The project will focus on deepening theoretical understanding of how organisational decision-making and customers are represented in complex managerial processes, and aims to create a ‘shared language’ and set of principles that can guide both scholars and business leaders.

Dr Alan Gilchrist and Professor Stefanos Mouzas at LUMS will oversee the project, which is funded until 2028, with Natalie Moyce (pictured) selected to lead the research.

Gilchrist is head of department for marketing at LUMS, and focuses on employs ethnographic approaches and action research to understand dynamic organisational strategising and change management.

Mouzas is an associate editor for the Journal of Business Research and is currently engaged in research which aims to understand the drivers of business transformation, managerial cognition and performance.

Moyce holds a Master’s in marketing leadership and in entrepreneurial studies and has led a graduate team delivering web solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises and lectured in hypermedia ad multimedia.

In addition, Moyce has co-authored the book Women starting businesses and has worked as a chartered marketer, specialising in digital transformation, audience segmentation and user experience.

Paul Hudson, chief executive at FlexMR, said: “All too often, businesses make decisions without consideration or real understanding of customers. This doctoral project is an important step toward addressing that issue and building the theoretical rigour that will underpin the future of customer salience.

“We believe that by interrogating the relationship between customer insight, organisational culture and commercial value, we can give research and marketing the confidence they need to elevate customer voices to the strategic status they deserve.”