Lauren Thomas

Business Research Leadership
Following almost a decade in academia, Lauren leads the Business Research and Innovation Group at the University of South Wales, where she oversees impactful, interdisciplinary research across a variety of business disciplines. The group’s core themes include:

Workplace Resilience and Wellbeing
Sustainable Production and Consumption
Business Capabilities

As the REF Lead for Business and Management for REF2029, Lauren plays a key role in shaping the university’s research strategy, helping academics at all career stages to plan, develop, and deliver successful projects.

Lauren has a commitment to develop the careers of staff at all stages of their research career, and organises annual staff development days that cover diverse themes including:

The funding landscape
Ethics in research
Media training
Understanding research culture

Research interests
Research Interests

Lauren’s research focuses on sustainability in organisational decision making, production, and consumption. Informed by the triple bottom line model, which balances people, profit, and planet, Lauren's work aims to influence both individual decisions and broader industry practices.

Lauren is currently engaged in several funded and unfunded projects in line with her varied interests. Her current key projects are noted below, but for a full list of publications, click here.

Sustainable Fashion and the Circular Economy
In her work on second-hand wedding dresses, aligned with SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, Lauren explores consumer motivations and barriers to buying pre-loved.

She investigates what prevents brides from choosing pre-loved dresses and what encourages these garments to re-enter circulation after use. Find out more in this video.

From a business perspective, Lauren examines alternative models such as peer-to-peer commerce and sustainable buy-back schemes, contributing to more sustainable practices in the wedding industry.

This research, supported by HEFCW (now MEDR) funding for the development of a Sustainable Wedding Dress Hub, aligns with the circular economy by promoting extended product lifecycles and more environmentally responsible consumer choices.

Gender Equality and Leadership Barriers
In her gender research, aligned with SDG 5: Gender Equality, Lauren focuses on the barriers women face in advancing into and through leadership roles in a variety of industries.

Her team have partnered with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to explore organisational and cultural challenges, including biases, policy gaps, and workplace practices that reinforce inequality.

The work offers insights into strategies to overcome these barriers and by highlighting these issues, aims to influence both organisational practices and policy, fostering a more equitable environment for women in leadership.

Previous Research
Lauren’s earlier research has explored areas such as social commerce and value co-creation for online fashion brands, as well as the psychological impact of second-hand workplace clothing on professionals. Her work on digital consumer behaviour, user-generated content, and customer equity has also contributed to a deeper understanding of how digital platforms influence brand relationships and purchasing decisions.

Academic Service
Lauren has led work on proposals to better integrate research into development and performance reviews for academics across the University, as well as proposals to support mid-career researchers.

Additionally, Lauren led the development and analysis of a survey into research culture at USW, establishing a baseline benchmark for the institution’s work relating to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the HR Excellence in Research Award.

Research Communication and Media
As one of the Science and Technology Foundation’s Future Leaders for 2024, Lauren is passionate about research communication and frequently shares her expert insights on social media trends with the media.

She has been featured in print and television, including:

BBC X-ray
BCC News
Wales Online
Her leadership and contributions to research extend beyond academia, reflecting her commitment to supporting emerging scholars and sharing knowledge widely.

Supervision
Lauren supervises postgraduate students in a range of business disciplines. Contact her for a consultation if you are interested in working together.

Experience
TEACHING EXPERTISE

Learning and Teaching Leadership
Lauren is a highly experienced Senior Lecturer in Marketing and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), where she is also accredited as a mentor and assessor up to the Senior level.

She spent seven years (2016-2023) as Course Leader for the BSc (Hons) Marketing Management, the UK's only triple-accredited undergraduate marketing degree.

During this time, Lauren personally managed partnerships with the following professional bodies, ensuring the course consistently met their accreditation standards:

Chartered Institute of Marketing
Institute of Data and Marketing
Public Relations and Communications Association

Quality Assurance
Under Lauren’s tenure as Course Leader, the BSc (Hons) Marketing Management achieved the following:

Consistently performed above the sector average (79%) for overall student satisfaction (National Student Survey)
Achieved top in Wales for student satisfaction several times (National Student Survey)
Ranked top in Wales for Marketing and PR (Guardian Good University Guide)
Ranked 12th in the UK for Marketing and PR (Guardian Good University Guide)
Lauren has also served as an External Examiner for Winchester University (2020). Her commitment to maintaining high standards and delivering exceptional student outcomes, combined with external quality assurance roles, has ensured the ongoing success and recognition of the BSc (Hons) Marketing Management programme.

Teaching Approach and Impact
Lauren’s teaching approach is challenge-based, combining academic rigour with practical insights to equip students with the skills needed for success in both academia and industry.

She has designed and delivered a wide range of modules across topics like marketing fundamentals, communications, strategy, and research. Additionally, she developed professional practice modules that helped many students secure graduate-level marketing roles, earning a commendation from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) for high pass rates on the related module.

Her dedication to student success has been recognised through numerous nominations for USW’s Student Choice Awards, including:

Best Lecturer
Best Course Leader
Best Supervisor
Lauren has also won awards for her innovative pedagogical work in USW's Hydra Suite, including:

Team Excellence in Learning and Teaching Award (2018)
Supporting Learning and Teaching Award (2019)

INDUSTRY EXPERTISE

Industry Expertise
Outside of academia, Lauren has gained valuable experience working across diverse industries, including:

Medical devices
Publishing
Charity
Hospitality

Key Skills and Achievements

Through these roles, she developed key skills such as flexibility, project management, and creative innovation - skills she now incorporates into her teaching.

One of her standout achievements was filling out Amazon’s crime fiction top 10 section with an entire series of books from the same author, all on a zero budget marketing campaign. She uses these real-world examples to help students understand the pressures and challenges they will encounter in their careers.

Bringing Industry Insights to the Classroom

Her work in diverse sectors has allowed her to stay current with marketing trends, differentiating between foundational principles and short-term trends that can be capitalised on.

She is a respected marketer in the digital and emerging technology area, evidenced by invites to join judging panels such as:

The Australia and New Zealand Social Media Marketing Awards (2020, 2021, 2022)
The Welsh Business Awards (2019)
By bringing industry insights based on award-winning case studies into the classroom, Lauren ensures her students gain practical, adaptable skills that prepare them for success across a range of industries.

Teaching interests
TEACHING APPROACH

Teaching Philosophy
Lauren focuses on challenge-based teaching, combining academic rigour with practical insights to equip students with the skills for success in both academia and industry. Prioritising student experience, she co-creates skilled marketing graduates who drive profitable, positive change in business from the inside out.

Her teaching spans marketing fundamentals, communications, strategy, and research, with a particular emphasis on real-world applications and professional development. She brings interdisciplinary knowledge into the classroom, ensuring marketing is never seen is a standalone discipline.

Assessment Approach
Lauren facilitates students in working their way through Bloom's taxonomy, guiding them from simply remembering information to evaluating, applying, and ultimately creating new and useful insights for their industries or chosen career paths.

She incorporates client-based work into her assessments wherever possible, presenting students with real-world challenges that stretch their understanding and require them to apply theory to practical problems. Her preferred assessment types are:

Portfolios
Reports
Presentations
Simulations
Reflections
All of her assessments are built to respect contemporary knowledge, abilities, and skills expected of graduates. She provides both feedback and feedforward in all assessments, tailoring her guidance to each student's individual development needs.

Graduate Outcomes
Lauren’s graduates have gone on to work both in SMEs and a range of global companies across a variety of sectors. These outcomes reflect the strength of her teaching and assessment methods, helping to ensure students are prepared to meet the demands of leading organisations such as:

Commonwealth Games
Mattel
Hewlett Packard
Twinings
BMW
L'Oreal
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