Professor Steve Wood

Professor Steve Wood is Dean of University of Exeter Business School and a Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor in the Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy. He was previously Dean of Surrey Business School (SBS), University of Surrey for five years where he led significant improvement in teaching, research, and staff engagement metrics as well as driving performance in international rankings. Steve has wide-ranging experience of academic leadership, including international business school accreditation, Research Excellence Framework (REF) submission and developing business school strategy. Other leadership experience at University of Surrey included SBS Director of Research, School REF lead, as well as Head of the Department of Marketing. Earlier in his academic career, Steve was Reader in Strategy, University of Southampton, and, prior to 2005, he spent three years at Tesco plc in its marketing department advising on UK and international store development strategy. Steve also has experience as a Retail Analyst for Verdict Research, a London-based retail consultancy.

Steve's research particularly focuses on retailing, including internationalization, online retailing (and product returns), store location planning, competition policy, supply networks and pricing. He has published in leading journals including Journal of Economic Geography, Environment and Planning A, Regional Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Marketing Management and European Journal of Marketing amongst others. He is European and Africa Regional Editor for the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management (IF: 5.5), a member of the editorial board of Journal of Business Research (IF: 10.5) and has been cited by the press in publications such as The Economist, China Daily and Retail Week. He has been a member of the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Peer Review College since 2015. In 2019, Steve was Visiting Professor at Global Production Networks Centre at the National University of Singapore. Steve has received research funding from the John Lewis Partnership, SONY, Advanced Institute of Management (AIM), British Academy of Management (BAM), NEMODE/EPSRC and the Nuffield Foundation. An experienced examiner, he was most recently external examiner for undergraduate management programmes at University of Bristol (2017-2022), having fulfilled the same role at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford (2011-2014) amongst others.

Since 2018, Steve has been a Trustee of Bohunt Education Trust, which comprises nine secondary schools and over 11,000 students, where he Chairs the overall Trust’s Education Committee. Earlier, between 2012-15, he sat on the governing body of Ash Manor School where he was Chair of its Curriculum Committee. He is a leader at his local village Cub Scout pack in Hampshire and Assistant Manager of the mighty Under 16s Liphook Pumas football team.