GfK Research Awards
GfK graciously supports awards for research shared at BBR conferences that holds promise of contribution and impact. Recipients receive an award of $1500 and are inducted in the BBR Hall of Fame .
BBR Hall of Fame Award Winner 2014
Birgit’s research interests lie at the intersection of service marketing and branding. Current projects focus on the perils of internal brand management as well as the implications of internal branding strategies, frontline employee–brand fit, and employee–customer relationships on employees, customers, and company success. Birgit graduated in business administration at the University of Mannheim, Germany, and completed her PhD in at the University of Vienna, Austria (with distinction).
Birgit Lohndorf
Assistant Professor of Marketing at the WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
IBBR Hall of Fame Award 2014
“How (In)Authentic Brand-Congruent Behavior of Frontline Employees Affects Customer-Brand Relationships”
Selected Publications & Research Projects
Löhndorf, Birgit and Adamantios Diamantopoulos (2014), “Internal Branding: Social Identity and Social Exchange Perspectives on Turning Employees into Brand Champions,” Journal of Service Research, 17 (3), 310-25.
Löhndorf, Birgit and Adamantios Diamantopoulos (2015), “Brand-alignment of Frontline Employees: Organizational Identification as a Success Factor”, under revision at the Journal of Marketing.
Sichtmann, Christina, Adamantios Diamantopoulos, Marc Herz, and Birgit Löhndorf (2015), “Perceived Brand Local Connectedness versus Perceived Brand Globalness: Their Relative Impact on Consumer-Brand Identification and Purchase Intentions,” under review at the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
Homburg, Christian, Andreas Fürst, and Birgit Löhndorf (in preparation), “How Marketing Planning Can Contribute to Company Performance: An Empirical Study on the Effective and Efficient Management of Operational Marketing Planning,” manuscript in preparation for submission.
BBR Hall of Fame Award Winner 2014
Danielle Brick is a PhD student in Marketing at Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Danielle’s research investigates the role of close relationships in marketing. She focuses on how brand and interpersonal relationships are affected by one another, and also how they are affected by factors such as wealth and power. Prior to joining the Marketing Program at Fuqua, Danielle worked in the Neuroendocrine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital where she conducted biomedical research. Danielle received her B.A. from Amherst College.
Danielle J. Brick
Marketing Department, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
IBBR Hall of Fame Award 2014
For the project, “Brand Compatibility and Power in Close Relationships.” Co-authors: Grainne Fitzsimons, Tanya Chartrand, Gavan Fitzsimons.
Additional Research in Progress
“Brand vs. Partner – When reminders of your brand might be more beneficial than your partner.” Co-authors: Tanya Chartrand and Gavan Fitzsimons. In process.
“Spiteful Brand Choices in Close Relationships.” Co-authors: Katherine Crain, Gavan Fitzsimons. In process.
“Shared Consumer Decision Making and Power in Close Relationships.” Co-authors: Tanya Chartrand, Gavan Fitzsimons. In process.
“The Effects of Relative Wealth on Interpersonal Closeness and Brand Relationships.” Co-authors: Tanya Chartrand, Gavan Fitzsimons. In process.
BBR Hall of Fame Award Winner 2013
Keith Marion Smith is a PhD student in the Department of Marketing at the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia. He previously earned a BA in Psychology and Sociology from Miami University, an MA in Psychology from Vanderbilt University, and an MBA from Belmont University. His research interests include post-purchase online customer engagement in product development, advertising, and sales; online customer communities; and automated web-crawler collection techniques to capture online customer behavior. His research has appeared in the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice and Memory & Cognition, and he has been awarded multiple Marketing Science Institute Research Grants.
Keith Marion Smith
Department of Marketing, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia
IBBR Hall of Fame Award 2013
Title of Research for which 2013 Award was granted
Smith, Keith, Scott Thompson and John Hulland (2013), “The Impact of Socially-Derived Network Effects on Product Consumption.”
Additional Research in Progress
Thompson, Scott, Molan Kim, and Keith Marion Smith (in progress), “Community Participation and Consumer to Consumer Helping: Does Participation Reduce the Likelihood to Help?” under revision for invited third round submission at Journal of Marketing Research
Hulland, John, Scott Thompson and Keith Marion Smith (2015, forthcoming), “Exploring Uncharted Waters: Use of Psychological Ownership Theory in Marketing,” to appear in Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice
Smith, Keith Marion, Scott Thompson and John Hulland (research in progress), “Innovation and Leadership Roles in Community Participation.”
Smith, Keith and John Hulland (2014), “Creating a New Connection: Marketing Influences on Co-Creation Network Change,” Marketing Science Institute Research Competition on Social Interactions and Social Media Marketing, Research Grant 4-1865.
Smith, Keith, Scott Thompson and John Hulland (2014), “Social-Cue Relevant Product Features and Consumption: The Mediating Role of Brand Communities,” presentation at the American Marketing Association Winter Educator’s
Conference, January, Orlando, FL.
Smith, Keith, John Hulland and Andrew Stephen (2013), “Post-Purchase Co-Creation: Transitioning from Customers to Co-Creators,” Marketing Science Institute Research Agreement Award, Research Grant 4-1804.
BBR Hall of Fame Award Winner 2013
Dr. Gina Ligon is Assistant Professor of Management at University of Nebraska at Omaha where she researches both productive and destructive forms of collaboration among individuals. Under this umbrella, she is interested in developing leaders to manage creative individuals and teams, unconventional leadership, the performance and markers of violent ideological groups, organizational innovation, leadership assessment, and succession planning. Gina also serves as Director of Research & Development for UNO’s Center for Collaboration Science. She has been awarded over $1,000,000 in grants and contracts from USSTRATCOM, START, IBM Business and Government, and Rural Futures Institute. She currently is the Principal Investigator on a START project examining the leadership and performance of transnational Violent Extremist Organizations (VEOs,) and is the originator of the Leadership of the Extreme and Dangerous for Innovative Results (LEADIR) database. She received her PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology with a Minor in Measurement and Statistics from the University of Oklahoma.
Gina Ligon
Assistant Professor of Management, University of Nebraska, Omaha
IBBR Hall of Fame Award 2013
Title of Research for which 2013 Award was granted
“Applying a Marketing Framework to Violent Extremist Organizations (VEOs): How Notoriety Predicts Performance in Violent Groups”, with Michael Breazeale, Erin Pleggenkuhle-Miles, Mackenzie Harms, JoDee Friedly, and Dan Harris
Additional Research in Progress
Ligon, Gina, Pete Simi, Mackenzie Harms and Daniel J. Harris (2013), “Putting the ‘O’ in Violent Extremist Organizations: What Makes an Organization?,” Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 6 (1-3), 110-134
Ligon, Gina, Peter Simi and William Braniff (2014), “ISIL: Branding, Leadership Culture and Lethal Attraction,” research report at the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, November.
Ligon, Gina, Daniel Harris, Mackenzie Harms, and JoDee Friedly (2013), “The Organization and Leadership of Violence,” August 26
Ligon, Gina, Daniel Harris, and Samuel Hunter (2012), “Quantifying Leader Lives: What Historiometric Approached Can Tell Us,” The Leadership Quarterly, 23, 1104-1133.
Ligon, Gina, Mackenzie Harms, John Crowe, Leif Lundmark, and Pete Simi (2014), “The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant: Branding, Leadership Culture, and Lethal Attraction,” Report to the Office of University Programs, Science and Technology Directorate, US Department of Homeland Security, November 2014.
BBR Hall of Fame Award Winner 2012
Christopher Long has over 15 years of research experience across the fields of psychology, consumer behavior, and health research. Across his career, he has worked on projects funded by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, the Belgian national science foundation, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chris earned a PhD in Personality & Social Psychology in 2003 and moved to Belgium for post-doctoral training in emotion research. He then spent ten years as a psychology professor at Ouachita Baptist University. In 2011, he served as Visiting Researcher at the Center on Consumers, Markets, & Society at the Louvain School of Management in Belgium. Since 2012, Chris has worked as a consulting data analyst, performing program evaluation analyses for the U.S. Department of Education TRIO McNair Scholars program. In 2015, he accepted a new position as Research & Evaluation Manager at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Christopher Long
Research & Evaluation Manager for Medical Sciences, University of Arkansas
IBBR Hall of Fame Award 2012
Title of Research for which 2012 Award was granted
Long, Christopher, Sukki Yoon, and Mike Friedman (2012), “When Lonely Consumers Like Less: Activating Loneliness Distances Consumers from Preferred Brands”
Select Publications
Long, C. R., Seburn, M., Averill, J. R., & More, T. A. (2003), “Solitude experiences: Varieties, settings, and individual differences,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 578-583.
Greenwood, D. N., & Long, C. R. (2011), “Attachment style, the need to belong and relationship status predict imagined intimacy with media figures,” Communication Research, 38, 278-297.
Long, C. R., Gable, P. A., Albee, C., & Boerstler, C. (2012), “Brands can be like friends: Goals and interpersonal motives influence attitudes toward preferred brands”, In S. Fournier, M. Breazeale, & M. Fetscherin (Eds.), Consumer brand relationships: Theory and practice, London: Routledge, 279-297.
Breazeale, M., Long, C. R., & Ott, D. (2014), Public luxury representatives, In B. Berghaus, G. Mueller-Stewens, & S. Reinecke (Eds.), The Management of Luxury: Strategy in the Global Luxury Market, London: Kogan Page, 101-112.
Long, C. R., Friedman, M., & Yoon, S. (2015, forthcoming), “How lonely consumers relate to brands: Insights from psychological and marketing research,” In S. Fournier, M. Breazeale, & J. Avery (Eds.), Strong Brands, Strong Relationships, London: Routledge.