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  • Artificial intelligence for small and medium enterprise

Funded PhD: Artificial intelligence for small and medium enterprise

Project in brief

The National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy (2021) identifies the need to ‘Transition to an AI-enabled economy’. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are considered a ‘Lower-AI maturity’ sector, meaning there is an urgent need for research to ascertain current AI use.

This interdisciplinary project also addresses concerns about the lack of marketing involvement in AI research and will make an original contribution to understanding the value of AI from the SME and customer perspectives.

A mixed-method approach involves an initial scoping survey and qualitative research with SMEs and their customers. This innovative research will impact government AI/SME policy, SMEs practice and Marketing theory. 

Key Facts

Location: School of Business and Law, Brighton, Moulsecoomb campus

Application deadline: Monday 06 June 2022, 17:00

Expected interview dates: weeks commencing 20 and 27 June 2022

Mode of study: Full-time or part-time

Start date: October 2022

Find out how to apply

Project supervisors

Profile photo for Dr Janet Ward

Dr Janet Ward

My interdisciplinary research seeks to understand the impact of new technologies on Marketing theory and practice. Work as a Principal Investigator with international experience has included projects in adult and young people's virtual worlds. This research has led to the creation of new frameworks to understand the culture within these worlds. These immersive technologies create new forms of experience both individual and shared. I am interested in all aspects of 'digital marketing' but particularly social media, virtual and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence.

Profile photo for Dr Chitharanjandas Chinnapaka

Dr Chitharanjandas Chinnapaka

I am interested in supervisions looking into subject-specific and interdisciplinary areas such as the role of information systems in business, finance and marketing. I am also interested in projects looking at the Internet and AI business models, digital marketing and analytics, Online banking, including Fintech and Blockchain applications in business.

My previous funded research was an empirical study on the business potentials of information and communication technologies in emerging economies.

I am currently a Peer Review College Member on the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowships programme with experience in assessing interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research and innovation projects. I also work as Deputy Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Advances in Economics and Business.

Profile photo for Dr Khuong Nguyen

Dr Khuong Nguyen

I am currently active in the following research topics:
  • Confidence Machine Learning.
  • Mobile health.
  • Positioning and navigation.

The nature of my high impact, practical research, and being a young lecturer (am still coding, and collecting data myself) will benefit enthusiastic students who would like to apply their ideologies in the real world.

I have had the pleasure to supervise the following Ph.D students.

  • Julia Meister (2021 - present): Top 10 students in BSc Computer Science cohort at RHUL; Best Student Research paper at the 12th WISTP international conference.
  • Xu Feng (2021 - present): owning a patent in sensor design; 85% GPA at Zhejiang University (China).
  • Robert Choudhury (2020 - present): Telecoms software engineer, Distinction in MSc in Information Security at RHUL, co-supervised with Prof. Zhiyuan Luo at Royal Holloway.
  • Nery Riquelme-Granada (2018 - 2021): Best Student Research paper at the 9th DATA 2020 International Conference on Data Science, co-supervised with Prof. Zhiyuan Luo at Royal Holloway.

If you are interested in doing research on the above topics, feel free to get in touch.

Reviewer for:

  • IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC).
  • IEEE Access Journal.
  • IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (J-SAC).
  • Pattern Recognition Journal, Elsevier.
  • Journal of Information and Telecommunication, Taylor & Francis.
  • ACM Journal on Interactive, Multimedia, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT).
  • Symposium on Conformal and Probabilistic Prediction with Applications.
  • Journal of Location Based Services, Taylor & Francis.
  • Sensors Journal, MDPI.
  • International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, MDPI.

Project in detail: Understanding Artificial Intelligence (AI) use and applications in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): What value can AI contribute to customer relationships?

The Customer-technology interface has been identified as a research priority by the Marketing Science Institute, a leading US research institute of academics and major firms, in their 2020-2022 research priorities (MSI, 2020).

Key research questions which relate to this theme include: 

  • What role should marketers take in designing AI-based marketing systems? (Mustak et al., 2021) 
  • How do relational elements, such as trust and rapport affect customers’ acceptance of AI technology? (Vlaicu et al., 2021)
  • How can firms use machine learning to manage customer experience through the service journey? (Ostrom et al., 2021)
  • What are the positive and negative impacts of AI-enabled automated analysis on the economic status of small entrepreneurs across the globe? (Kopalle et al., 2021)

How AI impacts customer relationships is a key research agenda identified from this review of the extant literature. Understanding the value created is an aspect which appears to have not been addressed particularly from the customer perspective. The National AI Strategy (2021) identifies the need to ‘Transition to an AI-enabled economy’. This research with SMEs is critical to this process and has the potential to impact government policy. 

Concerns have been raised about the lack of marketing/management involvement within AI research in marketing management contexts. ‘We predict that AI will fall short of its promises in many marketing domains if we do not solve the challenges of tacit knowledge transfer between AI models and marketing organizations’ (De Bruyn et al., 2020). While from the Applied Sciences perspective Kok-Lim et al., (2021) propose an Artificial Intelligence Marketing (AIM) framework to enhance relationships. This project aims to address these issues by taking an interdisciplinary perspective as demonstrated by the composition of the supervisory team. 

It is envisaged there will be an initial exploratory stage to scope out which types of SME’s are using AI at present. This will allow the classification of a range of current AI applications and the identification of those particularly focused on customer relationships. The next stage will be identifying from these companies with relevant AI applications linked to customer relationships for further research. For the second stage, a multi-modal qualitative research approach may include netnography, in-depth interviews with relevant staff and research with selected customers. Therefore, this project is mixed-methods based. 

The research will provide an overview of the range of AI applications in Marketing in different types of SMEs. As well impacts on government policy, the SME sector and support bodies, this research will also make practical/ managerial impacts for the small businesses involved and, through dissemination, future good practice.  

It will also contribute to digital marketing strategy and to marketing theory in value creation and relationship marketing. It will serve as an example of the value of interdisciplinary research within this area. Therefore, we believe there will be wide media and social media interest. It also means there is the potential for a range of journal articles across marketing, information systems, management and computing journals and SME and practitioner outlets from the PhD dissertation.   

 

 

Entry requirements

Academic entry requirements

Applicants should have a minimum of a 2:1 undergraduate degree and desirably hold or expect to achieve excellent grades in a Master’s degree, in Marketing/Information Management, from a UK university or comparable qualifications from another recognised university. 

Applicants should also be able to demonstrate an interest/experience in Computing. Experience of using Qualtrics Survey software would also be useful.

Applicants are also required to submit a response to the project call of up to 500 words. 

Eligibility criteria 

Due to the post’s funding it is only open to home applicants as defined by the  Fees Regulations.   

English language entry requirements

Applicants whose first language is not English must have successfully completed a Secure English language Test (SELT) in the last two years. Applicants who have obtained or are studying for a UK degree may apply without a SELT. However, the university may request a SELT is taken as part of any award made.

English language IELTS requirements are 7.0 overall, 7.0 for writing and none below 6.5. 

We accept a number of English language qualification including IELTS. Please contact us if you have any queries arising from this. Further details can be found here:  

Prove your English language abilities with a secure English language test (SELT) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

Funding

This studentship is funded by the University of Brighton and is open to applications from candidates considering a full-time or part-time mode of study. For students meeting the Home fee requirements, the studentship consists of full UK tuition fees as well as a Doctoral Stipend at the UKRI rate together with a research training support grant (RTSG). For full-time study the studentship is for 3 years, with the RTSG being £1500 pa. For part-time student, the studentship is for 6 years, with the stipend being 50% of the UKRI rate together with an RTSG of £750 pa. 

A part-time route is not available to applicants who will need a student visa to study in the UK.

Contact us to find out more

 If you have any questions about the project, please contact the lead supervisor:

Dr Janet Ward

Email: j.ward3@brighton.ac.uk

Tel: 07545 221529


If you have any questions about the funding or application process, please contact DoctoralCollege@brighton.ac.uk

Guide to making your application

We will only consider complete applications - the application is complete once you have uploaded all of the following:  

  • Your 500 word research statement and response to the project.  
  • Copies of your bachelors and master certificates, including transcripts.  
  • Copy of your IELTS (or equivalent) certificate (if applicable).  
  • Copy of your passport.  
  • Two references uploaded or requested - one must be an academic reference from your most recent period of study. Both must have been written within the last year. 

Read our research proposal guide

To submit your application please follow these steps:  

  1. Click the 'apply online now' button, on the right.  
  2. Select 'register and start a new application', to create your user account.  
  3. Once you are logged in, select 'apply to a new course'.  
  4. Select the type of course 'research degree'.  
  5. Select mode of study 'full-time'.  
  6. Select 'Doctoral College'.  
  7. Select ‘AI in SMEs’ 
  8. Click 'apply'.  

You will now be able to complete the online application form.  

Apply online now

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