Page content

The Ulster University Business School comprises a group of researchers who place considerable emphasis on developing a strong creative and innovative research culture with prominence placed on three broad sub-disciplines in:

In the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework (REF), Ulster University Business School had 98% of its research recognised as international in terms of originality, significance and rigour.

This placed the UUBS in the top quartile of UK universities for research and 7th in the UK for research impact.

We aim to:

  • Further strengthen our position to ensure that the UUBSUoA continues to disseminate research in top international journals;
  • enhance the emphasis on interdisciplinary research;
  • increase the level of external funding and concentrate on collaborative research with scholars from around the world.

Our research falls into the following main themes:

  • Operations Management and Contemporary Organisational Issues, focussing more specifically upon Supply Management and Business Improvement and Leadership Development
  • Marketing, focussing upon International Business, Marketing/Entrepreneurship Interface, Consumer Behaviour and Retailing
  • Accounting and Corporate Governance where research is clustered around a number of distinct themes - efficiency measurement issues and policy evaluation in the public sector, financial cooperatives, and accounting/finance governance issues.

Our Impact

One of the core objectives of the Ulster University Business School is to ensure that our activities in terms of both teaching and research are applicable in real world settings and that our stakeholders can accrue tangible benefits from their interaction with our faculty and staff.

Illustrating the depth and quality of our research environment the UUBS has a number of highly respected research centres including the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre, which carries out policy driven research designed to enhance the economic prosperity of the region and the Food and Drink Business Development Centre, which is designed to promote research and innovation in this important sector in NI.

The school also employs a number of International Adjunct Professors from a range of highly prestigious universities such as Ivey Business School, Canada; Esade Business School, Spain and Hong Kong University, who work with our faculty in terms of dissemination and best practice in research.

As noted above, the school has a long tradition of engagement with local business and their representative bodies. For example, a key requirement for anyone carrying out research in the faculty is to ensure it is professionally relevant, so we work with a wide range of professional bodies such as, for example, Chartered Accountants Ireland CAI, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development CIPD and Institute of Secretaries and Administrators ICSA to ensure that our research is professionally relevant, and that it contributes both on an academic and professional level.