Education Programmes
Developing Business Ideas for Commercial Success created and developed by Dr Marrisa Joseph.
Do you have a great business idea but you’re not sure how to transform it into a thriving product or service? This two-week online course from the University of Reading will help you take your vision to the next level.
Media Appearances
Read article in The Conversation on WHSmith, and the sale of their high street stores.
A historical reflection on WH Smith’s transformation and enduring legacy in the publishing and retail industries.
The company’s strategic shift toward travel retail certainly mirrors its origins, reinforcing the long-standing connection between literacy, mobility, and consumer habits.
Selected Academic Papers
The literary agent is a recent addition to the publishing industry, yet in a relatively short space of time has become instrumental in the production of literature. This article examines the origins and development of the A.P. Watt literary agency to explore how it became a dominant organisation in the late nineteenth century. It analyses how its founder Alexander Pollock Watt, despite being met with resistance, gained legitimacy to be accepted by authors and publishers. Through an analysis of historical sources this article argues that by using contract law, Watt was able to disrupt existing business practices.
Closing ranks: The Publishers Association in Victoria Britain and its powerful place in institutional formation (Open Access)
Professional associations have been explored as institutional agents and can be powerful mechanisms for instigating practices into an industry. Despite this identification there is a lack of research which delves deeper and explores the contexts that allow strategies which contribute to institutional formation; which in turn can create professional associations in the process. Through an analysis of archival letters and newspaper articles surrounding the formation of the net book agreement in the Victorian British publishing industry, this paper illustrates how individuals formed the Publishers Association to further their own causes and protect their business interests. This paper argues that the construction of the professional association was used as the vehicle for individuals with the most power in the Victorian publishing industry to instigate change.
Members only: the Victorian gentlemen’s club as a space for doing business 1843 – 1900
This paper examines how the gentlemen’s club was a space for facilitating business activities in the literary publishing industry of Victorian Britain. These clubs served to blur the boundaries between the social and professional sphere, to the point that many used the club as hub for networking and for providing opportunities. The gentlemen’s clubs of London have been examined within gender studies and in studies on social culture, where emphasis has been placed on its role in elite and middle-class society and its influence on gender and class inequality. However, little attention has been dedicated in academic business research to the club’s influence on shaping the activities of businesses in the publishing industry. By exploring how individuals engaged with so-called ‘club life,’ it is possible to analyze the dynamics of how and why gentlemen’s clubs were important to literary businesses. Through an exploration of narrative and documentary archival sources, this paper explores the perspective and choices of individuals working in the publishing industry, and the extent to which their choices in business were governed by the cultural influences of the gentlemen’s club.
Dr Marrisa Joseph 