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Personal Statement

Professor Emma K. Macdonald is
Charles Huang Chair in International Business & Innovation and
Director, Stephen Young Institute for International Business.

Biography:
Following a generous gift to University of Strathclyde from alumnus Dr Charles Huang, Emma joined Strathclyde as Charles Huang Chair in International Business and inaugural Director of the Stephen Young Institute within Strathclyde Business School.

Emma was at Cranfield School of Management for a decade, holding a number of different roles including coDirector of the Cranfield Customer Management Forum for nine years and leader of Cranfield's popular Customer Centric Strategy programme for five years. Emma was Head of the Sustainability and Marketing faculty groups when she left Cranfield to join University of Warwick. As Professor of Marketing at Warwick Business School for four years, Emma led on the prestigious London MBA receiving multiple teaching commendations and an award for pastoral care.

Emma has consulted to organisations across the globe in business and nonprofit sectors, in product and service industries, and in business-to-consumer, business-to-business and government sectors. She has launched and led open and custom executive programmes including on customer experience management and marketing planning. She has led and taught EMBA, FTMBA and Masters level courses for over two decades. She is Visiting Professor in Cranfield’s Sustainable Business Group and alongside colleagues from Cranfield she developed and taught the Sustainable Futures Game which they took to COP26 to demonstrate in the Green Zone.

Emma’s research in sustainability and marketing has been published in Harvard Business Review, and in top-ranked journals including Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Service Research, Journal American Statistical Association, Industrial Marketing Management, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Cleaner Production, and Technology Forecasting & Social Change.

Emma completed her PhD at UNSW and is alumnus- and previous Visiting Professor - of the Ehrenberg Bass Marketing Science Institute. Emma has received funding from EPSRC, ESRC, InnovateUK, the European Commission, and the Australian Government. She is Associate Editor for Journal of Business Research, has been ad hoc assessor for InnovateUK, Judge for the IPA's (ad industry) Effectiveness Accreditation, and Vice Chair Sustainability for the British Academy of Management (BAM).

External posts:

2025                    Vice Chair Sustainability, British Academy of Management

2023                    Judge: IPA Effectiveness Accreditation Panel (ad industry)

2023-2025          Associate Editor, Journal of Business Research

2020 ongoing     Visiting Professor, Cranfield School of Management

2020-2024         Guest Lecturer, Infrastructure Systems Institute, UCL

2016-present     Fellow, Higher Education Academy

2011-2020         Adjunct Prof, Ehrenberg-Bass Marketing Science Institute

Expertise & Capabilities

Prizes and commendations:

  • 2025: Finalist Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science's annual best paper prize for papers published in 2024, the "JAMS Sheth Foundation Best Paper Award" (with Arkadan & Wilson).
  • 2024: Winner of "Best developmental paper - Entrepreneurship track" at British Academy of Management (with Mera, Adams, Watson & Wilson)
  • 2023: Winner of “Abbie Griffin High Impact” 5-year journal prize award from Journal of Product Innovation Management (with Watson, Wilson & Smart).
  • 2022 Warwick Business School CORE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Pastoral Care (voted by students)
  • 2022, 2021, 2020 Warwick Business School Head of School’s commendation for excellent teaching
  • 2018: Winner “Thomas P. Hustad Prize for best journal article”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, (with Watson, Wilson & Smart).
  • 2015 Cranfield School of Management Teaching Prize 
  • 2015 Cranfield School of Management Research Prize 
  • 2015 InnovateUK Best of the Best Awards: Finalist “Best partnership 2015 Award” for Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) (one of 5 finalists).
  • 2015 InnovateUK Best of the Best Awards: Finalist “Research Council UK 2015 Knowledge Base Impact Award” for KTP (one of 3 finalists).
  • 2015 ESRC (Economic & Social Research Council) impact case: “KTP leads to five-fold growth for market research agency”, Nov 2015, http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-events-and-publications/impact-case-studies/ktp-leads-to-five-fold-growth-for-market-research-agency/
  • 2015: Winner “Thomas Hustad Best Paper Award”, 22nd Innovation and Product Development Management Conference (IPDM), Copenhagen, June 2015 (with Watson, Wilson & Smart).

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

Education/Academic qualification

FHEA, Higher Education Academy HEA

Award Date: 1 Sept 2014

PG Certificate in Learning, Teaching & Assessment in Higher Education, Cranfield University

Award Date: 1 Jan 2014

Doctor of Philosophy, PhD (UNSW), University of New South Wales

Award Date: 1 Jan 2009

External positions

Vice Chair Sustainability, BAM, British Academy of Management

1 Jan 202531 Dec 2026

COP28 (UAE) Observer - University of Strathclyde

1 Dec 20237 Dec 2023

Glasgow Chamber of Commerce - delegation to Dubai 2023, Glasgow Chambers of Commerce

1 Nov 202314 Dec 2023

Visiting Professor, Cranfield Sustainable Business Group, Cranfield University

1 Jan 2020 → …

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