Dr. Chihling Liu's research activity is predominantly in the area of consumer culture theory, exploring the interrelationships between consumption, self and identity, with a specific focus on improving consumer welfare and subjective wellbeing.
I am keen to supervise Ph.D. students interested in the relationship between self, identity, and consumption.
I am particularly interested in (but not limited to):
(1) Family consumption and identity negotiation, (2) Consumption, Gender, and Identity from a discursive and an embodied perspective, (3) Transformative consumer research - projects that focus on improving consumer welfare and making positive social impacts, (4) The role of the body in contemporary consumer culture, and (5) Chinese consumer behaviour.
In terms of methodology, I am interested in anything qualitative, in the broadest sense.
Dr. Chihling Liu obtained her PhD at Alliance Manchester Business School, U.K. She is currently the programme director for MSc Advanced Marketing Management. Her current teaching involves courses on Advanced Topics on Consumer Behavior, Marketing Research and Marketing Research and Consultancy Projects and at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She has been an editorial board member of the Journal of Business Research since 2016. She is also a member of the Association of Consumer Research (ACR), Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) and the University's Centre for Consumption Insights (CCI) and Centre for Aging Research (C4AR). Her research has been published in marketing research journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Marketing Theory, Journal of Marketing Management, Advances in Consumer Research, and Research in Consumer Behavior.
Dr Chih-Ling Liu is an editorial board member of the Journal of Business Research.
Media Attention
Liu, C. (2023), "‘I almost lost my will to live’: preference for sons is leaving young women in China exploited and abused" The Conversation, 1st September.
A short promotional video about the article can be found here: Son Preference.
Since publishing on 1 September, Chihling’s Conversation article has also been translated into Portuguese by The Conversation’s international bureau.
It has also been republished in the The Print, All China Review, Yahoo UK, Yahoo Canada, CVD, Phys.org, as well as other outlets:
Liu, C. and Kozinets, R. V. (2021), “How China’s ‘leftover women’ are using their financial power to fight the stigma of being single’”, The Conversation, 12th November.
This piece has been republished by both the UK and the Canadian arm of Yahoo, Channel News Asia, the Italian arm of Vanity Fair, South Africa news site, News24.com, El Mundo, one of the largest printed newspapers in Spain, the World News in Switzerland etc. It has also reached countries around the world including New Zealand, Africa, China, Singapore, Canada, Spain, Switzerland etc.
Dr Chih-Ling Liu was also interviewed by Business Insider within their recent article (Women in China Fight Stigma of Singledom by Flaunting Wealth Online (insider.com)) which has been republished in Business Insider in other countries, as well as on Yahoo and MSN! The main Business Insider attracts 8,763,909 visitors per month, Yahoo boasts 6,095,788 visitors and Business Insider India, 1,467,627.
