Annual Report 2016
Department of Marketing
The Department of Marketing's vision is to educate market-oriented leaders for the modern economy. Focusing quality, relevance and research driven teaching in all our programs our students will work for the best companies.
| Head of Department | Bendik Meling Samuelsen |
| Head of Administration | Sissel Berg |
What is marketing?
Our fundamental view is that market-oriented governance is a prerequisite for growth and survival in the dynamic and non-profit markets. Marketing as an activity revolves around gathering insights from markets, organize development of the company's offerings and deliver it to the market in a competitive manner. Through this, one creates value for both business and stakeholders. Marketing is an engine of wealth creation, since markets are everywhere; there is a market for customers, employees, partners and licenses in the public and private sectors. We also see that an analytical approach to market-oriented management through data-driven decisions based on big data and digitization makes its entrance in more and more places, something that we capture in our research and in our programmes.
Who are we?
The Department of Marketing has one of Europe's largest research groups in marketing, with a staff of 40 academic employees, of whom 50% are international. We are recruiting actively internationally to be in the forefront of research and networking. Through this, we strive to be an attractive advisor and partner for Norwegian and international businesses, and to provide students at all levels updated knowledge and skills.
The research and teaching covers a broad range of management challenges that companies face in today's markets within customer strategies, brand management, communication, B2B and B2C to name a few, and the institute’s academics publish in reputable international scientific marketing journals.
Through our international recruitment and networks, and our cooperation with business, we ensure that our students have access to the latest research and professional development in marketing. The goal is that our graduates will contribute to their employers’ growth and work with a market-oriented attitude from day one.
Beyond education and research tasks, 2016 entailed two major events: hosting the EMAC 2016 and recruitment of new academics. As the organizer and host of EMAC (European Marketing Academy) in May 2016 we got to place the Department and BI even clearer on the map among the leading business schools and marketing environments in Europe. EMAC is the biggest marketing conference outside the US, and 1050 (from a total of 47 nations) of the world's leading academics in the marketing field were present at BI during the six-day conference. In addition to showing off the Department in an outstanding manner, the role as organizer and host resulted in a large increase in applicants for positions at the Department from strong international institutions, and a further strengthening of our network with the international academic community.
The academic staff
Professor Bendik Meling Samuelsen is Head of the Department, and his team includes 12 professors, 13 associate professors and 14 university professors located at BI campuses in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger.
On the Department’s website you can read more about the individual academics and their expertise and research interests.
The academic staff has in recent years undergone a significant change. Several people have reached retirement age, and the department is nearing the end of a generational shift that also has brought with it an increase in the number of international professionals. This contributes to a further increase in the Department’s international network with institutions, businesses and professionals. In 2017 the staff will be further strengthened with very skilled professionals, so one can safely say that the department’s attractiveness is confirmed by its desirability.
In 2016, we recruited three Assistant Professors in service marketing (Hannah Snyder, Sweden), sensory marketing (Carlos Velasco, Columbia) and B2B marketing (Tuba Yilmaz, Turkey, starting in August 2017). (Present these?)
Selected projects that the institute's academics worked on in 2016
Center for Connected Care (C3): The project began in 2015. Professor Jon Bingen Sande is responsible for a work package, which aims to find good procedures for public procurement that can be used in health care. Key issues are: How are good procedures for public procurement contributing to innovation developed? How should one organize and manage public innovative procurement? What does this mean for suppliers and their business models? In late 2016 we hired Henrik Jensen as a postdoc in this project. Jensen has recently defended his PhD at CBS, Copenhagen Business School.
Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative I: Professor Rutger Daniel van Oest collaborates with Professor George Knox (Tillburg University). The purpose is to show how to better use customer satisfaction data to predict future purchases.
Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative II: Associate Professor Matilda Dorotic collaborates with Professor Dennis Fok (Erasmus University) and Professor Peter C. Verhoef (Groningen University) in a project where they investigate the effects of loyalty programs where several businesses at the same level in the value chain are participating. In the project they are particularly keen to identify whether synergies or cannibalization occurs between the parties.
It pays to pay smart: Associate Professor Matilda Dorotic collaborates with Professor Koen Pauwels (Ozyegin University) and Coca-Cola in a project where they investigate economic and commitment advantages of Coca-Cola's launch of cashless payment, in particular the benefits related to app-based payment compared to credit cards and sms payment.
Our courses and programmes
The department imparts its expertise through two bachelor programmes, the MSc-programme in strategic marketing management, the Executive Master of Management-programmes «Marked oriented management» and "Identity and Branding", and doctoral degree programmes in marketing. Common to our programmes is a strong quantitative focus on the contribution of marketing to business development. We are very concerned about developing and linking students' knowledge and skills related to practical, quantitative analysis to specific business decisions.
The department's academics work actively with educational development, and utilize a broad range of tools to engage students and bring relevance to the classroom, and to digital channels outside the classroom. Examples include College Lecturer Nina Ronæs who actively use a wide range of tools in and outside the classroom to engage large classes at bachelor, while Associate Professor Matilda Dorotic and professors Line L. Olsen and Ragnhild Silkoset use simulation games on the Master of Science and Executive programmes. Common to all the academics is that they live and breathe their subject every day, and they make efforts to increase the relevance and engagement across programmes by constantly renewing their teaching.