Dr Alan Collins

Biography

My main area of interest lies in the food retailing,  its supply chain, consumer and shopper behaviour. 

I consider myself an interdisciplinary researcher drawing on my background in sociology, economics and marketing with a passion for food retailing formed over many years working in Cork's English Market, Tesco UK, and with extensive collaboration with Musgrave and Supervalu retailers throughout the country both as an educator and store of the year adjudicator.

To date, much of my research interests and publications occupied the field of marketing channels and in particular how evolving retail strategies have impacted on the indigenous supplier base and channel relationships particularly in light of the emergence of the retailer as the brand.  This work has been published in a variety of ABS 3 publications including Supply Chain Management: an International Journal, the Journal of Marketing Management and the European Journal of Marketing.

More recently, I have turned my research focus to consumer and shopper behaviour with a particular emphasis on search related activities.  These have included price and promotional search,published in the Journal of Marketing Management  and the emergence of a new consumer heuristic in the form of a Store Brandscape to be published shortly in the European Journal of Marketing.   

While much of my published research adopts a positivist approach, more recent research with collaborators has extended to integrate a more nuanced and interpretivist perspective on the phenomena under investigation. The focus of this work has been on food consumption and health related behaviours and displays the influence of consumer culture theory and engagement theory.

I have been a programme director continuously since 2001. Programmes directed include the industry programmes in retailing (2001-2010); MSc/MBS Food  Marketing (2002-2016) and more recently the BSc Food Marketing and Entrepreneurship (2016- Current)

BA (Economics  Sociology) 1986 National University of Ireland, Cork
MA (Economics) 1988 National University of Ireland, Cork
PhD (Marketing) 2001 University of Stirling

Grants and Honours

• 02/01/2017 - Teagasc"Walsh Fellowship 2014054 Hedhir Hasno" Dr A Collins 2014054, Teagasc
• 06/01/2014 - Sustainability and Consumer's use of mobile Optical Recognition systems in Food Engagement and Search., Teagasc
• 10/01/2005 - Teagasc "Salmonella in Pork: Risks of Transmission", Teagasc
• 01/01/2004 - President's Award for Excellence in Teaching
• 01/01/2004 - [MUSGRAVE A/C] {Collins Dr. Alan} V, Miscellaneous

Other Activities

• 28/01/2021 - Headed up the FME/Food Academy Collaboration
• 04/01/2021 - Externing Marketing and Retail Stream
• 01/01/2020 - Conference President St. Vincent de Paul
• 01/01/2019 - Conference President St. Vincent de Paul
• 11/07/2018 - Collequium on European Retailing (CERR)
• 04/07/2017 - EAERCD 2017
• 03/07/2017 - The 10th International Critical Management Studies (CMS) Conference – CMS 2017
• 02/06/2016 - Collequium on European Retailing
• 01/07/2015 - EAERCD 2015

Research Domains

• Food Retailing and the Supply Chain  
• Consumer and shopper behaviour  
• Consumer Culture
• Price and promotional search  
• Transaction Cost Economics (TCE)

Thesis

• 2018 - Complexity and Competitive Advantage, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Exotic Fruit Awareness, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Cross Shopping Behaviours in Skibbereen, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Cross Shopping Behaviours in a Suburban area, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Supply Chain Agility, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Sustainability and Goal Implementation (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Remanufacturing: the challenge for supply chains, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Humanitarian Supply Chains (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Change Management and Industry 4.0, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Lean Problem Solving Tools, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Workplace Training, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Business Continuity Management, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Employee Engagement, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Complexity in the Cork PepsiCo Plants, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
• 2018 - Aldi - Alternatives to price as the basis for competitive strategy, University College Cork (Thesis Primary Supervisor)

Publications