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Dr Alistair Robertson

Formerly at Lancaster University

Current Teaching

Market research, statistics for business and Information systems

Professional Role

Founder of ICTResearch.org and member of the Lancaster Centre for Forecasting. Consultant to (via SpecialistResearch.org) the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development). Research fellow in e-Science and Honorary Research Fellow in Management Science, both at Lancaster University.

Qualifications

PhD Management (Lancaster, ESRC funded), MA and BA Economics (Sussex)

Research Interests

Analysis of the commercial implications of open source e-collaborative, e-community and Cloud applications and their impact on organizations' efficiency. Large scale surveys leading to new understanding of novel technology markets. The diffusion of new technologies through economies (e.g. broadband/Web 2.0 adoption in households/enterprise). Application of econometric techniques to measure consumer behavioral changes. The modelling FMCG products with special interest in forecasting accuracy.

Profile

Alastair is a Research Fellow in e-Science and an Honorary Research Fellow in Management Science. Current research spans both departments, concentrated in Information Systems and Forecasting, and seeks to address the impact of e-collaborative, e-community and Cloud technologies on enterprise performance.   Working with portal software developers at the Centre for e-Science on the JISC funded Collaborative Research in Business (CRIB) project, Alastair researches the knowledge exchange mechanisms between academics and enterprise to determine what technology should look like to enhance communication channels and   knowledge exchange activities between public sector and enterprise.   Recent outputs can be downloaded from ICTResearch.org and include the Enterprise Survey white paper that presents information gathered from 1029 SMEs in the north of England to evaluate the need for collaborative technologies in this key business sector. Previously, Alastair was an ESRC Research Fellow (Award PTA-026-27-0483) at the Centre for Forecasting that is located at LUMS.  During this time, and to present day, Alastair researched barriers and drivers of household technology adoption (e.g. computer, internet and broadband)and has published new methods involved in measuring the impact of adoption drivers (e.g. household income, educational attainment, psychological factors) on final technology adoption at a UK national scale.  Additionally, he developed and published a novel segmental diffusion modelling technique highlighting   the importance of accommodating socio-economic factors in forecasting methodologies.   In collaboration with others at LUMS (Soopramanien and Fildes), he has also engaged with the study of online shopping habits.  Alastair successfully received his Ph.D. at the school during 2005 under the supervision of Professor Robert Fildes and this research was also funded by the ESRC. During his early career at Lancaster, Alastair consulted on a number of modelling projects that include the modelling of FMCG markets via the development of bespoke decision support software packages that are tailored to the needs of the client. During the first half of 2006, Alastair assisted in the development of statistical software procedures used to assess judgmental forecast accuracy for firms with a large volume of stock keeping units (typically over 1,000) and data (65,000 monthly/weekly cases). Other projects that he has been involved with include the analysis of student university choice in a post-graduate setting. Prior to Lancaster Alastair studied economics to Masters level at Sussex University and provided services as a research associate to the Overseas Development Institute gathering data on the impact of major catastrophic events and their affect on developing economies.

Research Grants

2001 - 04: Ph.D. funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

2005 - 2006: 1 year Research Fellowship funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

Web Links

http://alirobertson.blogspot.com/

Current Research

See ICTResearch.org for up to date research outputs.

See my technology Blog here.

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