About the Project
This PhD project aims to explore how market participants produce “authenticity” and use it to generate value (Zukin, 2011). Specifically, it investigates how marketing practices undertaken by market operators and traders in a street market facilitate the emergence of “authentic spaces”, the generation of value, and wider economic and social benefits for the community. Market participants engage in marketing practices to attract and retain customers (Dibb et al., 2014). They encompass transactional activities such as offering curation and relational activities such as interaction with customers and amongst traders. This project is anchored in the UK non-store retailing industry. While retailing is dominated by online sales (ONS, 2021), brick-and-mortar retail forms such as street markets still exist, adding up to roughly 1000+ locations nationwide (NABMA, 2022). They allow for economic and social interaction among local communities and visitors. Given their flux and heightened competition for pitches in crowded urban spaces, innovative marketing practices are indispensable for street traders and operators (Binkley and Connor, 1998; GLA, 2019; RBKC, 2022; vom Lehn, 2014).
London houses around 280 street markets. They employ roughly 13,250 people and contribute £247.6 million to the capital’s economy (GLA, 2019). The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) – the project’s non-academic partner – houses eight markets (RBKC, 2022). The RBKC street trading office manages two of them, including the world-famous Portobello Market, and exerts statutory controls over the other sites. These markets supply local communities and tourists with goods ranging from antiques, fruit and vegetables to street food.
Although some marketing scholars attempt to define authenticity, the concept remains ambiguous (Bartsch et al., 2022; Nunes et al., 2021). Most conceptualisations acknowledge that authenticity is not a set of discrete properties but an ongoing process of verifying the assumed with the factual or the stated with the actioned (Chiu et al., 2012; Zhang and Patrick, 2021). How this applies to physical spaces, such as street markets, has yet to be explored. Moreover, studies examining authenticity tend to do so from the demand, not the supply side (e.g., Fuchs et al., 2015; Zhang and Patrick, 2021). However, authenticity requires two reference points. As most studies concentrate on changes in individual perceptions (Becker et al., 2019), insights into the economic or societal consequences of authenticity and its curation remain rare (Siemens et al., 2020). The project aims to examine authenticity through a multistakeholder lens, focusing on the supply side (traders’ and market operators’ viewpoints) and economic (customer purchase behaviour) and societal (community well-being) consequences. The final framing of the PhD thesis topic would be however incumbent on the PhD student in cooperation with RBKC and the academic supervisor team. The overall project ownership lies within the successful applicant
What we expect from the candidate?
As a necessary prerequisite to express your interest in this project you shall meet all formal requirements to apply for the doctoral programme at KBS (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/areas/management-research-mphil-phd) as well as NOT already have been awarded a PhD or equivalent degree. This project is only meant as the thematic context for your PhD research while enrolled in the PhD in marketing programme.
We are looking for a candidate (either home or overseas) with a background in any of the disciplines of marketing, business management, sociology, applied economics, public policy, cultural and urban studies or related fields. They must be interested in exploring the abovementioned topics with us and keen to engage with RBKC’s street trading office on a regular basis. You do not need to be an expert in street market management or trading as this is clearly a PhD in marketing endeavour, though some interest in the intersection of the brick-and-mortar non-store retailing industry and municipal policies is assumed.
We further expect a reasonable level of personal resilience, readiness to engage with various retailing topics, ability to openly approach people, good oral and written communication skills, as well as a general willingness to embrace new challenges, and diverse cultural settings. We appreciate, a high level of motivation and curiosity in conjunction with the ability to efficiently self-organise.
Please note the project is available full-time only for a start in September 2025.
Benefits we offer.
The project provides:
• a committed contact person at the RBKC street trading office.
• access to various RBKC stakeholders depending on the final research design.
• selected opportunities to get to know the RBKC street trading office/council better through, e.g., a placement or ad hoc project support tasks (please note that while we very much advocate for renumerated engagement, all these options would be time-limited and/or part-time and/or depend on the candidate’s willingness to volunteer as well as subject to availability and, if applicable, individual visa conditions).
• workspace on our Strand Campus located in Central London.
• a edicated interuniversity KBS/Brunel supervisory team with long-standing research experience in marketing, public services management, and small business/family entrepreneurship, and qualitative and quantitative research methods.
How to apply?
Please submit 1. a letter of motivation (up to 2 pages), and 2. your updated CV incl. your UG and PG degree grades (1 page only) by February 28, 2025, via e-mail to the whole supervisor team:
-Dr Anna Dubiel (Senior Lecturer in Marketing), KBS, anna.dubiel@kcl.ac.uk
-Prof. Dirk vom Lehn (Professor of Organisation and Practice), KBS, dirk.vom_lehn@kcl.ac.uk
-Dr Carolin Decker-Lange (Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Entrepreneurship), Brunel University of London, carolin.decker-lange@brunel.ac.uk
The project team will invite selected applicants for an interview in-person at KBS premises in Central London or if not feasible via MS Teams on March 20 or March 21, 2025. Please kindly note, that we are unable to provide application-related feedback for unsuccessful applicants.
Please do not concurrently – in the context of this project – apply with the KBS PhD programme office. We will ask you to do so if selected. In practice, this means that the applicant selected will need to formally apply with the KBS PhD in Marketing programme with a deadline on June 1, 2025. Being selected for the project does not guarantee admission to the KBS PhD in Marketing programme.
Funding Notes
Funding at the level of home/international student fees (as applicable) and a basic stipend:
· the full KBS home/international tuition fees for three years, the pending submission status fee, and
· a tax-free stipend of approximately £21k/annum (2024-2025 rate is £21,237) for four years with small, annual inflationary increases.
References
Bartsch, F., Zeugner-Roth, K. P., & Katsikeas, C. S. (2022). Consumer authenticity seeking: conceptualization, measurement, and contingent effects, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 50, 296–323.
Becker, M., Wiegand, N., & Reinartz, W. J. (2019). Does it pay to be real? Understanding authenticity in TV advertising, Journal of Marketing, 83(1), 24-50.
Binkley, J.K., & Connor, J.M. (1998). Grocery market pricing and the new competitive environment. Journal of Retailing, 74(2), 273-294.
Chiu, H.-C., Hsieh, Y.-C., & Kuo, Y.-C. (2012). How to align your brand stories with your products. Journal of Retailing, 88(2), 262-275.
Dibb, S., Simões, C., & Wensley, R. (2014), Establishing the scope of marketing practice: insights from practitioners, European Journal of Marketing, 48(1/2), 380-404.
Fuchs, C., Schreier, M., & Van Osselaer, S. M. (2015). The handmade effect: What’s love got to do with it? Journal of Marketing, 79(2), 98-110.
Greater London Authority (2019), Street markets toolkit: Evidencing and capturing social value, https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/ulm_toolkit_web.pdf, accessed October 23, 2024
NABMA (2022), National markets survey 2022, https://nabma.com/version2020/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NABMA-Survey-2022.pdf, accessed November 2, 2024.
Nunes, J. C., Ordanini, A., & Giambastiani, G. (2021). The concept of authenticity: What it means to consumers, Journal of Marketing, 85(4), 1-20.
Office of National Statistics (2021), Economic trends in the retail sector, Great Britain: 1989 to 2021, https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/articles/economictrendsintheretailsectorgreatbritain/1989to2021#online-retail-in-the-uk-analysis-by-sector, accessed November 1, 2024
RBKC (2022), Kensington and Chelsea markets plan 2022-27, https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/business-and-enterprise/business-advice/markets-and-street-trading-0, accessed November 1, 2024.
Siemens, J. C., Weathers, D., Smith, S., & Fisher, D. (2020). Sizing up without selling out: the role of authenticity in maintaining long-run consumer support for successful underdog brands. Journal of Advertising, 49(1), 78-97.
vom Lehn, D. (2014). Timing Is Money: Managing the Floor in Sales Interaction at Street-Market Stalls, Journal of Marketing Management, 30(13–14), 1448–1466. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2014.941378.
Zhang, Z., & Patrick, V. M. (2021). Mickey D’s has more street cred than McDonald’s: Consumer brand nickname use signals information authenticity, Journal of Marketing, 85(5), 58-73.
Zukin, S. Reconstructing the authenticity of place. Theory and Society 40, 161–165 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-010-9133-1
Interaction, Organisation & Technology 