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Working with students and business

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Business
Visit Leeds China Forum
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The Business Confucius Institute (BCI) has commissioned a student at Leeds University Business School (LUBS) to carry out a consultancy project as part of her Master's course. The research she does in response to brief from the BCI will form an important part of her academic work and help local businesses understand their Chinese customers better.

Consumer Analytics and Marketing Strategy student Ha Thu Nguyen has become a consultant for the summer. Under the guidance of her academic supervisor she is applying her knowledge to respond to a brief from the BCI, which was submitted as part of the LUBS Summer Consultancy Project programme.

Previous BCI work to promote understanding of Chinese customers among the local visitor economy has included producing videos and working with Visit Leeds to launch the Visit Leeds China Forum.

The goal of this project is to investigate customer behaviour for Chinese people in the UK (focusing on Leeds) and gather data on their shopping habits at key times in the calendar. Ha is carrying out qualitative and quantitative research to find out what Chinese customers in Leeds buy and some of the factors that influence their decisions.

The results may inform BCI educational activity to help local businesses better understand Chinese customers.

How you can help

If you are Chinese and familiar with Leeds, whether you have passed through on a visit, spent time here as a student or lived here for years, Ha would like to hear from you.

Complete the online questionnaire here. This takes up to 10 minutes.

LUBS Consultancy Projects

These projects match students from Leeds University Business School with businesses who have submitted a brief for a student to investigate and report on.

Participating in this programme allows the BCI to benefit from the expertise of a current postgraduate student and provide useful insight for the local business community. Through doing this research Ha will improve her intercultural competence and understanding of Chinese culture while responding to a real-life business brief.

Benefits for participating companies include:

  • Tailor-made consultancy projects ​
  • Access to marketing insight and talented and enthusiastic postgraduate students​
  • Increased awareness of the company across the University​
  • Ability to address business research needs without stretching internal resources​

Students are supervised by experienced faculty members from the Marketing Division at Leeds University Business School.

Find out more about Summer Consultancy Projects on the Business School website

The image on this page is taken from our video Improving the customer experience for Chinese visitors. The image shows two Chinese students in the Body Shop flagship store on Leeds Briggate receiving a skincare consultation from a Body Shop employee.

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