We’re profiling nominees in the lead up to the 2014 Macquarie University Research Excellence Awards this Thursday 2 October.
This week meet Dr David Gray from the Department of Marketing and Management,who is a nominee for an Excellence in Research – Business, Management and Economics Award.
How long have you been a researcher at Macquarie?
I graduated with a PhD in May 2006 from UNSW and started at Macquarie in February 2006.
I was drawn to research because…
I was inquisitive. There were many difficult to solve problem areas in business. I had 30 years of business experience but had little time to think about, research into and reflect on those kinds of problems during that period. Academic research provided the opportunity to explore various aspects of business in a detailed and non-partisan way and to test those ideas through rigorous field research.
What would be an ‘elevator pitch’ of your research area?
My research into marketing comprises four major themes:
- How to build more effective collaborative processes between businesses including studies into understanding the success drivers of business partnerships and strategic alliance; the use of influence strategies in relationship marketing and the influence of interpersonal skills including emotional intelligence, relational competence and managerial cognition on team performance
- How to encourage entrepreneurship, innovation and new product creation including studies into audience satisfaction with television drama; the application of new methods for measuring corporate brand health, and advertising effectiveness.
- How to build better models of the consumer decision-making process including studies into brand switching as demonstrated through the State of the Mobile Nation Research program 2011-2014, focusing on the mobile phone consumer switching process and consumer bank switching.
- How to encourage organisations to engage in social marketing activities including studies into energy efficiency and joint authorship of a new textbook in social marketing.
In layman’s terms, what is the wider impact of your research?
Our research into State of the Mobile Nation Research program 2011-2014 has so far had the widest impact of my research. This program provided an opportunity to initiate thought leadership to facilitate the removal of market distortions in the Australian cell phone services market. It was used to provide consumers with independent, evidence-based input into telecommunications regulatory policy making.
Who is/was your biggest research mentor?
Dr Ian Wilkinson, now Professor of Marketing at Sydney University.
If I were given $1Million in research funding, the first thing I would do is…
I would set up a social marketing institute to focus on encouraging the adoption of products and services which simultaneously enhance organisational competitiveness and the economic and social conditions in the communities in which those organisations operate.
In ten years I see my research…
I see my research building closer engagement between academics and business practitioners. Using my research themes as a base I can provide a conduit between academics and practitioners to help translate marketing theory into a language that practitioners can understand. I feel I can operate in and feel comfortable in academic communities of practice, such as universities, academic conferences and research seminars, as well as in practitioner communities of practice, such as industry associations and boardrooms.
My favourite and/or most proud research moment was when…
It was when I graduated with my PhD in 2006. For someone who had been out of the academic world for nearly 30 years it was a stimulating and challenging experience.