Dr Rebecca Abushena SFHEA, PhD, MSc, BA Hons,
Senior Lecturer in Retail and Doctoral college departmental lead
My profile
Biography
I am a senior lecturer working primarily on topics relating to retail. I am also the doctoral college lead for the Marketing, International Business and Tourism department. My current interests relate to retail servicescapes and how consumers behave within retail spaces. I am particularly interested in the notion of atmospheres in retail spaces often studying temporary, festive/leisure retail spaces as well as traditional ones. I was the programme leader of the CMDA Retail apprenticeship programme working closely with ASDA and McDonalds for 5 years until stepping down in 2024.
I completed my PhD at Alliance Manchester Business School in 2010 where my PhD case studies focused on multinational retailers Tesco and B&Q and their interfirm linkages with local firms in China and South Korea. I then spent 5 years as a management/destination development consultant at Colliers International working on a variety of place related projects with clients as varied as West Midlands Safari Park to the V&A Museum and a number of town councils and destination management organisations often informing their retail strategies.
My current research aims to combine my commerical experience in place management with analyses of retail and leisure servicescapes and often intersects with consumer studies.
I look to build upon my research profile by taking on new PhD students in the areas of retail management, retail/leisure servicescapes, place/festive atmospheres, place management, consumer behaviour in retail.
Outside of work I am a mum of two, runner and gardener.
Words of wisdom
When things get too much lock yourself in a cupboard and eat cake! I defy anyone not to feel better following this advice:)
Practitioner roles
Previously a senior analyst for destination/management consultancy
Membership of professional associations
Associate membership of CMI
Fellow of the IPM
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Authority
Projects
DRE research scheme - completed in 2023/4
Teaching
Currently:
Level 6: Retail Business Portfolio (apprenticeships)
Level 6: Negotiated Business Project Advanced (apprenticeships)
Previously:
Level 7: Marketing in Practice
Level 6: Strategic Marketing Management
Level 5: Advertising Management
Level 5: Consumer Behaviour and Culture
Level 4: Negotiated Business Project Intermediate (apprenticeships)
Level 4: Managing Customer Stakeholder Relations in Retail(apprenticeships)
Supervision
PhD 1st supervisor role - completed in 2022 - general advisor on sports fandom research project
Research outputs
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Chapters in books
Medway, D., Warnaby, G., Byrom, J., Grimmer, M., Abushena, R.A. (2019) 'How far would you go? Assessing the carbon footprint of business travel in the context of academic research activity..' In Lindgreen, A., Koenig-Lewis, N., Kitchener, M., Brewer, J., Moore, M., Meynhardt, T. (ed.) Public Value: Deepening, Enriching, and Broadening the Theory and Practice. Routledge, pp. 336-350.
Privitera, D., Abushena, R. (2018) 'The home as a consumption space: promoting social eating.' Case Studies in Food Retailing and Distribution. Woodhead Publishing,
Abushena, R.A., Ghauri, P.N., Firth, R. (2011) 'The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Local Firms: Western Firms in Emerging Markets.' In Ramamurti, R., Hashai, N. (ed.) The Future of Foreign Direct Investment: Essays in Honor of Yair Ahroni.
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Journal articles
Platt, L., Abushena, R., Snape, R. (2021) 'Leisure, Religion and the (Infra)Secular City: The Manchester and Salford Whit Walks.' Leisure Studies, 40(6) pp. 826-836.
Trabskaya, J., Shuliateva, I., Abushena, R., Gordin, V., Dedova, M. (2019) 'City branding and museums' souvenirs: towards improving the St. Petersburg brand: do museums sell souvenirs or do souvenirs sell museums.' Journal of Place Management and Development, 12(4) pp. 529-544.
Firth, R., Ghauri, P.N. (2010) 'Multinational enterprise acquisitions in emerging markets: linkage effects on local firms.' European J. of International Management, 4(1/2) pp. 135-135.
Ghauri, P.N., Firth, R. (2009) 'The formalization of case study research in international business.' der markt, 48(1-2) pp. 29-40.
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Conference papers
Khan, A., Pusaksrikit, T., Abushena, R. (2023) 'How Religious Minority Groups Engage in Diasporic and Dominant Consumption Rituals: The Case of British Muslims Participating in Eid and Christmas in the UK, Royal Banking Institute Research Seminar,.' In Royal Bank International Research Seminar. Canada, 26/9/2019 - 28/9/2019.
Abushena, R. (2023) 'Festive Atmospheres: Exploring the temporality of place atmospheres in urban leisure spaces.' In Academy of Marketing. Birmingham, 3/7/2023 - 6/7/2023.
Abushena, R.A. (2011) 'The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Local Firms: European Firms in Emerging Markets.' In European Integration in Swedish Economic Research: Swedish Network for European Studies in Economics and Business Conference. Molle, 17/5/2011 - 20/5/2011.
Medway, D.J., Warnaby, G., Firth, R., Bennison, D. (2009) 'How big is your footprint? Doing geographical research in a carbon neutral context.' In Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers Annual International Conference. University of Manchester, 26/8/2009 - 28/8/2009.
Abushena, R.A. (2006) 'Linkage Effects of MNE Operations in Asia.' In CIBER Seminar. Manchester, United Kingdom, 1/12/2006 - 1/12/2006.
Abushena, R.A. (2006) 'Multinational Enterprise Acquisitions in Emerging Countries: The Impact of Corporate Strategy and Structure on Linkages with Local Companies.' In MBS Doctoral Conference. Manchester, United Kingdom, 1/5/2006 - 1/5/2006.
Abushena, R.A. (2006) 'Multinational Enterprise Acquisitions in Emerging Countries: The Impact of Corporate Strategy and Structure on Linkages with Local Companies.' In 33rd AIB UK - International Business in the Age of Anxiety Doctoral Colloquium. Manchester, United Kingdom, 7/4/2006 - 8/4/2006.