Guest article by Bart Larivière.
May, 23, 2005 – May 23, 2025
Today, marks 20 years since I defended my PhD.
This week, I took the time to reflect upon my journey, considering the past, the present and the future. Based on these reflections, I grasp the opportunity to share 20 experiences/lessons.
Teaching
1- I was not well trained for my first lecture.
I became a university teacher immediately after defending my PhD. But my first lecture felt more like a conference presentation than teaching. Unlike elementary or secondary education, doctoral programs often overlook (sufficient) training for teaching – although, every tenure tracker needs to teach. I had to learn on the go, often from my own failures, and thanks to student feedback (open questions). Fortunately, I encountered some truly inspiring professors along the way who exemplified excellent teaching and served as role models.
2- Teaching as a journey, not a destination.
I believe more emphasis should be placed on the design of the learning trajectory. It’s not just about the final exam and destination (e.g., a number as final grade without feedback), but about coaching students, providing them feedback during their assignments, motivating them and giving them an opportunity to improve throughout their course journeys (which includes correcting mistakes in assignments after initial feedback). Thanks to the covid-19 pandemic, we were forced to embrace digital teaching. In the post-covid era, the best of the two worlds is combined: on-campus coaching and interactive sessions that are complemented with online knowledge-absorbing recordings.
3- Humility in expertise, even if you think you are an expert.
I studied marketing, earned a second master degree in marketing analytics, completed a PhD in marketing, and I am a professor at a marketing department. I thought I knew what “marketing” was. But while co-authoring a book with five scholars from four different universities and discussing its contents, I realized how much I still had to learn. Even “experts” need the wisdom of other experts.
4- The joy of co-teaching, if you are lucky.
Co-authoring research papers is common in academia, but co-teaching is not. Yet, when I got the unique opportunity to co-teach a marketing course with a brilliant colleague, it turned out to be a deeply enriching experience. Like in research, the success of a collaboration, however, depends on both complementary knowledge/skills and personalities that click. I am lucky in this regard.
5- The intrinsic motivation to go the extra mile, makes you smile.
Going the extra mile for teaching is, in contrast to research achievements, typically underrated (e.g., for promotion). Yet, when a student brings you a box of chocolates two years after being graduated, and reveals that your lectures are important for the current job: that makes it all worth the extra mile. We have a responsibility to prepare students for the real marketing world, a world that is continuously changing and requires an agile mindset. Luckily, our strong industry ties help us keep our teaching relevant and up-to-date.
Research
6- The triple research challenge: be prepared!
In Belgium, succeeding in research endeavors means excelling in three areas – and no, you can’t cherry-pick. You need to be good in all three: publishing in academic journals, securing research funding (e.g., to hire PhD students), and successfully supervising PhDs to completion. While we may not have teaching duties during Christmas or summer breaks (aside from retake exams and thesis supervision), that “free” time is essential for progressing in these research tasks. The best pre-Xmas feeling is that your paper revision or grant application is finished before you start cooking your Xmas dinner.
7- PhD students come first.
Students – i.e., undergraduates and master’s – come first. Then come your PhD students. The more PhD students you supervise (and want to mentor properly), the less time remains for your own research, or ideas you may want to keep for yourself as lead investigator. Like children in real life, they deserve our time, and devotion, to help them grow to become successful scholars.
8- My academic family – forever!
Having PhD students feels a lot like having and raising a family. You nurture your “academic children” to become independent scholars who can stand on their own. Yet, like in any family, you never stop being a parent – the door remains open whenever they may need you, and the relationship endures beyond PhD graduation.
9- Make impact with or without articles in top journals.
We distinguish between top-tier journals and others. And while I understand the importance of journal rankings, a publication in such a top journal doesn’t always imply it’s an impactful article. Many institutions unfortunately, still value a low-citation paper in a top journal more than a highly cited paper in a lower-ranked one. When evaluating individual scholars, I believe impact should matter more: whether through Google Scholar, Web of Science, or Altmetric scores, and/or (even hopefully) changing the behavior of stakeholders: the real question is: Did the paper impact others?
Academia often over-emphasizes the aggregate (the journal) and under-appreciates each individual’s contribution to that aggregate’s (the journal) success.
10- Find your academic community, keep building on your foundations.
During my academic journey, I switched communities: from data miner (modeler) to service marketer. The switch enabled me to find my true home in academia. Yet, I remained loyal to my academic background and modeling skills I mastered; methodological skills I had to strengthen throughout my journey. You cannot fully rely on methods and software you acquired during your PhD trajectory; that’s insufficient. Take a (methodology) course, or self-study new methods since new data opportunities necessitate new (methodological) skills.
11- It is a cliché but true: Embrace failures – you have no other option.
Failure is the norm in academic research since acceptance rates are low (e.g., often 5 to 10% for journal article). Hence, on average, up to 95% of what we do in research will be rejected. I was never well prepared for that, and still struggle with it, especially when it affects the research and early careers of my PhD students and junior colleagues. Like Xavier Waterslaeghers formulated it in the FC De Kampioenen Forever movie : “Een echte kampioen is een winnaar, ook als hij verliest”… that is the resilience and mindset you need to survive.
Lessons 9-20 will be published soon.
Up to the next 20 years!
May 23, 2025.
Bart Larivière
Marketing Professor
Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), KU Leuven
Center for Service Intelligence (CSI) at Ghent University
