Kunal Basu

Kunal Basu is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Marketing at Saïd Business School and a  Research Fellow of Templeton College. His recent research focuses on the interface between strategic marketing and corporate social responsibility, drawing on theoretical perspectives from philosophy, and social and organisational theory. In particular, Kunal has developed a new approach towards understanding customer loyalty which has benefitted both academic researchers and practitioners. He has also developed a conceptual framework to understand the cognitive, linguistic and behavioural dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This has impacted on CSR research and corporate practice. Basu is drawing on these frameworks as the principle investigator of a multi-country study within the retail industry in the UK, India and China. Funded for three years by the School’s Centre for Corporate Reputation, it addresses the issue of CSR’s impact on corporate reputation.

Kunal has published extensively in areas of branding strategy, brand loyalty, international marketing, consumer behaviour and advertising. His articles have appeared in leading journals such as the J_ournal of Marketing Research_, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Journal of Brand Management, Sloan Management Review and California Management Review, in addition to numerous conference proceedings and edited books.

Kunal’s teaching is characterised by research-based innovation, with special focus on different learning paradigms and communication methods. He offered the first-ever course at the School on CSR and ethical marketing as an MBA elective, helping to establish the School’s position as a knowledge centre for socially responsive business education. He led the redesign of the School’s flagship open enrolment executive course, the Oxford Advanced Management and Leadership Programme (OAMLP), designing the architecture in order to develop an understanding of critical business themes rather than functions, the integration of concepts, contexts and competencies, and to encompass cutting edge thinking from a variety of disciplines outside management. These innovations have helped to position the Oxford OAMLP worldwide as one of the most innovative offering of its kind.

From 1993–2003, Kunal was a member of the marketing faculty at McGill University, Canada, most recently as a tenured Associate Professor. During his time at McGill, Kunal was Director of the Powercorp Centre for International Management Studies (from 1993–95) and Director of the International Masters in Practising Management (McGill University, Lancaster University, INSEAD, Hitotsubashi University, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore) (1997–99). Previously he had been Visiting Professor and Chair, Marketing area, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Kunal has a PhD from the University of Florida (Major: Business Administration (Marketing)); an MSc from the Florida Institute of Technology (Major: Mechanical Engineering; Dean’s Honour list) and a Bachelor of Engineering from Jadavpur University (India) (Major: Mechanical Engineering; First Class Honours and Best All-Round Graduate).

Kunal is the author of five novels: The Opium Clerk (2001), The Miniaturist (2003) and Racists (2006) and The Yellow Emperor’s Cure (2010) KalKatta (2015). He has also written a collection of short stories, one of which – The Japanese Wife – has been turned into a film.

Areas of expertise:

• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Brand loyalty
• Global branding