Dr James Cronin

Senior Lecturer

Research Interests

James is a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Marketing at Lancaster University Management School and is Deputy Director of the LUMS Centre for Consumption Insights. His principal research interests are in the sociological aspects of consumer behaviour including collective forms of consumption, consumer health and wellbeing, and readings of marketing informed by cultural theory. James is also interested in issues related to people's day to day encounters with the marketplace including their grocery shopping and their parasocial relationships with celebrities and celebrity brands. Much of his research focuses on how social structures, ideologies and interactions between people shape and ground their consumption experiences. In order to explore these theoretical areas, James has used a wide variety of qualitative research methods and explanatory concepts.

His work has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals including Sociology of Health & Illness, European Journal of Marketing, Marketing Theory, Journal of Marketing Management and Consumption, Markets & Culture.

James was awarded the prize for 'Best Competitive Paper Award' at the 2016 Consumer Culture Theory Conference in Lille, France.
James' work was given an honourable mention for excellence at the 2017 Interpretive Consumer Research Workshop in Stockholm Business School, Sweden.

Additional Information

EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT & KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

Recent Media Publications

Cronin, J. (2018), “A Quiet Place and Far Cry 5: popular media on the dangers of ‘speaking out’”, The Conversation, 12^th April.

Cronin, J. (2017), "Back in time for Christmas dinner: the modern desire for a bygone age", The Conversation, 22^nd December.

Cronin, J. (2017), “The shopping experience is out of date”, The Grocer, 23^rd February.

Cronin, J. (2016), “Why novelty dining experiences are just another way of getting high”, The Conversation, 27^th June.

Cronin, J. (2016), “How sauerkraut is leading a food revolution”, The Conversation, 15^th June.

Cronin, J. (2016), “Nutripocalypse: The Nutrition Labelling Overload”, Huffington Post, 11^th May.

Cronin, J. (2016), “Predicting a Sugar Tax Blowback”, Huffington Post, 19^th April.

Provided expert commentary to the media

Quoted in The Irish Times (2017) article “YouTube instafamous changing rules of celebrity creation”, 18th January at: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/youtube-instafamous-changing-rules-of-celebrity-creation-1.3358847
Quoted in Waitrose Weekend (2016) article “How the Internet feeds on our love of food” (pp.8-9) on 10^th November
Quoted in The Times’ (2016) special report on “Spotlight on sustainable packaging” (pp.8-9) on 16^th June, available through Raconteur at: http://raconteur.net/business/spotlight-on-sustainable-packaging
Quoted in The Times’ (2015) special report on “How to measure the value consumers place on a brand” (pp.8-9) on 28^th April, available through Raconteur at: http://raconteur.net/business/how-to-measure-brand-value

Current Teaching

James teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, specialising in brand management, brand strategy and issues pertaining to consumer culture. His teaching takes a critical and cultural approach to the brand-related activities of organisations and seeks to encourage a more mindful, socially-aware understanding of the role of brands in contemporary consumer culture.

PhD Supervision Interests

I supervise PhD students in the broad areas of consumer culture theory (CCT), transformative consumer research (TCR), social marketing, critical marketing, and food studies. I am particularly receptive to students who demonstrate an appreciation for novel and interpretive approaches to research and share an interest in contemporary consumer experiences. I especially welcome work that centres on the micro-cultural experiences of consumers and the social influences that impact upon consumers' identities, relationships and/or well-being. My current doctoral students contend with a number of exciting conceptual issues that vary from consumer resistance to forms of escapist behaviour using a broad suite of qualitative methods. Their contexts of interest range from studying the functions that binge-watching TV series serve consumers to unpacking the role of digital detoxing practices in an increasingly digitalised world.