Skip to main content
Robert Mason

Professor Robert Mason

Professor in Logistics

Cardiff Business School

Email
MasonRJ@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 75511
Campuses
Aberconway Building, Room Q46, Colum Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF10 3EU

Overview

Professor Robert Mason is the Head of Section of the Logistics and Operations Management (LOM) section and a Chair in Logistics at Cardiff Business School. The LOM section is arguably the largest grouping of academics in these disciplines in the UK with around 35 full time faculty.

In an academic career spanning 21 years, Robert has led/participated in a number of research programmes and published around 130 papers in many leading journals and conferences around two main themes, the provision of logistics and developing organisational process capabilities. He has also co-authored, with Barry Evans, three books which bring much of this work together: The Lean Supply Chain (2015 and updated 2019) and Marketing and Logistics Led Organisations (2017).

His research interests centre on how developments in technology are impacting on the provision of logistics, the optimisation of supply chain system processes which includes topics such as the integration of transport/logistics into national and international supply networks, the management of inter-organisational relationships (vertical and horizontal) and the organisation of enterprise to deliver customer value. He has a particular focus on the retail logistics sector. His PhD, entitled Collaborative Logistics Triads in Supply Chain Management, was awarded in 2009.

Robert's teaching profile focuses on logistics and supply chain management modules at postgraduate levels and he supervises a number of PhD students. His former PhD student, Dong-Wook Kwak, was awarded The James Cooper Cup from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport for best Phd in 2015. He has acted as both an Internal and External PhD Examiner, as the External Examiner for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Logistics and Management Programmes and as a course validator and assessor for Universities in the UK and internationally, notably in Greece and Oman.

Publication

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

Monographs

Thesis

Research

Research interests

  • the optimisation of supply chain system processes including:
    • the integration of transport/logistics into national and international supply networks;
    • the management of inter-organisational relationships (vertical and horizontal);
    • the organisation of enterprise to deliver customer value.

    Robert covers many industries but has a particular focus on the retail logistics sector.

PhD supervision research interests

  • Applications of lean principles
  • E-commerce
  • Freight transport
  • Home shopping
  • Impact of e-commerce on supply chains
  • Lean logistics
  • Logistics and transport management
  • Logistics business relationships
  • Supply chain collaboration
  • Supply chain management
  • Sustainable distribution

Teaching

Teaching commitments

  • Postgraduate - Logistics and it's Provision
  • Supervising MSc dissertation students and MBA Business project students
  • Supervising several doctoral students

Biography

Qualifications

  • 2009 PhD (Cardiff University) Title: 'Collaborative Logistics Triads in Supply Chain Management'
  • 2000 MBA (Distinction), Cardiff Business School. Dissertation title: 'The Impact of E-commerce on the UK Grocery Industry'
  • 2000 Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing, Chartered Institute of Marketing

Editorial work

  • International Journal of Production Economics - special issue editor

Honours and awards

  • Best Cardiff Business School Dissertation Supervisor (2012)
  • Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK) Wales - National Transport Award Winner (2008, 2009, 2011, 2013)

Professional memberships

  • British Academy of Management (BAM)
  • Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT)