Dr Lee Quinn is Professor of Consumer Insight and Behaviour Change at the Research Centre for Business in Society (CBiS). Previously he was Associate Professor and Senior Academic Advisor at the University of Manchester and, before that, Lecturer and Programme Director at the University of Liverpool Management School.

Lee’s research pursues the desire to make sense of human behaviour within rapidly evolving and transformational social, economic, and technological environments. In this vein, his involvement in recent projects has enabled: an examination of the impact of digitalization and 'big data' on organizational decision-making and strategy creation; the territorialization of brand experience and consumption in a pop-up retailing context; as well as the study of production and consumption within alternative economic contexts. His work has been funded through the Economic and Social Research Council, the Digital Social Research programme, the Chartered Institute of Marketing Charitable Trust, and the Academy of Marketing. He publishes widely in international peer-reviewed academic journals, has received several awards for his research at international conferences, and has successfully supervised, and examined, a number of doctoral candidates.

Lee contributes to research enriched learning through a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate activity. His core commitments revolve around the delivery of research methodology teaching to PGRs (e.g. M09GED), in addition to a qualitative research methodology teaching commitment to the DBA programme. He supports the development of undergraduate modules including, Contemporary Issues in Marketing, the Management of E-Commerce, and Research Projects, and prepares Teaching Case materials, available for use across the faculty, which draw from his research interests and voluntary work. Additionally, he provides pastoral and academic support to the PGR community, both within and beyond CBiS. He also continues to provide formal and informal mentoring support across FBL.

Recently acting as a Grants Advisory Panel Member for Diabetes UK, a Grant Reviewer for Alcohol Research UK, an Affiliated Consultant to the University of the Highlands and Islands, and an External Expert (Research Methodology) for the Nordic Place Research Group (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences), Lee also holds an Honorary Research Fellowship at the University of Liverpool as well as Programme Committee Memberships at the International Augmented and Virtual Reality Conference and the Academy of Marketing Science, World Marketing Congress.

Once described as “a brilliant coach”, by a former PhD student, Lee continues to support early career CBiS researchers and remains committed to the development of their world-leading research career aspirations…

My primary motivation as a researcher is driven by an interest in people, especially the seemingly irrational, paradoxical, and often contradictory ways in which they behave in an increasingly fast-paced, high-pressured, technology-driven, and volatile world. My research is usually qualitative, theoretically informed through a constructionist worldview and an interest in discursive and narrative methodological inquiry. This approach enables my research and community-focused impact agenda to span a broad range of contexts in order to manage change and solve problems through the generation of ‘invisible’, and sometimes inarticulable, insight.

In my spare time I work in a volunteer operational capacity for Staffordshire's search and rescue team (SSART). SSART is a member of Lowland Rescue, a core component of the United Kingdom’s Search and Rescue (UKSAR) Operator’s Group, providing support to the emergency services alongside Cave Rescue, Mountain Rescue, and the RNLI among others.