Paul Hopkinson

Prof. Paul Hopkinson is an experienced academic and marketing professional with over 25 years' work experience. He is currently Associate Head of Edinburgh Business School and the School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, Dubai and an associate professor in marketing, specialising in the areas of relationship marketing, digital transformation and digital marketing. He also leads the on-campus MSc International Marketing with Digital Marketing programme.

Prof. Hopkinson moved to Heriot-Watt University, Dubai in August 2013. He was previously at the University of Gloucestershire where he held several leadership roles, including undergraduate Director of Studies (Marketing) and MBA Programme Director. He was also a part-time member of faculty for the University of Birmingham and an external examiner for the University of Greenwich (postgraduate marketing programmes)

Before his academic career, Prof. Hopkinson held various commercial roles (marketing research, product management and procurement) in the aerospace and telecommunications sectors, and ran a distribution business specialising in engineering supplies. He has undertaken training and consultancy work for a variety of clients, including the Routes to Market Association (Via International), ADNATCO, Krone (UK) Technique Ltd (now CommScope).

Prof. Hopkinson is an experienced doctoral supervisor and examiner, with students based in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland and Dubai working in areas of social media and customer engagement, buyer-seller and salesperson-customer relationships, artificial intelligence and marketing.

He holds a PhD in Marketing from the University of Gloucestershire, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (MCIM), a fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a fellow of the Academy of Marketing Science (FAMS).

Research

Prof. Hopkinson’s research focuses on the determinants of quality in the management of marketing relationships, particularly in the context of marketing channels and, more recently, the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and social media in customer relationship management (CRM).