such as government and trade associations. Recent research includes an examination of  the dynamic capabilities of grocery retailers, the organisation and operations of leading technology companies, and the green transition in traditional industry sectors, such as steelmaking.

You will require:

• a good undergraduate degree: 2.1 (GPA 3.5 or its equivalent)
• GMAT or GRE test results
• TOEFL or IELTS test results (If you are not from an English speaking majority country)
• three pieces of written work, including a well-developed research proposal
• three academic references
• £20 application fee

Successful applicants typically have a distinction in a Master’s level degree in addition to their undergraduate studies, but exceptional applicants from undergraduate programmes in relevant subjects will be considered.