Professor Caroline Moraes

Professor Caroline Moraes

Department of Marketing
Professor of Marketing and Consumer Research
Co-Director of the Centre for Responsible Business

Contact details

Address
University House
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Caroline Moraes is Professor of Marketing and Consumer Research at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham. She is also Director of the Centre for Responsible Business and Director of Research for the Department of Marketing. Caroline has a track record of research focusing on how issues of ethics, sustainability and responsibility manifest in everyday consumer practices, marketing, and markets. Her research has been published in several international journals, books, peer-reviewed conference proceedings and reports. Caroline’s work is interdisciplinary and seeks to benefit consumers and society. She has made a significant contribution to the marketing discipline and beyond through her original research, innovative teaching, and leadership. Prior to her academic career, Caroline worked in the advertising industry.

Qualifications

  • Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, University of Birmingham, 2012
  • PhD, University of Birmingham, 2007
  • MSc in Marketing (Distinction), University of Birmingham, 2002
  • BA in Social Communication, Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, 1999

Teaching

Caroline’s lecturing experience has been gained at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, both in the UK and internationally. She has developed and taught a range of marketing modules including principles of marketing, marketing communications, marketing ethics and qualitative research methods.

Postgraduate supervision

Current research topics of interest include:• Community consumption• Consumer boycotts and buycotts• Consumer resistance• Consumption in degrowth futures• Consumption and the circular economy• Craft consumption and marketing• Ethical, sustainable and responsible consumption• Food and financial insecurity• Prosumption• Responsible marketing• Social marketing• Creative approaches to qualitative consumer research• Ethnographic research

Research

Caroline Moraes is Professor of Marketing and Consumer Research at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham.

Caroline’s research focuses on how issues of ethics, sustainability and responsibility manifest in everyday consumer practices, marketing and markets. She is committed to theory-informed consumer research that seeks to benefit consumers and society. Her work uses qualitative methodologies and draws predominantly on theories of practice, power, liminality, as well as normative and descriptive ethics. Caroline’s research is interdisciplinary, cutting across the disciplines of marketing and consumer ethics, sociology of consumption and sustainability. She sees sustainability broadly, as encompassing both environmental and societal issues such as poverty and hunger.

Caroline has published her work in several international journals, edited collections, conference proceedings and reports. She is also the lead editor of Researching Poverty and Austerity: Theoretical Approaches, Methodologies and Policy Applications (Routledge, 2024).

Her academic research has been funded by British Academy, the Academy of Marketing, ESRC, and charitable organisations. Caroline has also led and worked on industry research projects with commercial organisations.

Caroline been on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Advertising Research for several years and continues to act as a reviewer for a range of international and national journals, book publishers, and research funders such as the ESRC, British Academy and British Academy of Management.

Her work has generated many opportunities for public engagement and implications for responsible marketing practice, sustainable consumption and social policy. She has engaged with various publics via social, broadcast and print media throughout her career (e.g., BBC News, ITV, BBC Radio 1 and 4, BBC Three Counties, New Scientist, Professional Jeweller, The Conversation). She has also engaged with salient stakeholders including NGOs, industry, trade associations, government and intergovernmental bodies (i.e., through a research contribution to the UN/OECD’s 9th ICGLR-OECD-UN GoE Multi-stakeholder Forum on Responsible Mineral Supply Chains in Paris).

Her publications have been cited in reports by the World Health Organization, New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries, UK Food Standards Agency, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, German Federal Government report on Due Diligence for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains, Publications Office of the European Union, European Parliamentary Research Service, European Parliament Committees and the UK Parliament Select Committee Publications.

Other activities

Caroline Moraes is Director of the Centre for Responsible Business and Director of Research for the Department of Marketing.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Moraes, C, McEachern, MG & O’Loughlin, D (eds) 2024, Researching Poverty and Austerity: Theoretical Approaches, Methodologies and Policy Applications. Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy, 1 edn, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003226222

Article

Gerosa, A & Moraes, C 2025, 'Playful Work as a Pathway to Meaningfulness', Sociology.

Spotswood, F, Moraes, C, Kindberg, T & Priest, C 2025, 'Understanding failed ethical consumption through a socio-cultural lens: An examination of online fashion shopping', Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-025-06187-3

Phillips, JM, Roumpi, D, Magrizos, S & Moraes, C 2024, 'Examining Retaliation Intentions Among Stuck Employees', Journal of Business and Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-024-09971-6

Moraes, C, Istanbulluoglu, D, de Frutos, NG & Magrizos, S 2024, 'The asymmetric temporal rhythms of anti-consumption', Sociology, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 341-362. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385241281886

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Moraes, C, McEachern, MG & O’Loughlin, D 2024, Poverty and Austerity: An Introduction. in Researching Poverty and Austerity: Theoretical Approaches, Methodologies and Policy Applications. 1 edn, Routledge, pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003226222-1

O’Loughlin, D, McEachern, MG & Moraes, C 2024, Poverty and Austerity: A Succinct Summary and Conclusions. in C Moraes, MG McEachern & D O'Loughlin (eds), Researching Poverty and Austerity: Theoretical Approaches, Methodologies and Policy Applications. 1 edn, Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy, Routledge, pp. 199-203. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003226222-15

Moraes, C, McEachern, MG, Scullion, L & Gibbons, A 2024, Reflecting on Paraliminality as a Theoretical Lens to Understand Experiences of Food Insecurity. in C Moraes, MG McEachern & D O'Loughlin (eds), Researching Poverty and Austerity: Theoretical Approaches, Methodologies and Policy Applications. 1 edn, Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy, Routledge, pp. 54-70. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003226222-5

Cassell, C, Moraes, C & Muscat-Sharp, E 2024, Striving to be and market a “responsible” business school. in M Saren, LM Hassan, M McGowan, NC Smith, E Surman & R Varman (eds), Responsible Marketing for Well-being and Society: A Research Companion. 1st edn, Routledge Research Companions in Business and Economics, Routledge, pp. 405-430. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003390671-28

Abstract

Osadchaya, E, Houghton, D & Moraes, C 2025, 'The Impact of Psychological Crisis on the Effectiveness of Persuasive Social Marketing Communication Messages', Association for Consumer Research Latin America Conference 2025, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 25/06/25 - 27/06/25 pp. 1-6.

Stolley, K, Kerrigan, F, Moraes, C & Pepe, P 2024, 'The ethics of persuasion in contemporary entertainment industries', 10th International Symposium on Marketing Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility, Galway, Ireland, 14/04/24 - 16/04/24.

Other

Moraes, C 2025, 'Inanimate Voices', Consumer Culture Theory Conference, London, United Kingdom, 24/06/25 - 27/06/25 pp. 1-4.

Moraes, C 2024, 'Acts of (Self-) Care: A Collection of I-Poems', Consumer Culture Theory Conference, San Diego, United States, 11/07/24 - 13/07/24 pp. 26-31.

Other contribution

Moraes, C 2024, Preventing and tackling food insecurity through policy solutions. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.

Poster

Stolley, K, Kerrigan, F & Moraes, C 2024, 'Branded Entertainment: A Return to the Hidden Persuaders?', Consumer Culture Theory Conference, San Diego, United States, 11/07/24 - 13/07/24.

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Sustainable consumption, marketing ethics, advertising ethics, market exclusion

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