bart-role-model

guest post by Bart Larivière

First, I would like to thank Lisa Brüggen for nominating me. I met Lisa for the first time at the airport when we were traveling to the 2012 Frontiers in Service Conference. During our trip, I told Lisa that I enjoyed reading the JM paper she co-authored on the topic of servicescape remodeling. That same conference this paper was awarded as best SERVSIG paper! What a nice coincidence.

I have a lot of respect for Lisa: she is a great researcher, colleague, and is a nice person to talk to in general. In addition, I have the joy of co-organizing the next edition of the Frontiers doctoral consortium with Lisa.

Her request to nominate my role models proved to be quite challenging. Not because I don’t have any… but because I have so many! First, I am grateful to the pioneers of our service community: the ones who wrote the textbooks on service marketing and management that changed our conventional way of thinking, the ones who founded and organized our service conferences, and the founding and subsequent editors of all our service journals. It is their ‘service’ enthusiasm that laid the foundation for our service research community. Without them, we would not have SERVQUAL, SPC and SDL, we would never have met each other at conferences, had no service journals to send our work to, would probably study other and less relevant marketing/management topics, or be no academics at all.

1 Roland Rust and meWhile I will not attempt to name all pioneers, I want to make one exception. Not in the least I want to mention Roland Rust. Roland is the founder of my favorite journal, my favorite conference and can be viewed as the Godfather of our community. Roland, thank you for all your contributions to the service field!

 

2 Werner Kunz and meBesides the pioneers, I also admire many others that make a significant contribution to our field one way or another. One such “star” is Werner Kunz. I am impressed by what Werner, our current SERVSIG chair, is doing for our community. Thanks to him, the SERVSIG interest group is growing at a formidable rate. Thank you Werner for your inexhaustable energy!

When thinking of my academic role models, I want to mention some people that I met during my academic journey and who played and important role.
Patrick Van Kenhove and Bart LariviereMy first role model is Patrick Van Kenhove. Patrick is the head of the Marketing Department at Ghent University, where I kicked off my PhD trajectory. He explained me how important research is, what it is about, and in particular he made it clear to me that you need a team and team spirit to become both successful and happy. Patrick was one of my teachers that made a longlife impression on me, an additional mentor during my own PhD and postdoc trajectory. Even today, his door is always open for advice whenever I need it and even whenever he feels I should receive it.

4 Tim and LerzanMy first partners in crime in this service research community, and next role models, are Lerzan Aksoy and Tim Keiningham. We met each other in Groningen in 2006 during a conference organized by Peter Verhoef. We collaborated ever since. Lerzan and Tim are the ones who introduced me to this wonderful service community, not just by recommending me journals and conferences, but also by taking me on board in their ongoing research, by linking me to other leading scholars, and learning me how the system works. Now, ten years and 8 co-authored papers later, we are still collaborating and friends! I owe them a great debt of gratitude!

5 David Bowen and meAnother role model is David Bowen, I also admire him as a friend and colleague. I feel priviliged to collaborate with him on something we are both passionate about. He continuously challenges me to become the better version of myself, making me a better researcher and reminding me what is really imporant in (academic) life.

Finally, my last –but not least– academic role models are the CSI (Center for Service Intelligence) colleagues. Although, they are not (yet) that well-known and famous as the other role models mentioned above, they make a true difference for me. My strength is definitely my team… they probably don’t realize how important they are to me.

6 CSI Team

To keep this chain going, I would like to nominate Anu Helkkula to share her role model(s). I met Anu during the 2010 LaLonde Conference and was impressed by her joint work with Carol Kelleher. She published one of the 20 top-cited marketing articles in any marketing journal since 2011 and will continue to impact our field. I am wondering who her academic role models are.

BartLariviere_Photo-e1410967587473-1024x1024Bart Larivière is Assistant Professor of Service Management and Founder of the Center for Service Intelligence at the Ghent University in Belgium www.CenterforServiceIntelligence.org. Furthermore, he is the mentorship officer of SERVSIG. 

 

 

 

 

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