2 PhD scholarships in Marketing in Denmark

The Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University is advertising 2 PhD scholarships available at the MAPP Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector.

The first scholarship is co-financed by a grant from the Strategic Research Council and Arla Foods, and it forms part of the research consortium INSPIRE, where major Danish universities, GTS Institutes and food producers cooperate in applied research in the food area. The project the PhD student will have to work with deals with Communicability and impression management in the design of food production chains. Part of the research activities in the INSPIRE consortium will deal with the design and implementation of new food production processes and new food ingredients.

Questions about the preparation of the project description may be directed to Prof. Klaus G. Grunert, phone +45 89486439, e-mail klg@asb.dk .

The second scholarship is co-financed by a grant from the Danish Food Industry Agency / Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and it forms part of the research consortium SUMMER (Superb and Marketable Meat from Efficient and Robust Animals), where a number of Departments and Research Centres of the Aarhus University and various meat producing SMEs cooperate in applied research in the meat area. The project the PhD student will have to work with deals with Work Package 5: Product Quality and Development of Meat from Efficient and Robust Animals and Work Package 6: High Value Marketing.

With the aim to increase the production and market share of ORGANIC meat (pork, poultry and young beef), an integrated research and development effort will take place along the food chain. The hypothesis is that this meat category is presently underdeveloped due to incompatibility between production costs/consumer prices and the experienced quality of the products, and that this incompatibility primarily should be overcome by adding quality in a broad sense to the organic meat products. Part of the research activities in the SUMMER consortium will thus deal with the design and implementation of new ORGANIC meat production processes.

Questions about the preparation of the project description may be directed to Associate Prof. Athanasios Krystallis, phone +45 89486374, e-mail atkr@asb.dk

Food production processes are today often used as quality signals by consumers and other members of the food chain, and should therefore be evaluated not only in terms of the physical products coming out of it, but also in terms of the impressions they are creating in the minds of customers. The research topics are thus related to research streams in the areas of technology acceptance, quality perception, and market signalling.

The MAPP Centre is a world class competence centre doing research on consumer behaviour with regard to food, and on implications of consumer insights for industry and public policy (see www.mapp.asb.dk ). It is part of the Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University.