I joined the Department of Marketing at Lancaster in 2008 from the University of East Anglia, where I was a senior lecturer in Marketing. I gained a PhD from the University of Bedfordshire in 2000, where I spent two years as a lecturer.
I have extensive experience of teaching at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels, including MBA, and I have also taught in the People’s Republic of China and South Africa. I have been a member of the Institute for Teaching and Learning, European Marketing Academy and the British Academy of Marketing.
Undergraduate
MKTG304 - Marketing Research Project
Postgraduate
MKTG408 - Reflexive Marketing
MKTG507 - Marketing
Part II Director of Undergraduate Studies
AMM Dissertation Co-ordinator
My research interests fall into three areas: business-to-business marketing, the interface between marketing and competition law, and comparative consumer behaviour in virtual worlds and real-life.
I have a long-standing interest in business-to-business marketing and have undertaken research in a number of areas in this context. Initially, for my PhD (2000) I examined the relationships between UK importers/exporters and their international partners. More recent contributions have included the interface between sales and marketing functions (currently being investigated), the antitrust/competition law implications of B2B electronic marketplaces, strategic purchasing, the process by which business networks learn and retain knowledge, and SME purchasing sophistication. This research has been undertaken chiefly with Prof. Heidi Winklhofer (Nottingham) and Prof. Nikos Tzokas (East Anglia).
The interface between competition law and marketing has been my main area of interest in recent years. This was initiated by my involvement with the Centre for Competition Policy (University of East Anglia) where I was faculty member and visiting researcher (2008), and latterly an alumnus member (www.ccp.uea.ac.uk). My research has examined the regulatory issues surrounding SME banking in the UK, UK/EU competition authority investigations of marketing (comprising regulatory decisions related to branding and to merger decisions), and the involvement of the marketing function in international cartels in the EU (with Dr. John Ashton, East Anglia). The purpose of this stream of research is to highlight the public policy issues related to marketing action and to assist marketers in demonstrating compliance with competition law.
The third area of research interest, and most recent, involves investigating consumer behaviour in virtual worlds in comparison to real-life behaviour. This has led to a number of surveys being administered in virtual worlds as well as Web-based surveys to examine market mavens in virtual world environments and real-life, understanding the extent to which virtual worlds can facilitate needs using Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy, and understanding what facilitates needs in virtual world settings. This research is being undertaken in collaboration with Prof. Stuart Barnes (East Anglia).
I have published in a range of journals including B2B marketing (Industrial Marketing Management), public policy (Journal of Public Policy and Marketing), services marketing (Journal of Services Marketing; Service Industries Journal), consumer behaviour (Journal of Consumer Behaviour), and in general marketing journals (Journal of Marketing Management). I have also acted as guest editor for the Journal of Marketing Management, and will be acting as guest editor for the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing in 2009 with Dr. Linda Peters (Nottingham). In addition, I have received funding to support my research from the Learning and Teaching Support Network, Postwatch and the ESRC.
