Elaine Collinson B.A. (Hons), MPhil

Bio

Elaine is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management in the School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University. She is Director of Postgraduate Studies within the school and Director of the Corporate Executive Development. With over 25 years’ experience in the Higher Education sector, she has held a series of roles, primarily in an academic and research capacity but also in developing transnational education and industry links across the globe.

Elaine’s areas of expertise include Marketing in the Small Business sector, where she has taught extensively in industry and academia. She has delivered in company training programmes to enable growth, support innovation and development and one to one managerial coaching. She has a wide network of business contacts across the economic development agencies and actively works with Scottish Enterprise, Interface and EDAS to name but a few.

Core areas of both teaching and research interests include Strategic Marketing Management, Marketing for Small Businesses, Entrepreneurial Marketing, Inter-cultural Business Relationships and Customer Relationship Marketing.

Her core interests link into the concept of Engagement, be it in the knowledge transfer aspect between industry and academia or between academia and students. She has developed a series of Learning Journeys for students throughout her career, enabling students access to real life experiences to enhance their employability skills. Transformative learning is fundamental to her teaching.

As part of her role at Heriot-Watt University, she is in charge of the Postgraduate Studies and is actively involved in developing an innovative suite of MSc programmes across our international campuses. Developing innovative approaches to high quality learning has always been a key focus of her activities for both the executive education participant as well as the full time student. Experienced in international assurance of learning practices working with EFMD, AMBA, ELIR, AACSB and international partners across the globe, ensures her teaching in the area of Marketing is global in outlook and practical in application.

As Director of Corporate Executive Development she is tasked with developing a suite of executive education programmes and innovative industry focused events which enable academic engagement with the wider business community and enhance graduates’ employability skills.

Director of PGT Studies, School of Social Sciences

Director of Corporate Executive Relations

Entrepreneurial Marketing

Strategic Marketing

The SME Sector

Industry / Academic Collaboration - Business Engagement

Marketing in the Tourism Sector

Marketing

International Education

Business Engagement

Entrepreneurship