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• PhD in Marketing and Organizations, University of Leicester
• 2010 MSc in Management Research, University of Leicester
• 2008 MA in Critical Theory, University of Nottingham
• 2003 BSc (Hons) Management, Lancaster University 2002

Robert began his academic career at Lancaster University, where he studied management. At Lancaster, Robert as introduced to social theory and pursed this interest at Nottingham before working in marketing within the HVAC industry. He returned to academia after winning a scholarship from the University of Leicester. At Leicester, he was awarded an MSc in Management Research at Distinction and won further funding to pursue doctoral research from the ESRC.

His PhD research, supervised by Profs Martin Parker and Nick Ellis explored the production and consumption of music in the UK and was examined by Profs Alan Bryman and Carl Rhodes. Following this, Robert took a lectureship at the University of Leicester, before moving to the University of Nottingham where he was promoted to Associate Professor. At Nottingham, Robert developed his skills and experience. In addition to developing award winning modules in advertising, branding and communications, he sat on Nottingham University Business School’s School Management Group for 5 years, acted as Director of Postgraduate Studies for 3 years, and sat on the University’s Postgraduate Committee.

He was a founding member of NLAB – Nottingham’s centre for business analytics – and a founding Executive Board Member of the Nottingham Energy Institute. Robert has now joined Birmingham Business School and is looking forward to contributing to its mission.

• Consultancy skills & Practice
• Ethics of Markets and Marketing Ethics

• Marketing practice
• Marketing organizations
• Advertising and society
• Technology

Research interests

Robert’s research focuses, broadly, on the organization of marketing and consumption. He is particularly interested in understanding how and why marketers and consumers embrace new technologies. In his studies of marketers, he has studied how marketers use new analytic methods and big data sources. In addition, he is currently researching the consumption of energy. In his studies of consumer behaviour, he has championed the use of diverse theories and methods to unlock new insights into consumer cultures.

Current projects

Robert is currently writing up an ethnographic study of a large marketing research and technology company. He is drafting a book on the topic for Bristol University Press provisionally titled ‘Marketing Science Fiction’. In addition to this, with Prof Will Green, Robert is analysing a large data set of qualitative interviews with market researchers based in London, New York and Chicago. He is also completing empirical research with a team of researchers for an EPSRC project on decarbonising supply chains and theoretical analysis on the influence of social theory in marketing with Dr Stephen Dunne.