King's College London

Dr Byungdoo Kim, currently a Research Associate at the business school’s Centre for Sustainable Business, will address a key paradox in sustainable consumption: how well-meaning ‘green’ marketing can unintentionally fuel overconsumption.

Dr Kim’s project, When Green Marketing Backfires: Lifecycle Thinking for Scope Insensitivity, draws on marketing, psychology, sociology and environmental science to investigate how misperceptions about sustainable products can undermine true ecological benefits. Using literature reviews, experiments, focus groups and targeted interventions, his project aims to identify and reduce forms of overconsumption (particularly of products perceived as ‘sustainable’) by uncovering how consumers misjudge environmental impact. Its findings will challenge conventional models of ‘green consumption’ and promote more nuanced, interdisciplinary understanding. Dr Kim will be mentored by Dr Matteo Montecchi.

Dr Hyojin Seo will join King’s in February 2026 to examine the gendered impact of digitalisation on the world of work. Based at King’s Business School’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership (GIWL) and mentored by Professor Heejung Chung, her study focuses on workers’ perceptions of long-term labour market precarity in terms of job and skill sustainability.

Dr Seo’s mixed-methods research will explore how digitalisation is creating a new form of precarity, particularly for women – who remain overrepresented in precarious work and are affected by persistent gender norms and gender occupational segregation. Focusing on case studies from the UK and South Korea, her project aims to develop a novel way of measuring this new form of precarity based on workers’ lived experiences. It will also shed light on broader social issues at play, such as workers’ health and well-being, declining fertility rates and growing political polarisation.

The Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship scheme supports outstanding postdoctoral researchers who do not yet hold a permanent academic post. It is highly competitive and recognised as a springboard for academic careers. Both fellowships will run for three years.

Find out more about the scheme on the Leverhulme Trust website.