Personal statement
Professor McLean's research and teaching interests lie within digital marketing. In particular, he actively explores how consumers behave and interact with technology and the influence technology can have on service provision.
Prof McLean's research is published in world leading academic journals including but not limited to the Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Psychology and Marketing, Information Technology and People, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Computers in Human Behavior, and the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Graeme disseminates his research at Internationally recognised conferences such as the Academy of Marketing Science, Marketing Theory and Practice, EMAC, QUIZ, SERVSIG, the Academy of Marketing and the Society for Marketing Advances. Additionally, his research has been covered in mainstream media including The Times, The Herald, the Scotsman, the Independent, and the Conversation. He has also been interviewed on BBC radio Scotland and invited to Channel 4 with regard to my work on dynamic pricing and augmented reality in marketing.
Graeme collaborates closely with industry through funded PhD scholarships, KTP projects and Innovation vouchers. His research has been funded by a number of international organisations including Arnold Clark, UKRI, Innovate UK, Scottish Enterprise, and the Saudi Rae'd fund. Since 2018, Graeme has attracted more than £600,000 in funding.
Prof McLean holds editorial positions and often serves as track chair at International academic conferences. He currently holds a Visiting Professor position at King Faisal University in Saudi Arabia. In 2021-2022, Graeme was an invited scholar at Edinburgh University and delivered a series of lectures on Digital Marketing.
Prof McLean introduced and is the Director of the MSc in Digital Marketing Management (DMM). The DMM has been designed to combine the latest academic research with industry perspectives. At the postgraduate level, he delivers modules on Strategic Digital Marketing, e-Marketing in Practice and the Digital Transformative Project.
Prof McLean is also the author of the internationally leading online textbook 'Digital Marketing Fundamentals', courseware produced by Digi Marketing Edu.
At the undergraduate level Prof McLean is the coordinator of the core 3rd year Marketing Communications in a Digital Age module. This module provides students with both a practical and theoretical perspective on digital marketing.
Before joining the department of marketing, Graeme studied at both undergraduate and postgraduate level at The University of Strathclyde where he obtained his PhD. He worked in numerous marketing and consultancy roles and was previously a Lecturer in Marketing at The University of the West of Scotland.
Professional activities
- Psychology and Marketing (Journal)
- Guest editor
- 1/2/2022
- University of Edinburgh Business School
- Visiting lecturer
- 15/1/2022
- Academy of Marketing Science
- Member of programme committee
- 15/1/2022
- AMA SERVSIG 2022
- Chair
- 1/10/2021
- Computers in Human Behaviour (Journal)
- Editorial board member
- 1/10/2021
- External Examiner - Birmingham City University
- Examiner
- 1/9/2021
More professional activities
Projects
- Arnold Clark Innovation Centre
- McLean, Graeme (Principal Investigator)
- This project is focusing on enhancing the educational experience for individuals visiting the Arnold Clark innovation centre. The work draws together individuals across faculties and departments within the University.
- 05-Jan-2021 - 03-Jan-2023
- KTP - Rico Developments Ltd t/a Adimo. Development of a fully automated, multi-lingual algorithm, recipe creation platform
- Wallace, William (Principal Investigator) McLean, Graeme (Co-investigator) Revie, Crawford (Co-investigator) Roussinov, Dmitri (Co-investigator)
- 04-Jan-2021 - 03-Jan-2023
- Future Customer Purchasing Behaviour & Reflective Business Services (Sania Shakeel)
- McLean, Graeme (Principal Investigator)
- 11-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2024
- Arnold Clark 2030 PhD Scholarships - The Future of the Automotive Industry
- McLean, Graeme (Principal Investigator)
- The Arnold Clark 2030 project is an innovative project seeking to aid Arnold Clark with their future business strategy looking forward to 2030. The work involves the funding of five PhD Scholarships in pursuit of understanding the future of the automotive industry.
The research will draw on expertise across three University departments including: Marketing, Computer and Information Science and Electronic and Electrical Engineering. In the ambition to be the front-runner in the new transport industry by 2030, Arnold Clark recognise that the customer of tomorrow is likely to have different buying habits and needs to the customer of today. Accordingly, the Arnold Clark 2030 project will examine future customer behaviour and how this reflects on Arnold Clark’s business model. More specifically, the research will examine the use of advanced technology as part of the customer journey, understanding customer needs through artificial intelligence and understanding the complexity of electric vehicles and the demands on the wider infrastructure and business opportunities.
Funding Value: £398,276 - 01-Jan-2019 - 28-Jan-2025
- Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Social Media... Is technology the gateway for destination tourism
- McLean, Graeme (Principal Investigator) Alyahya, Mansour (Co-investigator)
- Behind the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia is the second largest tourist destination in the middle east with over 16 million people visiting in 2017. However, most of these visits involve religious pilgrimages. Given Saudi Arabia's 2030 strategy, there is enormous growth for tourism in the country, particularly given the relaxed rules over tourist visas. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), tourism in Saudi Arabia added 9% to the kingdom's total economy and is worth $63 billion.
This project aims to understand the role of advanced technologies such as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in stimulating traveler interest in visiting Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the project aims to uncover the role that AR may play within social media to encourage travelers to share content and experiences.
Funding:
Funding awarded by Saudi Arabian Ministry of Tourism R'aed Track for £9,900 in cooperation with colleagues at Kind Faisal University. Grant number:207004 - 01-Jan-2019 - 31-Jan-2022
- Social Media and the New Frontier: Examining the role of AR in Social Media
- McLean, Graeme (Principal Investigator) Barhorst, Jennifer (Co-investigator)
- Social Media has become a cornerstone of marketing in recent years. The proliferation of social media use has exceeded that of any other media. Reflecting the hype of social media, augmented reality has emerged as a technology that may be an important component of a marketers toolkit. Conceptualisations on the benefits of augmented reality has been widespread with some commentators claiming the technology to be the most disruptive in the next decade. Similar tones are sounding regarding augmented reality as there were with social media in 2005. Such hype has seen brands jump into augmented reality in the hope that consumers will adopt and use the technology with beneficial marketing outcomes. Many similar parallels can be drawn between social media and augmented reality, none more so than the facilitating role of the mobile device.
However, limited research has considered the power of the combination of social media and augmented reality. This project aims to uncover the role of augmented reality in developing interesting and engaging content that consumers are likely to share. Recently some brands have taken to social media such as Snapchat to develop shareable AR filters with friends. Accordingly, this research project will assess the influence AR has on positive eWOM, direct sharing, purchase intentions and perceptions towards the brand. - 04-Jan-2019
More projects