Cornelia Butler - Postgraduate research in Business 

 

Faculty of Business, Law and Sport / Winchester Business School 

Biography

“I did my Bachelor Honours and Masters degrees at the University of Winchester and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, so my progression to PhD came quite naturally,” explains Cornelia Butler from Chichester who has just begun her postgraduate research in Business.

“My Masters dissertation looked at whether or not Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can mitigate processes that drive political risk and my PhD will be more specific, assessing the impact CSR could have in Kenya, focusing on the current ‘youth bulge’ there.

“I was brought up in Kenya and my family still live there and my son and daughter were born in Kenya and Tanzania. I was in Kenya when the post-election violence broke out, which took everyone by surprise.

“My research will entail field studies in Kenya primarily to get the views of the youth, but also to see how they are viewed and what CSR policies are in place. From this a model may be constructed, which may be helpful with other sub-Saharan countries. Currently very little qualitative data exists and this is vital to developing CSR models, which could change the youth, now
viewed as a problem, to becoming an asset, a valuable resource for country and society.

“The staff at Winchester Business School are very accessible and approachable – the guidance and support I’m receiving from my supervisors is amazing. I lost my son very suddenly a couple of years ago and it would have been easy to stay stuck in the grief of my loss and think the point of my life was over. My PhD is opening new doors and enabling me to engage wholeheartedly with life.”