Investigating the impact of sport events on health and wellbeing

College of Business and Law at UWE Bristol invites applications for a fully funded PhD studentship with the Applied Marketing Research Group (AMRG) on the topic of “Investigating the Impact of Sport Events on Health and Wellbeing”.

Ref: 2324-OCT-FBL04

The expected start date of these studentships is 1 October 2023.

The closing date for applications is 4 June 2023.

About the college

College of Business and Law is a host to a lively and challenging PhD programme. Students benefit from its modern facilities and a welcoming research environment comprising diverse research groups and centres.

The studentship reflects an ongoing commitment of the College of Business and Law at UWE Bristol to the development of its doctoral programmes. 
Doctoral students at the college benefit from comprehensive support and guidance from UWE Bristol Doctoral Academy, including extensive professional development programme, research skills training and careers advice. Find out more about the UWE Bristol Doctoral Academy.

About the project

Sport-related activities represent an important area of health and well-being enhancing activities. Transformative Sport Service Research (TSSR) is a new framework (Inoue et al., 2020) aiming at sport consumers (i.e. athletes, spectators, sponsors) and sport service providers (i.e. employees). It helps generate knowledge that has implications for the production and delivery of sport services that occur through interaction, during which participants experience upward or downward changes to their health and well-being. Sport services may contribute to building a meaningful and productive community where individuals feel valued and integrated. But if managed poorly, sport services can have detrimental effects on everyone involved. A specific focus of this call is on spectator services (Chelladurai, 2014) in the context of sport events, and service providers (both paid and unpaid employees), who contribute invaluable resources via serving various stakeholders to deliver the event (Nedvetskaya and Girginov, 2017). 

Potential research questions may include but are not limited to:

• What health and wellbeing outcomes are susceptible to sport event experiences, via what mechanisms and processes?
• How can the effects of sport event experiences on health and wellbeing be optimized and sustained?
• How do changes in health and wellbeing outcomes influence the achievement of multiple goals on personal, organizational, and societal levels?
• How can these changes be related to wider sustainable physiological, psychological, socioeconomic, and environmental transformations?

Ultimately, utilising the TSSR framework, we are interested in contributions to cross-disciplinary research exploring (both qualitatively and quantitatively) how personal and collective health and well-being can be improved through the event experiences in the context of sport events.

For an informal discussion about the studentship, please contact Director of Doctoral Research, Dr Paweł Capik at pawel.capik@uwe.ac.uk.

For an informal discussion of the research proposal please contact Dr Myriam Bellaouaied at myriam.bellaouaied@uwe.ac.uk.

The studentship is available from 1 October 2023 for a period of three and half years, subject to satisfactory progress and includes a tax exempt stipend, which is currently £17,668 per annum.

In addition, full-time tuition fees will be covered for up to three years.

Applicants must have at least 2.1 degree in marketing or a cognate discipline, and preferably Masters degree (with average programme mark of no less than 65%, UK grading scale or international equivalent).

A recognised English language qualification is required. IELTS score of 7.0 overall, or equivalent.

Please submit your application online. When prompted use the reference number 2324-OCT-FBL04.

Prepare your research proposal (no more than 5 pages all-inclusive; font size 11, 1.5-spacing, 2-inch margins). This should ideally happen in consultation with the potential supervisor. You should contact the potential supervisor with an advanced draft of the proposal to confirm they are willing to support your application.

Supporting documentation: You will need to upload your research proposal, all your degree certificates and transcripts and your proof of English language proficiency as attachments to your application, so please have these available when you complete the application form.

References: You will need to provide details of two referees as part of your application. At least one referee must be an academic referee from the institution that conferred your highest degree. Your referee will be asked for a reference at the time you submit your application, so please ensure that your nominated referees are willing and able to provide references within 14 days of your application being submitted.

The closing date for applications is 18:00 (UK time) on 4 June 2023.

Interviews will take place in June/July. If you have not heard from us by 30 June 2023, we thank you for your application but on this occasion you have not been successful.