Kathryn has been the Head of the Marketing and Operations Discipline (Global), since July 2023 prior to this she was the Head of the Marketing Discipline (Global) from December 2021.  Kathryn joined Edinburgh Business School in 2005 as a Lecturer/Assistant Professor.  She was promoted to Associate Professor in Digital Marketing in 2020.  

Kathryn completed her PhD in Business Management from the University of Edinburgh in 2009. Thesis Title: An Exploratory Study into Consumer Evaluation of Financial Services Websites as a Source of Information.  Prior to transitioning to an academic career she worked in events and conference management within the UK.  Kathryn’s teaching philosophy combines her research into empowerment and information provision with her management experience.  She is motivated by the belief that gaining mastery of complex information empowers and provides persistent transferable skills that are transformative.   She was awarded Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2021. 

Area of Expertise: Digital technology may enable, constrain and change the behaviour of organisations and consumers. Kathryn's area of expertise is services which are characterised as being highly intangible, customisable and involving extended consumer decision-making. In these instances if digital technology is used to replace face-to-face interaction, there is a risk of negative consumer and brand outcomes. 

Research Methods Expertise:  Kathryn's research combines qualitative and quantitative methods which she used initially in her PhD to explore bank customer expectations of online information provision.   Kathryn is a member of the Centre for the Transformation of Work which reflects the  connection between financial services and employment/employer decision making. 

Disciplinary Intersections:  Kathryn examines how empowerment and engagement can be gained using theory from across the disciplines of marketing, information science and social psychology.

Key Research Collaborations: Together with Professor Tina Harrison at the University of Edinburgh Kathryn has examined the digitisation of the pension supply chain to identify a risk of impaired decision making and disempowerment amongst specific groups of individuals. 

Funded Projects: Kathryn's work in Pensions was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) within the E-Society research call.  Other work into how financial services and legal practice enables or constrains the ability of family members to care for those living with dementia was funded by the British Academy/ Leverhulme Small Grants Scheme.  Kathryn has also been awarded  funding to investigate how small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) such as credit unions (Scottish Universities Insight Grant) and small fashion retailers (ESRC funding) can use digital technology to engage consumers. 

In addition to her role as Head of Marketing and Operations Discipline (Global),  Kathryn is a member of the university senate and is a member of the Military Education Committee.   She teachess on the MSc in Digital Marketing (Digital Marketing Analytics, Social Media Marketing).  She also supervises DBA and PhD projects which focus on social media and digital marketing activity.  

She has held several roles within Edinburgh Business School including being Programme Director for the International Marketing MSc portfolio, Undergraduate Year Co-ordinator, Chair of the Student Staff Liaison committee and Member of the University Equal Opportunity and Diversity committee.  

Centre for the Transformation of Work https//www.hw.ac.uk/ebs/research/centre-for-the-transformation of work.htm