Tagged / Department of Marketing

5th International Conference for Marketing in the Insurance Industry

BU research, conferences, ECR Network, Featured academics, Research news, research staff, Uncategorized

FOM academics from the department of Marketing, Strategy and Innovation presented their work at the  International Conference for Marketing in the Insurance Industry (ICMI) held in Paris. This conference attracted an international audience of insurance specialists including academics, practitioners and industry consultants.

Dr Julie Robson presented two joint papers. The first examined the negative impact of brand spillover in the  financial services sector on individual U.K. based insurance companies and was co-authored with Prof Jillian Farquhar from Solent University/University of Pretoria. The second paper detailed research conducted in France on how multi-channels can destroy (rather than create) customer value. This paper was co-authored with  Prof Illaria Dalla Pozza from IPAG, Paris and Prof Jillian Farquhar.

FoM doctoral student, Ella Ejime also presented her research on psychological distance. Her results compared consumer perceptions in the UK and Nigeria. Ella is a matched funded PhD student  funded by IPAG and BU.

This conference is now in its fifth year having been held at IPAG Paris, St Gallen Switzerland and BU England.   More details about ICMI and the Association for Insurance Marketing can be found here.

 

Dr Elvira Bolat featured in BBC World Service documentary

BU research, Research communication, Research news

In December 2018 BBC World Service has broadcasted its new documentary titled “When you tire of tech”. The documentary is presented by Ana Matronic who explored dangers associated with tech addiction and what is done currently to minimise our over-reliance on tech.

The documentary features the interview with Dr Elvira Bolat, who comments on intimate relationships tech users have with their devices and social media. This interview is underpinned by various studies Dr Bolat has carried out to understand the usage of mobile tech and social media by consumers and businesses. It is also reflecting on the latest research discoveries around social media influencing and the dark side of relationships between social media leaders and followers – work co-authored with Dr Parisa Gilani and BA (Hons) Business Studies with Marketing graduate, Cladia Wilkin.

Do listen to the podcast and tune in to discover what Dr Bolat has said [12:35].

International conference on insurance marketing is coming to BU

BU research, Events

Following three successful conferences in Paris, France (2015, 2016) and St. Gallen, Switzerland (2017), we are pleased to announce that the 4th International Conference for Marketing in the Insurance industry (ICMI) will be held at the Executive Business Centre, Bournemouth University on the 13th and 14th September 2018.

ICMI is the annual conference of the Association for Insurance Marketing (AIM) which serves as the primary platform to promote research in the field of insurance marketing. Though many academics have investigated marketing related topics in the financial sector, the insurance industry has largely been ignored. In addition, academic accounts of the insurance industry have generally focused on risk, investment and actuarial issues rather than marketing and consequently research that considers the idiosyncrasies of marketing in the insurance industry is urgently needed.

ICMI papers will cover a diverse range of insurance marketing topics including the challenges of multi-channel distribution; claims management and fraud; supply chains and ecosystems; and trust and big data. The programme includes papers from FoM and FMC doctoral students and also past and current students on the MSc Professional Development (Loss Adjusting) course.

Further information about the conference can be found here or contact the chair, Associate Professor, Julie Robson.

ICB’s 1st Research Sandpit generates interest across faculties

BU research, Events, Research news

This year the Influences on Consumer Behaviour (ICB) cluster that sits within the Department of Marketing (The Business School) is celebrating its 5th birthday and in this timeframe it has managed to establish its core strategic themes and projects. These projects include:

Professor Juliet Memery is presenting Food Waste project

(1) Food waste – this project has received a BA Leverhulme research grant to explore consumer-led strategies for combating the problem of overstocking food. It is astonishing to see some facts and figures around household food waste and learn that the UK is one of largest offenders in this domain. Led by Professor Juliet Memery this research project seeks to understand what consumers do and can do to minimise food waste.

Dr Julie Robson is discussing Trust Repair project

 (2) Trust repair in the services context – this project, led by Dr Julie Robson, Associate Professor in Marketing, explores how consumers have reacted to recent transgressions that have affected different service providers, and how businesses in these cases have responded to scandals. Several outputs are in development with numerous conference presentations delivered and journal papers in the pipeline. Moreover this project, in addition to a substantial internal research funding, has secured external funding from the Academy of Marketing.

Dr Elvira Bolat introduces the B2B marketing challenges

(3) B2B marketing – is the research field led by Dr Kaouther Kooli. She, together with Dr Elvira Bolat, leads the B2B Special Interest Group of the Academy of Marketing. B2B businesses are the greatest contributors to economic prosperity and in fact the majority of businesses work within complex ecosystems of multiple business players. Interestingly B2B research is hardly covered by the majority of marketing journals and represents an area of enormous research potential that can generate much needed impact for practitioners. This particular project that discusses challenges faced by B2B firms due to digitalisation and ‘poor’ or non-existent branding practices has delivered two special issues with Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing and Journal of Customer Behaviour. Bournemouth University’s academics are now working closely with creative industries practitioners, Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing, and Regent’s University in London to initiate and drive change in B2B branding.

All three projects have attracted internal and external funding and have a series of outputs which will lead to impact case study conversions.

On 16th May ICB kicked off its small series of research sandpits to seek further expansion of the three research projects’ impact.

Academic attendees at the ICB 1st Research Sandpit

First an overview of the current projects was presented. Next, academics from the Faculties of Management, Science and Technology, Media and Communications together with a few local practitioners split into three roundtable (research teams) discussions – to elaborate on potential future research agendas across the three strategic projects. Two-three research directions and suitable external funding opportunities as well as research dissemination plans were identified by each roundtable research team. We are planning to monitor progress of each research team and communicate success stories.

At this point we are planning the second ICB research sandpit – please keep an eye on the Research Blog for further details.

How did an archaeologist become a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Management?

Awarded & submitted bids, conferences

My name is Shannon Birch-Chapman and I am currently a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Management at Bournemouth University, working on a QR funded project titled Trust Repair in the Service Sector.

 

Our team is investigating how organisations can repair trust following trust erosion, focussing on three highly publicised cases: 1) the treatment of staff at the main Sports Direct Warehouse in Derbyshire; 2) the Alton Towers rollercoaster crash that caused two women to have leg amputations; and 3) the mis-selling of PPI by banks. These are diverse case studies with different causes and severities of trust erosion and as such, our team consists of people with diverse backgrounds: two in finance (Dr Julie Robson and Samreen Ashraf), two in leisure and hospitality (Dr Caroline Jackson and Dr Elvira Borat), two in retail (Prof Juliet Memery and Dr Jason Sit) and me: an archaeologist!

Figure 1. Excavating on the Bournemouth University Durotriges Project in 2013.

“How did an archaeologist become a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Management?” I hear you ask. Well, as any archaeology graduate knows, finding steady employment in archaeology following your degree (or in my case, an undergraduate degree, an honours degree, a masters and a PhD!) is almost impossible. The great thing about studying archaeology is that we learn a wide range of transferrable skills and are particularly good at sifting through large volumes of quantitative and qualitative evidence, and synthesising this to make informed conclusions. We are essentially the detectives of the past and, as such, make meticulous researchers.

Figure 2. Surveying the architectural remains at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Ba’ja in Jordan in 2015.

In this project, I have put my previous skills to good use, conducting literature searches; compiling and writing background information for our case studies, conference presentations and journal articles; devising the conceptual framework and hypotheses for our project, and linking these to the current theories; analysing data; and writing and presenting results.

I have also developed several new qualitative research skills, particularly relating to the gathering of data through consumer focus groups, stakeholder interviews and questionnaires. As someone who had never done qualitative research of this kind, it was an interesting process working out how to devise the right questions to ask. I hadn’t ever given much thought to how much effort goes into constructing these and analysing the outputs.

One of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of the research to date has been learning how to use NVivo: a program for analysing qualitative data. Our team attended a two day workshop with Ben Meehan from QDA Training, which was tailored for our project. It was then my job to ‘code’ and analyse the data from the consumer focus groups and some of the stakeholder interviews. I used a combination of template and thematic approaches, whereby participant responses were ‘coded’ into pre-existing and emerging themes. The themes related to definitions of trust, the cause and severity of trust erosion, specific trust repair strategies and the success of these for trust repair. Running queries on the coded data, we were able to determine the trust repair strategies that were most successful for each of our three case studies.

The project started around February this year and we have already had the opportunity to present our research at the 3rd International Colloquium on Design, Brand and Marketing (ICDBM) in April and at Bournemouth University’s Festival of Learning in July. We are presenting at the 3rd International Colloquium on Corporate Branding, Identity, Image and Reputation (COBIIR): Current and Future Trends, Developments and Challenges in September and have two journal articles in preparation. We are hoping that our results will guide best practice in industry and the team will be looking to work more directly with practitioners in the next stage of the research.

Figure 3. Presenting at the ICDBM conference in 2017 (left to right: Shannon Birch-Chapman, Caroline Jackson, Julie Robson and Samreen Ashraf).

As for me, I am nearing the end of my contract at Bournemouth University. Being a research assistant here has enabled me to apply and develop even stronger research skills beyond my discipline that I am sure will help me in my search for future employment. I wonder what interesting things I will be researching next…

 

To follow Trust Repair project, tweet at @TrustRepairBU

 

Conference papers

Bolat, E., Robson, J., Ashraf, S., Birch-Chapman, S., Sit, J., Memery, J. and Jackson, C., 2017. Corporate brand rehab: Diagnosing trust repair mechanisms in the service sectors. Paper to be presented at the 3rd International Colloquium on Corporate Branding, Identity, Image and Reputation (COBIIR): Current and Future Trends, Developments and Challenges. 7th-8th September 2017.

Robson, J., Memery, J., Jackson, C., Sit, J., Bolat, E., Ashraf, S., Birch-Chapman, S., 2017. Trust Me: I’m no longer a damaged brand. Paper presented at the 3rd International Colloquium on Design, Brand and Marketing (ICDBM), Bournemouth University, 5th Apr 2017.