Rainer Haas

Rainer Haas is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Marketing and Innovation within the Department of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU). With his office located at Feistmantelstraße 4 in Vienna, he maintains active research and teaching roles while serving as CEEPUS Coordinator for Agricultural Sciences students and USA Study Coordinator for Agriculture and Food Economics.

His educational background includes a doctorate from BOKU's Institute of Agricultural Economics, where his research on Austria's first online farmers market earned the 1998 Austrian Agricultural Marketing Award. He completed his Habilitation in Marketing in 2004 and has served as guest professor at the University of Florida's Department for Food and Resource Economics during multiple spring semesters (2010, 2012, 2016, 2018).

Haas specializes in food marketing, sustainable consumption, and intercultural consumer behavior, with particular expertise in pandemic-related food safety perceptions, plant-based alternatives, and Balkan market dynamics. His recent publications reveal strong focus on digital transformation in food systems, sustainable consumption frameworks, and methodological advances in decision science.

His scientific contributions include multiple awards: Agrana Research Awards (2001, 2006), ISAHP Best Paper Award (2001), Emerald Literati Network Awards (2011), and the Most Innovative Idea Award (2016). As editor for Bodenkultur and Economia Agro-Alimentare journals, he shapes scholarly discourse in agricultural economics.

Haas has supervised over 50 master's theses while teaching courses including Strategic Marketing Game, Global Networking, and Intercultural Communication. His current EU-funded projects (SUSCOF, CROPDIVA-WP5, IMPACT) address sustainable food systems, local value chains, and pandemic impacts on food safety in the Balkans, demonstrating applied research with real-world policy implications.