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Faculty

  • Carlos Alberto Gonçalves
  • Juliana Maria Magalhães Christino
  • Marlusa Gosling
  • Plínio Rafael Reis Monteiro
  • Ricardo Teixeira Veiga

Thematic fields for marketing

Field 1: Relationship marketing and service marketing for integrated marketing communication

This field focuses on activities that involve the relationships and delivery processes that are important for the internal and external plans of organizations and their current and potential markets. Research includes the relationships consumers have with brands, and encompasses studies of satisfaction, loyalty, engagement and word-of-mouth communication, trust, and value in relationships. It investigates relationship building and management systems based on client relationships, customer equity and customer lifetime value, management failures, complaints, the management and measurement of service quality, and the use of integrated communication to promote relationships.

Field 2: Experience marketing and tourism marketing

This field seeks to understand the relationships among attractiveness factors and competitiveness, image, and the reputation of tourist destinations from the perspective of the various actors involved in tourism. It encompasses market experience studies that deal with the topic from both a quantitative (survey and experiments) and a qualitative (netnography and ethnography, among others) perspective. The thematic field examines experience management with brands and destinations and the role of the digital market in tourist behavior. It includes authenticity studies about tourist selection processes, leisure management, and entertainment.

Field 3: Consumer behavior

This field promotes research into consumer behavior determinants and conditioners and the relationships among consumption, society, and the environment. Consumption is studied from macro, interdisciplinary, and micro perspectives. The primary focus is the individual responses of consumers and their interactions with the components of the marketing strategy, considering cognitive, affective, social, and cultural aspects. Special attention has also been given to critical studies of consumer society and the culture industry, as well as to consumer behavior on the internet and on new interactive media.

Field 4: Marketing practice and management

Studies focus on the management of the marketing mix in one of the classical product dimensions of price, market, and promotion, and the management of the marketing offer, including products, brands, and services. Research studies include aspects of the brand’s identity and reputation, and relationships between consumers and brands; elements associated to distribution channels and positioning; and the pricing of products and services and pricing strategies in general. Further studies include the communication mix, such as new communication media, communication evaluation metrics, integrated communication management, promotional strategies, public relationships, and sponsorships.

Field 5: Digital marketing processes

This field includes marketing and new information and communication technology (ITC), including digital marketing, electronic marketing, digital consumer behavior, mobile marketing, marketing and social media, co-creation, user-generated content (UGC), and customer analytics.

Field 6: Intelligence, metrics, performance, and marketing modeling

This field includes the analysis of decision-making processes for the strategic foundation of marketing and the use of the legal framework to construct procedures for supporting marketing decisions. It addresses elements of managerial practice, with an emphasis on the cognitive, social, and psychological processes for decision-making, including mechanisms for surveying information, especially intelligence and marketing research and its application to a strategic perspective. The field also includes studies of the creation of metrics and models for performance evaluation in marketing, whether they are viewed from a managerial, functional, or social perspective. Debates about primary and secondary sources of information are also included, emphasizing the phenomena related to so-called "big data."

Field 7: Society, marketing, and consumption

This field includes the relationships between marketing and consumption, consisting of analysis of consumer counter culture, consumer resistance, and anti-consumption. Debates center on social aspects that connect consumption to local realities and their intersection with the construction of social culture and identity, consumer culture theory (CCT) and studies of the "dark side of consumer behavior.” These are epistemological approaches and therefore, the studies adopt multiple perspectives, including phenomenology, consumer anthropology, and symbolic analysis. The studies include more conventional approaches, such as exploratory, descriptive, and experimental research.

Thematic fields for strategy and innovation

Field 1: Theories of competitive advantage

This thematic field includes theories of economic, social, and political competition that affect the superior performance of organizations; structural factors in the external environment that determine the creation of competitive advantage; and descriptive theories of competitive advantage. The field also includes theories for competitive positioning in contingency logic, a view based in resources such as (RBV), (KBV), (KLV), Relational View, and Value-Price-Cost; theories of evolutionary perspectives; and models and theories for upholding competitive advantage in typical markets. The field also includes the orientation of competitive organizations of different sizes—M-Forms, oligopolies, monopolies, and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs); and technology-based start-ups. Models for structure, conduct, and performance are explored, as are the competitiveness of states and nations; the organization and resources of states and nations for competitiveness (analogous with the diamond model); innovation factors; and skills for sustaining competitiveness. Marketing theories from economics, macro-economic theories that promote the development of business, cultural and societal factors for development, evolutionary theory, and models for measuring markets are all investigated.

Field 2: Scenario planning theory, strategic planning, and strategic management

This thematic field includes models and theories for predicting strategic scenarios to develop strategic planning in market-oriented and non-market-oriented organizations in competitive economic markets. Types and models of prediction (Godet and Grumbauch, among others) and aggressive, calm, and reactive market analysis theories are discussed. We examine competitive intelligence models and theories; environmental diagnostics to support strategic planning; strategic planning theories and models for deliberative strategies; balanced scorecard (BSC) model strategic analysis; and classical models based on SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) analysis. We consider models based on balanced scorecards, strategic maps, roadmaps, design thinking, and computational platforms for designing strategies. Further areas of study include strategic implementation (change, adaptation, and coordination); strategic leveraging projects, and the strategy-structure organizational relationship for alignment and performance; strategy formation processes; deliberative and emergent strategies; and business theories and models (business plans).

Field 3: Strategic leadership and greater growth and performance

This thematic field includes business growth theories (the lacuna model); factors that promote sustainable growth and the creation of long-lasting competitive advantage; management, culture, and innovation implementation; mergers and acquisitions; expansion in markets and territories; and mental models for strategy development for leaders, CEOs, and business managers. We explore strategies for bypassing high-risk situations; downsizing or outsourcing businesses in retraction situations; and downsizing, bankruptcy, and shutdown. Further topics include team leadership to create and sustain strategies; the role of strategic consulting in businesses; and entrepreneur behavior and entrepreneurship in the growth and sustainability of the organization. Positioning and growth strategies through international business are explored, as are internationalization strategies, the governance of international conglomerates for sustainability, growth, and business expansion, and international performance modeling. Finally, we consider support strategies for sustaining small- and medium-sized businesses, strategies for family businesses, and models and theories for strategic consulting agents for businesses as mentors, coaches, and change agents.

Field 4: Corporate business strategies and measuring performance

This thematic field explores the theories of positioning strategies in competitive situations; defense strategies for fight or flight; market dynamics analysis and market structures for strategic positioning. It also covers design and information research for strategic planning; governance models; the use of resources to promote greater performance and competitive advantage; the property structure effect; and relationships with stakeholders as a means of creating a virtuous cycle. Determining factors for performance at different levels of aggregation, whether business, industry, strategic group, conglomerate, city, state, country, or multiple countries, are identified. The problems posed by agency policies for resolving conflicts that compromise strategy are explored. Business strategies for performing due diligence for IPO and/or sale are identified, as are models for sustainability strategies for conglomerates, strategic groups, and small- and medium-sized businesses. Further issues include theoretical approaches to performance; modeling plural performance in different sectoral environments; performance metrics in non-market oriented organizations; and strategic administration of resources for greater performance. Finally, we consider strategic management and management plan(s) for upholding the strategy; (CANVAS), (BABOK), and (MEG) (models of excellence) models; strategic maturity models (benchmarking); limitation strategy; and first and second movers.

Field 5: Analogies, strategic learning, and strategic decisions

This thematic field explores zero-sum game and win-win theories; social game theories; war theories; and business simulation games for teaching strategy. Further topics include optimization to measure superior plural performance; fictional models that simulate strategy; methods for teaching strategy, and models for training and teaching talent how to take strategic business actions. We conduct ontological analysis in the field of organizational strategy; explore corporate business plans for high performance, models and theories for strategic decision-making; and investigate neuro-decision models for explaining learning and strategic behavior. Research methods and techniques for organizational strategies are introduced.

Field 6: Strategic knowledge, innovation, and entrepreneurship factors

This thematic field explores competitive intelligence models and methods; network relationship models; innovation models and research and development (R&D), open innovation and the culture of innovation for generating competitive advantages. We discuss the global management of innovation, knowledge management for innovation, entrepreneur behavior and mental models, and network and individual entrepreneur strategies guided by patents. Further topics include the creation and innovation of value chains; diffusion models for innovation in domestic and international environments; incremental and rupture innovation to uphold organizational strategy; the triple-helix basis for encouraging innovation; patents and copyrights; and innovation in products and services in organizations in market and non-market sectors. Finally, we discuss models of support foundations, business plans for creating start-ups, and technology parks for encouraging business growth and creation.

Field 7: Policies and strategies for economic and socio-environmental sustainability

This thematic filed considers policies and strategies in the public and private sectors for producing social value; studies of mechanisms to mitigate negative externalities; social environmental risks; and competition in the public sphere. Further topics include resource policies and strategies for optimizing sustainability and competition in market-oriented and non-market-oriented businesses; sustaining economic and social activities at the organization level; skill models for supporting competition; and the analysis of strong and weak signals that compromise businesses. We explore governance policies for achieving results and a virtuous cycle, including stakeholders, shareholders, governments, and society.

Field 8: Network strategy, cooperation, co-competition, and franchises

This thematic field examines competition models in networks and conglomerates; strategies in value chains; domestic and international growth network models; franchise networks; random networks; constellation analysis and linkage measurement; and social network strategies for competition. Further topics include networks, including policy networks, for developing the sector; cooperative models and competition at the network, corporate, and business level; company pressure on internal and external environments for competitive advantage; and territorial, industrial, and trade conglomerates, including different retail approaches and technology parks. The field also covers strategic topology design for sustaining domestic and international networks; topology analysis and metrics for networks (relevance, clicks, and density, among others); the strategic behavior of actors in networks; and public policies for supporting and sustaining networks. International networks for sustaining and growing businesses are explored, along with networks, public relations, and diplomacy for promoting national strategic plans.

Field 9: Strategies for governments and security

This thematic field covers relationships and plans for government agencies; policies and strategies for negotiating and linking public and private organizations; strategies for improving performance in public-private partnerships (PPPs); and policies and initiatives of organizations to promote economic, social, and environmental security. Further topics include public strategies to promote the well-being of society and the economy; regulation, social classification, and economic strategies that affect or promote development; government support for sectors, incentives, and public policies to promote development. Finally, we consider strategies for democratic governments, sustainable states and governments, and strategies for specific government sectors, such as education, health, energy, and infrastructure.