I am a Professor at Ulster University Business School, Ulster University. Previous to this I was Professor of Management and Director of Research for three years at Queen's Management School, Queen's University Belfast. As Director of Research at a Russell Group University I had strategic remit and responsibility for supporting research of around eighty academic staff. My research is recognised of being at a world-leading and internationally excellent standard.
Research:
Research is primarily interested at a broad level in understanding digital technology innovation implications for business and society. I have specialisms in digital marketing strategy, brand management and SME marketing. With a developing interest in the integration of social marketing with big data to promote inclusive socio-economic development in smart cities.
Over 60 academic papers have been published in these areas. My research is published in world class outlets, such as the Harvard Business Review and the Financial Times top 50 Journal, Research Policy. I won best paper awards at the British Academy of Management and Irish Academy of Management conferences. A measure of my international standing, is a recent invitation by the world-leadning MIT Press to review a book by a senior Faculty member on big data and creating value.
My research involves close engagement with businesses and policy makers. For example, for over ten years I have worked with Dunnhumby UK in collaboration with the University of East Anglia, providing Tesco Clubcard shopper insight free of charge to SMEs from the food industry. Studying how it impacts their marketing capability development and NPD. Also, over a two year period I worked closely with Danske Bank UK senior management to optimally integrate big data analytics within precise targeting of consumer groups. In September 2020, I gave a keynote talk to the Senior Management Team of Allstate, NI (largest IT firm in N. Ireland) on Strategy, Technology and People.
Research Funding:
My research has attracted over £1 million pounds of external funding. I was Principle Investigator on a three year research project - £296,336 funding from UK Government agencies - that provided Tesco Clubcard and other sources of consumer insight to SMEs from the food industry, researching how it influenced their marketing capabilities, learning and NPD. This high impact project involved extensive engagement at a Director level with Tesco, Invest NI and Dunnhumby UK.
I have supervised eight PhD students to completion and am currently supervising two PhD students. I am also a proactive participant on PhD vivas as an External and Internal examiner as well as Chair.
Esteem:
I was a Visiting Professor with the University of Paraná in Brazil. I am a Peer Review College member of the Economic and Social Research Council (UK's leading research agency). I Co-Chaired the 2017 Irish Academy of Management Conference and have leadership roles organizing the leading tech institution IEEE global conferences on key topics such as AI and Big Data for business and society. I was a Council member of the Irish Academy of Management and Board member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. I was External Examiner for Birmingham Business School MBA, University of Birmingham. I have also held external roles in PhD examining and interview panel membership for the Business School at Aston University, Business School at University College Cork and the Business School at National University of Ireland, Galway.
Research Funding:
My research has attracted over £1 million pounds of external funding. I was Principle Investigator on a three year research project - £296,336 funding from UK Government agencies - that provided Tesco Clubcard and other sources of consumer insight to SMEs from the food industry, researching how it influenced their marketing capabilities, learning and NPD. This high impact project involved extensive engagement at a Director level with Tesco, Invest NI and Dunnhumby UK.
I have supervised eight PhD students to completion and am currently supervising two PhD students. I am also a proactive participant on PhD vivas as an External and Internal examiner as well as Chair.
Esteem:
I was a Visiting Professor with the University of Paraná in Brazil. I am a Peer Review College member of the Economic and Social Research Council (UK's leading research agency). I Co-Chaired the 2017 Irish Academy of Management Conference and have leadership roles organizing the leading tech institution IEEE global conferences on key topics such as AI and Big Data for business and society. I was a Council member of the Irish Academy of Management and Board member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. I was External Examiner for Birmingham Business School MBA, University of Birmingham. I have also held external roles in PhD examining and interview panel membership for the Business School at Aston University, Business School at University College Cork and the Business School at National University of Ireland, Galway.
