Overview

Dr Lindsay Stringfellow is a Senior Lecturer in the Management department. Having previously studied politics at the University of Manchester, she joined Exeter in 2008 after undertaking her PhD at Strathclyde University, looking at the interplay between social capital and the development of small professional firms.

Research-wise, her principal interest has been examining the situation of low power, vulnerable or oppressed individuals/groups, and the social mechanisms and structures that influence their positions and possibilities.  She has often drawn upon Pierre Bourdieu’s rich theoretical framework in order to explore these issues, and more recently has used intersectionality as a lens. Her research has included conceptual and methodological work, as well as empirical work using a range of interpretive research approaches. Her research has featured in journals such as Human Relations, Business History, Journal of Business Research, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Tourism Management and the Journal of Marketing Management.  

Nationality: British

Administrative Responsibilities

• Programme Director, MSc Marketing

Qualifications

BSocSci, PGDip, MSc, PhD (Strathclyde), SFHE.
 

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Research

Research interests

• Small practitioners and organizations
• Bourdieusian theory
• Power, legitimacy and status
• The formation of taste in cultural fields
• Professional service firms
• Sociology of the professions

Dr Stringfellow’s research interests are broadly situated within organisation studies, and particularly with the evolving landscape of, and socioological approaches to, our understanding of the traditional professions. Her research has focused in particular on small accounting firms, and the relational routes through which professionals in such organisations gain resources and seek to obtain status and legitimacy within the professional field. This aligns with an interest in the broader dynamics of power in the accounting field, and the social mechanisms through which dominant firms obtain and maintain their position. She has published several papers related to this research area, in outlets such as Critical Perspectives on Accounting (2015), the Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (2015) and the Journal of Professions and Organization (2014).

Often drawing on Bourdieu’s conceptual insights, Dr Stringfellow is also interested in the tension between popularisation, legitimation and the formation of taste in cultural fields, which has led to publications in Tourism Management (2013) and the Journal of Marketing Management (2015). Her research approach often uses retrospective techniques such as life story/life history interviews to elicit narratives of process, transition and change. She is currently developing work on narrative identity in transition economics with Mairi Maclean and Charles Harvey (Newcastle), commercial and digital ethnography with Mairi Maclean and Alex Thompson (Exeter) as well a developing further empirical research on small and medium sized accounting firms.

PhD Supervision

• Currently supervising Amal Nazzal who is exploring the social capital of social movements, and particularly the role of social media in activism. 
• Currently co-supervising Didem Gundogdu on an interdisciplinary research project examining the relevance of social and human capital to board characteristics and stock market valuation.

Dr Stringfellow would be interested in supervising doctoral research taking a historical, critical or interpretive perspective of the professions, legitimating dynamics in organisational fields and studies using social and sociological theory to explore business dynamics. 

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Publications

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Teaching

Dr Stringfellow teaches BEMM148 Marketing Strategy, a postgraduate module which covers the processes through which organisations analyse and adapt to meet the challenges of dynamic environments and changing consumer preferences. This module helps students to uncover marketing processes and operations and how they are applied in the real world. Students form consultancy teams to produce a comprehensive new marketing strategy for an organisation based on up-to-date market research, analysis and the use of appropriate theory and frameworks from the course.

At Masters level, Dr Stringfellow also organises a seminar series, where she invites leading researchers and practitioners to share their insights and ongoing projects with the cohort and faculty. On BEMM250, she also prepares the MSc students for designing, conducting and presenting their dissertation projects.

Modules

2024/25

• BEMM103 - Advanced Marketing Seminars
• BEMM148 - Marketing Strategy
• BEMM250 - Dissertation (Marketing)

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