Rate My Professor Rob Hamlin

Dr Robert Hamlin is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing at the University of Otago's Otago Business School. Holding an MA from Oxford University, an MBA from Indiana University, and a PhD from the University of Otago, Hamlin initially trained as an agricultural scientist. He worked as a researcher and manager in the pig industry before pursuing studies in the United States as a Harkness Fellow. Joining the University of Otago's Department of Marketing in 1992, he completed his doctorate in 1997. Prior to his academic career, he accumulated experience in management roles across the agricultural and banking industries in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Hamlin's academic interests center on food marketing and consumer behaviour, including package and food waste reduction, public good food and dietary marketing, and historical, philosophical, and ethical dimensions of marketing. As a member of the Food Waste Innovation research centre, he applies his expertise in assessing consumer responses to packaging to promote socially desirable outcomes. In teaching, he covers practical aspects of food marketing and product management, delivering courses like MART563 Food Marketing, AGRI101 Agricultural Innovation, and supervising MMart, MCom, DBA, and PhD students. His influential publications encompass "Does the Australasian “Health Star Rating” front of pack nutritional label system work?" (2016, 103 citations), "The impact of front-of-pack nutrition labels on consumer product evaluation and choice: an experimental study" (2015, 88 citations), "Food neophobia, food choice and the details of cultured meat acceptance" (2022, 77 citations), "Fashion sensitive young consumers and fashion garment repair: Emotional connections to garments as a sustainability strategy" (2020, 116 citations), and recent contributions on single-use plastics such as "Consumers' capabilities, opportunities and motivations that drive single-use plastic (SUP) reduction: A qualitative study on the case of milk packaging" (2026). With more than 1,300 citations, Hamlin's research has substantially shaped fields of consumer decision-making, nutrition labeling, and sustainable practices. He also serves as co-editor of the British Food Journal.