Friday 20 Jan 2012 @ 08:05
Economic and Social Research Council
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New team to navigate the retail sector

Building relationships, raising the profile of social science research and identifying opportunities for collaboration will be the main focus of a new Retail Knowledge Navigator Team.  Working with the retail sector is a key priority for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) who are delighted to announce the appointment of Nottingham Business School as Retail Knowledge Navigators. 

Given the broad range of stakeholders and research agendas, the Council has identified the need to supplement its existing resource with a team of expert knowledge brokers who will be able to forge stronger links between the social science community and the retail sector.  This team will include: Professor Kim Cassidy, Dr Sheilagh Resnick and Professor Paul Whysall all from Nottingham Business School, part of Nottingham Trent University.

Professor Cassidy has been teaching and researching in the field of Retail and Services Marketing for over 20 years and has held senior academic leadership positions at the Universities of Liverpool, Durham, Sheffield, Lincoln and Manchester Metropolitan University. Professor Cassidy also boasts extensive experience in the retail sector, holding management positions at Pedigree Petfoods, Marks and Spencer PLC and Stats MR.

Dr Resnick has 20 years retail experience working for one of the UK’s largest retailers, Alliance Boots, in a series of retail marketing and senior management positions including that of Buying Controller, Director of Public Relations and Director of Customer Service. Dr Resnick has been teaching at Nottingham Business School for seven years across a range of retail and services marketing courses, and is an active researcher in the field of retail and small business marketing.

Professor Whysall has extensive retail consultancy experience with companies such as Alliance Boots and Tesco and previously served on the National Retail Planning Forum. Professor Whysall has a long established academic career in retail marketing and is a prominent member of many key retail academic networks including European Association for Education and Research in Commercial Distribution and European Institute of Retailing and Services Studies.

Professor Paul Boyle, Chief Executive of ESRC comments: "Engaging with the business retail community is a key priority for the ESRC and I am pleased to appoint Nottingham Business School as our Retail Knowledge Navigator. Their complementary skills and experience make them ideal candidates for this role. By working in partnership with retail organisations we will see benefits for academic research, the sector itself and ultimately for society at large."

For further information contact

ESRC Press Office:

Notes for editors:

  1. The appointment is for 12 months beginning 1 December 2011
  2. Nottingham Business School is one of the UK's leading full-service international business schools. Its mission is to transform business, industry and public service through knowledge and people. With links to more than 800 companies and 50 academic institutions across 40 different countries, Nottingham Business School has partnerships with leading management schools across the globe.  Nottingham Business School’s commitment to research is reflected in the results of the recent research assessment exercise RAE2008. With more than 30 staff submitted, the Business School had one of the largest submissions for a post-1992 university and 80% was graded as being of international standard.  Further information can be found at: www.ntu.ac.uk/nbs
  3. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC’s total budget for 2011/12 is £203 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes. More at www.esrc.ac.uk

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