- Room 507, Cookworthy Building, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
- +44 1752 585695
- charles.thornton@plymouth.ac.uk

Profiles
Dr Charles Thornton
Lecturer in Service Operations Management and Business Strategy (Education)
Plymouth Business School (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business)
Biography
Biography
Qualifications
BA Durham University -1984
MBA Kingston University - 1997
PhD Lougborough - 2013.
Thesis Title "An Examination of the Impact of Resources and the External Environment Amongst Providers of U.K Banking Services".
ACIB - 1988
After a career in banking I started lecturing at City of London Polytechnic which became London Guildhall University and following a merger London Metropolitan University.
I joined the University of Plymouth in June 2007
Professional membership
Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers
Member of the British Academy of Management
British Academy of Management Treasurer 2023 -
Roles on external bodies
Plymouth Social Enterprise Network Board Member 2020-
Teaching
Teaching
Teaching interests
Sevice Operations Management
Operations Management
Strategy
Research
Research
Research interests
The resource based view of the firm applied to product diversification
The role of operations and service management in RBV
Busines process re-engineering
Research degrees awarded to supervised students
The Holistic Exploration of the Multifaceted Relationship Between Healthcare Professionals’ Job Satisfaction and Quality of Care - Moya Lerigo-Sampson 2019
Application of Business Process Management for Corporate Sustainability - Felicitas Johanna Breitenbach 2020
PhD Internal Examiner
Financial Literacy and Stock Market Participation in Sweden -1 Dmitri Katkov 2021
Publications
Publications
Key publications
Thornton.CD (2018), "Threshold Concepts – TheirIdentification and Use in Operations", Logistics Research Network,University of Plymouth 5th-7th September 2018.
Thornton, CD and McMahon, P, (2017). “Threshold Concepts - Their Identification and Use In Interdisciplinary Practice", VC’s Teaching and Learning Conference, Plymouth University, June 30th 2017.
Thornton, C D and Lim, W M, (2014), "Understanding Resources in the Service Industry Using Service Quality Models", British Academy of Management Conference, Belfast
Thornton, C D; and Howcroft, JB (2014) "The Use of Cognitive Maps to Identify Resources Bundles in Product Diversification", British Academy of Management Conference, Belfast
Thornton, CD, Hudson Smith, M and Howcroft, JB (2012), "An Operations Management Framework for Resource Identification", British Academy of Management Conference, Cardiff.
Decker, SA and Thornton, CD (2002), "Diversification and Core Competencies in Financial Services: A Case Study of UK Commercial and Investment Banking’", British Academy of Management Conference, London.
Thornton, CD (1997) “Business Process Re-engineering in UK Retail Banking: Research Proposals”, Paper presented at the Financial Services Marketing Forum Conference, Edinburgh.
Plymouth University Service and Enterprise Research Centre Working Paper
Thornton, CD (2014), The Impact Of External Factors on Industry Structure With Particular Reference to Product Diversification - A Case Study of UK Banking, Volume 1, No 1.