 I'm Nicola Proxton and I'm from Ireland and I've just recently completed my PhD at the Open University Business School and my thesis was based in strategic management. So my research is focused in the area of non-market strategy and it looks at how firms use their corporate social responsibility and corporate political activity as a means to improve their overall performance. So more specifically my research looks at how firms can act irresponsibly and whether or not these actions can then impact on their financial performance. My research found that firms may feel a negative impact in the short term, but this tends to fade then over time. And interestingly my research highlights that firms who have a history of doing socially irresponsible things and they tend to spend more than on CSR and lovely governments and this essentially is to show that if they are doing good then they are avoiding bad or perhaps they give more to spill more. So I used to work as an event manager at a convention centre in the United States and they had an extensive CSR programme and a commitment to sustainability. So I witnessed here first hand how organisations can use their CSR to behave more strategically and that improves their performance and overall efficiency. And then my interest grew further then when I did my master's in international management at the University of Bath. So not long after I finished my master's I looked at doing a PhD and I came across the one advertised in the OU and the project that I applied for had a lot of similarities to my master's thesis and it seemed like a really good fit. So after my first interview then I met my supervisors and we just got developed a really good rapport and so knew then that this is what I wanted to do. Well I didn't really know much about the OU beyond it being committed to distance learning. So I asked around and I got some advice and some information from friends of mine that are working in academia and they had really good things to say about the OU that it had an excellent research programme. So I decided to pursue my PhD. I would say think really carefully about it. It's a really big decision to make. It's a huge commitment and it will take up a lot of your time. But I really enjoyed my PhD programme. So say if you're interested enough and you love your research topic and you're passionate enough about it then go for it. I know for me coming from a previous career that it's a big change in lifestyle. You're going from working in a job that you really enjoy with a good salary and then you're going to moving on then to living on a research stipend and that can be a big change. But it is worth it. So my plan is I want to stay in academia. I'm looking right now to publish papers without my supervisors that are being developed from my doctoral thesis and I'm looking to pursue roles in full-term roles within academia.