Professor L Sparks
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Professor L Sparks
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Leigh Sparks is Professor of Retail Studies at the Institute for Retail Studies, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK. He was an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, and completed his Ph.D at St. David's University College, Lampeter.
I have been professor at Stirling since 1992. I have also been the Head of the Department of Marketing, the Director of the Institute for Retail Studies and the Dean of the Faculty of Management.
In 2000-2001 I was Visiting Professor at Florida State University and followed that up by being Visiting Professor at the Unviersity of Tennessee in 2006.
I am Co-editor of the leading European retail journal (The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, published by Taylor and Francis).
Since January 2002, I have been the Director of the SHEFC funded Centre for the Study of Retailing in Scotland, a research centre based at the Institute for Retail Studies at the University of Stirling, but combining with excellence in retailing in other Scottish universities.
In 2002-2004, I was the only academic member of the UK Department of Trade and Industry’s Retail Strategy Group.
A brief personal introduction is available as a pdf, and an abbreviated CV is also available as a pdf.
My research concentrates on aspects of the broad areas of structural and spatial change in retailing. Since arriving at Stirling I have been involved in the generation of c£2m of research funding. This research has been disseminated widely through a number of books, many reports and over 100 academic and professional articles.
Recent major research funding includes:
My most recent book is:
Gustafsson K, Jonson G, Smith DLG and L Sparks (2006) Retailing Logistics and Fresh Food Packaging, published by Kogan Page.
The second edition of my co-edited volume with John Fernie entitled Logistics and Retail Management, was also published by Kogan Page in 2004. A new edition is under preparation.
My two most recent book chapters can be found in Brunn S (ed) (2006) Wal-Mart's World, published by Routledge.
Refereed articles published in 2005 include:
(with T P Jackson) Retail Internationalisation: Marks and Spencer in Hong Kong. International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, 33, 766-783 (2005).
(with S Cummins, A Findlay and M Petticrew) Healthy Cities: The impact of food retail-led regeneration on food access, choice and retail structure. Built Environment, 31, 4, 288-301 (2005).
(with M Petticrew, S Cummins, C Ferrell, A Findlay, C Higgins, C Hoy, A Kearns and L Sparks) Natural experiments: an underused tool for public health? Public Health, 119, 751-757 (2005).
(with S Cummins, M Petticrew, C Higgins, A Findlay, and L Sparks) Large scale food retailing as an intervention for diet and health: quasi-experimental evaluation of a natural experiment. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59, 1035-1040 (2005). Published together with “From Steam Engines to Sunny Delight” (JECH Gallery), p1034.
(with S Burt, K Davies and A McAuley) Retail Internationalisation: from formats to implants. European Management Journal, 23, 195-202 (2005).
(with T P Jackson and K Mellahi) Shutting Up Shop: The International Exit Process in retailing. Service Industries Journal, 25, 355-371 (2005).
(with S Cummins, M Petticrew and A Findlay) Large Scale Food Retail Interventions and Diet. British Medical Journal, 330, 683-4 (2005)
Editorial – Special Issue on Assessing Retail Productivity. International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 15, 227-236 (2005).
Details of all my books and refereed papers are available in this pdf, whilst refereed articles 2001 and later can be found in this pdf.
At Stirling I normally teach retailing at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Typically this involves co-ordinating the introductory undergraduate retailing module and teaching a specialist module at postgraduate level on the retail supply chain. I also co-ordinate and teach the Managing the Supply Chain Module on our MBA in Retailing and Management Development Programmes worldwide.
Following on developments from being a Visiting Professor at the Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida (2000-2001) I have introduced and taught at Stirling successful modules on sport marketing at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
My other teaching comes in the form of management development programmes (both internally organised and externally organised) and from presentations to retailers worldwide. I have presented at innumerable conferences and management sessions.
Having learned by spending six years as Dean that the best way to get research (or indeed anything) done is not to be an administrator, I now try to reduce the positions that require me to engage with the ‘dark side’. Despite that I am Director of Research for the Department of Marketing and Administrative Director of the MBA in Retailing. I am on Academic Council of the University. For my sins I also served recently on working groups on Full Economic Costing and Research Income Generation.
Externally I was a founding member of the Academy of Marketing’s Research Committee and have now found myself as Chair from January 2006.
“Every day when I wake up I thank the lord I'm Welsh” pretty much sums it up, especially in 2005 when promise finally translated into triumph for the Rugby team. Sport of most types, but particularly rugby, and particularly Welsh rugby is a passion.
Professor Leigh Sparks
Institute for Retail Studies
Department of Marketing
University of Stirling
Stirling FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK.
Telephone : +44 (0)1786 467384.
Fax : +44 (0)1786 465290.
E-Mail : leigh.sparks@stir.ac.uk
Site Updated: February 2007
