About

I am a Professor of Services Marketing, Head of the Centre for Business Improvement and the University's REF lead for Business and Management Studies. My research, teaching and consultancy focuses on services marketing, particularly in terms of how organisations and customers engage with one another in a retail setting. My other research area of interest is the experiences of DBA & Professional Doctorate students.

As Head of the Centre for Business Improvement at Derby International Business School, I am responsible for leading applied research in four research clusters - Experiential & Services Marketing, Organisational Behaviour, HRM and Leadership, Accounting, Accountability and Ethics and Sustainable Business and Clean Growth.

I am an elected committee member for the British Academy of Management Marketing and Retail Special Interest Group and a Board Member of the Cathedral Quarter Business Improvement District in Derby and Visit Peak District and Derbyshire.

Research interests

My work has a number of research strands:

• Service encounters - This relates to how the visible diversity (age, gender, ethnicity etc) of customers and staff impacts the service encounter
• Employer branding - This explores how organisations position themselves as an employer and how customer-facing staff might have a role in this
• Service industry careers - This includes an exploration of women's experiences of working in retail and marketing
• The evolution of the high street and town centres post-Covid and the wider role of place in rejuvenating local communities

As an experienced doctoral supervisor and course leader, I am also conducting teaching-related research concerned with the management of professional doctorates and PGR student experiences, particularly in relation to the DBA. This work has been published in Studies in Higher Education & The British Journal of Management. 

I review for various journals and conferences, these include: Journal of Marketing Management, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, European Journal of Marketing, Qualitative Market Research, EURAM, BAM, and EAERCD. I have been a Guest Editor for the International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management linked to the annual British Academy of Management conference.

Recent publications

My research can be found in a range of journals including the British Journal of Management, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Studies in Higher Education, Journal of Marketing Management, Services Industries Journal and the Journal of Product and Brand Management. A full list of my publications can be found on UDORA. 

Selected publications include:

• Kirk, S., Foster, C., Kougiannou, N., Parry, E. and Collins, C. (2025). Dr Who? Identity crucibles and the DBA doctoral degree. British Journal of Management. Online 5th Feb 2025. 
• Foster, C., Brindley, C., Oxborrow, L., Armannsdottir, G.  and Ghosh, B, (2025). Co-creating value in the independent pop-up retail ecosystem. Journal of Place Management and Development. Vol 18, No. 3, PP.  424–439. 
• Foster, C., Kirk, S., Kougiannou, N and Scurry, T. (2023). Mind the Gap: DBA students, knowledge generation, transfer and impact . Studies in Higher Education. Vol 49, No. 4, pp. 623-628.
• Akbar, B., Garnelo-Gomez, I., Ndupu, L., Barnes, E. and Foster, C. (2022). An analysis of social marketing practice: factors associated with success. Health Marketing Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp.356-376
• Spry, L., Foster, C., Pich, C. and Peart, S. (2020) ‘Managing higher education brands with an emerging brand architecture: the role of shared values and competing brand identities’. Journal of Strategic Marketing, Vol. 28, No.4, pp.336-349
• Hancock, C. and Foster, C. (2019) ‘Exploring the ZMET methodology in services marketing’, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 48-58
• Foster, C. and Brindley, C. (2018) ‘Female entrepreneurial networking in the marketing services sector’. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 21, No.2, pp.182-201
• Abdelhadi, A, Foster, C. and Whysall, P. (2014) ‘An exploratory investigation of aberrant consumer behaviour in Libya: a sociocultural approach’. Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 30, No. 9-10, pp.857-873. This article was selected for the Editor’s Choice 2016 Collection
• Lewis, J., Whysall, P. and Foster, C. (2014) ‘Drivers and technology-related obstacles in moving to multichannel retailing’. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp.43-68
• Resnick, S, Foster, C. and Woodall, T. (2014) ‘Exploring the UK high street retail experience: is the service encounter still valued?’ International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 42, No. 9, pp.839-859
• Foster, C. and Resnick, S. (2013) ‘Service worker appearance and the retail service encounter: the influence of gender and age’. The Service Industries Journal, Vol. 33, No.1-2, pp.236-247
• Foster, C, Punjaisri, K and Cheng, R. (2010) ‘Exploring the Relationship between corporate, internal and employer branding’, Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 19 No.6, pp.401-409

Membership of professional bodies

I am an elected committee member (Secretary & Track Chair) for the Marketing and Retail Special Interest Group at the British Academy of Management and have been an Academic Panel Member for the Chartered Institute of Marketing (Midlands).  I am a committee member for CERR (Colloquium on European Research in Retailing) and a Board Member of the Cathedral Quarter Business Improvement District in Derby and Visit Peak District and Derbyshire.

Professional interests

Prior to my academic career, I was an assistant buyer at Boots. I gained my PhD in 2003 which explored staff and customer diversity issues in retailing. I have then had a number of academic roles, including ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Senior Lecturer, Reader in Retail Management and Programme Director for the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) at Nottingham Trent University.

Qualifications

• PhD - ‘Understanding and implementing managing diversity in organisations: A study in the retail sector’, Nottingham Trent University, 2003
• BA (Hons) Business Studies, Nottingham Trent University, 1997
• HEA (Higher Education Academy) Associate Fellow

Recent conferences

My research has been presented at a number of conferences including the British Academy of Management, the Academy of Marketing, EIRASS, ISBE, EAERCD and Gender, Work and Organization. A full list of my conference papers can be found on UDORA.

Selected conference papers include:

• Brindley, C., Foster, C., Oxborrow, L. and Armannsdottir, G. 'Co-creating value in independent retail: are pop-ups the solution to post-Covid retail recovery?', BAM conference, online, 2021. Winner of Best Developmental Paper
• Collins, C., Foster, C., Kirk, S., Parry, E and Dinauer, L. ‘Improving lives by creating impact through Professional Management Doctoral research’, Professional Development Workshop, Academy of Management, Chicago, August 2018
• Kirk, S., Foster, C., Kougiannou, K., Collins, C., Hiller, L., Parry, E., and Pilbeam, C., ‘Identity construction in the DBA doctoral journey’, 5th International Conference on Professional Doctorates, London, March 2018
• Foster, C., Brindley, C., Armansdottir, G. and Ghosh, B. Value co-creation in temporary, independent retailing: a study of customer value perceptions of pop-up stores, Academy of Marketing Conference (AM2017), Hull University Business School, 3-6 July 2017
• Foster, C., Brindley, C., Oxborrow, L. and Armansdottir, G. The role of value co-creation in SME pop-up retail space: a supply-side relational stakeholder perspective, 19th European Association for Education and Research in Commercial Distribution, Dublin, Ireland, 4-6th July 2017
• Foster, C. & Kirk, S. Professional Doctorate Curriculum Design: a resource-dependency analysis of DBA stakeholders. British Academy of Management, University of Newcastle, September 2016. This paper won Best Developmental paper in the Knowledge & Learning Track

Experience in industry

I have worked and continue to work with a number of large and small organisations in a research and consultancy capacity. This includes B&Q, WHSmith, Tesco, Boots, Virgin Trains as well as independent retailers, shopping centres and SME marketing service providers.

I sit on a number of place-based industry related boards in the region and have recently led a large interdisciplinary skills based initiative aimed at regional businesses funded by High Peak Borough Council.

I have worked on funded research with PKF Cooper Parry, Rolls Royce and the CIPD. I have advised Derby City Council on their successful Future High Streets bid and given talks to practitioner audiences on the future of the high street at, for example, the Peak District Partnership, Destination Chesterfield and the Festival of Business. More recently my work on the place agenda in rural communities has led to engagement with Rural England, BDUK, NICRE and Business Peak District.

I was also the Academic Lead for a management KTP (2020-2022) with the Devonshire Group (Chatsworth House), part-funded by the ESRC, which examined the economic impact of their activities on the region.;

In the media

Listen to my views on pop-up retail recorded with Linney as part of their consumer insight series, Pop-up Podcast.

International experience

I have taught on a Certificate in Business Administration for the retailer ECCO in Boston, USA and delivered marketing ethics workshops to postgraduate students at EDHEC, France. I have presented at a number of international conferences and supervised international doctoral students from, for example, China, Canada, Libya, Oman, Ireland, Japan and Zimbabwe.

Teaching responsibilities

I have successfully supervised and continue to supervise doctoral research students (PhDs and Professional Doctorates/DBAs) in the areas of marketing and retail. I have 17 doctoral completions and I am a Director of Studies for doctoral students at the University of Derby, Nottingham Trent University and previously, Grenoble School of Management.

I have also chaired vivas and examined internal and external doctorates. Prior to my role at Derby, I was the Programme Director for the DBA at Nottingham Trent University, one of the longest-running DBA courses in the UK. I lead and deliver the Designing Research Projects module for the DBA in Derby International Business School and run training sessions, such as how to publish, for all Derby PhD students.

I have been an external examiner for Manchester Metropolitan University, Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Surrey and the University of Lincoln. I am currently an external examiner for Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Additional interests and activities

My externally funded work includes:

• High Peak Borough Council  - UKSPF Digital, Green & Employability Skills 2024-2025 £185k
• NICRE - Exploring identity, place & worker attraction & retention in rural businesses £14.5k - 2023
• Innovate UK KTP (part-funded by the ESRC) with Chatsworth House Trust - Economic evaluation of the Devonshire Group's activities - £140k - 2020 -2022
• The Society for the Advancement of Management Studies - Using visual methods in qualitative research - £3,800 - 2019
• Innovate UK KTP with PKF Cooper Parry - Developing new markets using digital technologies - £30k - 2017/18
• Academy of Marketing - Co-creation in temporary, independent retailing - £5k - 2016/17
• Santander - Internationalising the DBA curriculum - £5k - 2016
• The Society for the Advancement of Management Studies - The realities of researching under-represented groups (2nd workshop) - £3.3k - 2013
• The Society for the Advancement of Management Studies - The realities of researching under-represented groups (1st workshop) - £3k - 2011
• Academy of Marketing - Women in marketing: an exploration - £2k - 2010