QUT offers a diverse range of student topics for Honours, Masters and PhD study. Search to find a topic that interests you or propose your own research topic to a prospective QUT supervisor. You may also ask a prospective supervisor to help you identify or refine a research topic.

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Found 178 matching student topics

Displaying 37–48 of 178 results

Examining approaches to mitigating customer aggression and abuse

The pace of change associated with modern businesses (Grewal et al., 2017; Grewal et al., 2020), and the introduction of new technologies has created heightened level of stress (technostress) and aggression (Chen et al., 2019). Adding to these stressors, COVID-19, which has forced businesses to adapt their processes and customer service interface (Ahmed et al., 2021; Jiang and Stylos, 2021; Roggeveen and Sethuraman, 2020). Research now finding that continued lockdowns, social distancing, and political rancour, all adding increased levels of …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy
Faculty
Faculty of Business and Law
School
School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Understanding the drivers of customer aggression

Recent work has identified outcomes of sustained customer aggression, however an opportunity lies in identifying the drivers of the specific dimensions of customer aggression. (See Mortimer, G., Wang, S., & Andrade, M. L. O. (2023). Measuring customer aggression: Scale development and validation. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 73, 103348.)Future research may also assess the extent to which each customer aggression type individually affects the different attitudinal and behavioural outcomes tested herein. Both expressive aggression forms may be stronger drivers …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy
Faculty
Faculty of Business and Law
School
School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Examining the impact of biophilic design elements within shopping centres (malls)

The shopping centre (mall) is the central hub of modern retailing and holds a significant role in developing a first overall impression. As a result, shopping centres (malls) have focussed on creating positive customer experiences in shared public spaces. Bringing natural elements such as green plants, flowerbeds, water features, aquariums, animals, birds, and butterfly gardens into the hotel service setting, is an innovative approach known as biophilic design.The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of biophilic elements …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy
Faculty
Faculty of Business and Law
School
School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Can 'humanisation' reduce customer aggression?

As a direct response to increasing customer aggression, employee associations (unions) are implementing measures to keep frontline team members safe. One such tactic was an ‘under-name-badge’ message (“I’m someone’s daughter”, “I’m someone’s dad”). Concerningly, there is a dearth of research into the effect of such messaging.Does alerting an aggressive customer to the fact the frontline team member is ‘someone’s daughter/son’ mitigate aggression? Alternatively, does alerting an aggressive customer to the fact the frontline team member is ‘a local/attends a local …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy
Faculty
Faculty of Business and Law
School
School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Examining customer responses to body worn cameras

As a direct response to increasing customer aggression, retailers are implementing measures to keep frontline team members safe – assets such as body worn cameras (BWC) and duress watches. Concerningly, there is a dearth of research into these technologies in a retail setting, with much of the earlier research being undertaken in corrective services, policing and train guards.Current research identifies, in some cases, the presence of such technologies can lead to a ‘back-firing’ effect (the aggressive individual becomes more aggressive), …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy
Faculty
Faculty of Business and Law
School
School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Strain-level characterisation and visualisation of microbial communities associated with inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory disorder driven by complex interactions between environmental, microbial and immune-mediated factors. An unfavourable shift in gut microbiome composition, known as dysbiosis, is now considered a key feature of IBD, however it is unclear how specific microorganisms and their interactions with host cells contribute to disease onset and progression. Previous IBD studies have been largely limited to older sequencing methods with low resolution. Furthermore, these studies have predominantly focused on bacterial populations, …

Study level
PhD
Faculty
Faculty of Health
School
School of Biomedical Sciences
Research centre(s)

Centre for Microbiome Research

The failure of the market for fashion

The market for fashion, clothing and textiles has failed, causing an externality characterised by overconsumption, oversupply and resulting largely in textile waste. Legislative change at a geopolitical level seeks to address these issues, however, there are numerous actors involved with diverse interests.

Study level
PhD
Faculty
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
School
School of Design
Research centre(s)

Design Lab

Explainable AI-enabled predictive analytics

Modern predictive analytics underpinned by AI-enabled learning (such as machine learning, deep learning) techniques has become a key enabler to the automation of data-driven decision making. In the context of process monitoring and forecast, predictive analytics has been applied to making predictions about the future state of a running process instance - for example, which task will be carried out next, when and who will perform the task, when will an ongoing process instance complete, what will be the outcome …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Science
School
School of Information Systems
Research centre(s)
Centre for Data Science

Investigating factors impacting urban heat vulnerability in subtropical cities

In recent years, with the rise in climate change impact, urban heat has become a major issue for many cities to tackle consequently. Extreme heat events are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change, which has directly caused a substantial increase in heat-related morbidity and mortality. This indispensably puts an extra burden on medical systems and national finance. Meanwhile, the urban heat island effect has been exaggerating the consequences caused by the increased extreme heat in metropolitan areas. …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
School
School of Architecture and Built Environment

Using time-controlled grazing to sequester carbon in Queensland rangelands

Time-controlled grazing (TCG), or cell grazing is a management strategy in which cattle are stocked and rotated across small paddocks or “cells” according to fodder availability. Grazing takes place in short durations at high stocking densities, in an effort to mimic the grazing patterns of wild ungulate herds.This management strategy has gained traction in recent years due to claims that it improves both pasture productivity and diversity, whilst also increasing long-term carbon pools. Limited data is available on the impact …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Science
School
School of Biology and Environmental Science
Research centre(s)
Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy

Capture and reuse of phosphate nutrients

Nutrients such as ammonium and phosphate species are essential in agriculture. However, release of excessive amounts of nutrients to waterways may result in eutrophication which can lead to toxic algae blooms, killing of fish and destruction of the environment.Compounding this issue is the fact that phosphate rock sources are gradually being exhausted. Hence, finding a means to capture and reuse phosphate species from sources such as wastewater treatment plants is potentially attractive.Consequently, this project involves the development of new phosphate …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
School
School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering

Supporting second hand clothing purchases

Clothing production and consumption systems are recognised as needing urgent change to reduce the world’s waste and carbon emissions. Each year, Australians purchase some 15kg of new clothing per person, with a similar amount discarded each year, and clothing and textiles have recently been identified by the Australian government as a waste priority area.One of the oft-repeated strategies for sustainable consumption is to purchase second-hand, with many services and systems rapidly emerging to support and commercialise this consumption practice. However, …

Study level
PhD
Faculty
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
School
School of Design

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