Academic visit: Dr Mohamed Sobhy Ahmed Hassan (Temerak)

30 May 2018 - 30 November 2018

Dr Mohamed Sobhy Ahmed Hassan

My academic visit to the Centre for Service Management (CSM) at Loughborough University started on the 30^th of May and lasted until the 30^th of November 2018. My visit started by taking part in the second Customer Management Leadership Group Academic-Practitioner Workshop co-organised by CSM and the University of Manchester in June 2018. In this workshop, I participated in a research project on how artificial intelligence is transforming the service encounter. The project is currently under review with the Journal of Business Research (ABS 3). We also submitted part of this project to both the Frontiers in Service 2019 and QUIS 16 conferences that will take place in Singapore and Karlstad, Sweden respectively.

In addition, I was also able to attend the Academy of Marketing Conference at the University of Stirling to present one of my research projects on customer-to-customer interactions. This paper won the best track prize (Services and Customer Relationship Marketing Track).

At CSM, I worked with Professor Thorsten Gruber and Dr Keme Ifie on two different research projects that focus on dynamics of the first encounter and the role of the physical appearance of mannequins in the retail shopping experience respectively. The former project has evolved into a conceptual paper to be submitted to the Journal of Service Research (ABS 4), while the latter project is currently at the research design stage which consists of a series of experiments.

I also had the chance of working with Professor Ian Hodgkinson on another research project on customers' experience during a global biking event with participants from 40 different countries using a Critical Incident methodology. We are currently collecting data by the means of an online survey from the international participants of pervious events.

My academic visit has also provided me with both time and opportunity to collaborate with other co-authors from other British universities such as Nottingham University Business School, SOAS and Edinburgh Business School. To this end, I was able to submit two manuscripts to two prestigious journals: European Sport Marketing Quarterly (ABS 3) and Tourism Management (ABS 4).

On the research training side, I received intensive training on using NVIVO software for qualitative data analysis which has extended my research capabilities to work on data analysis of social media content. I also had the chance to attend several seminars and workshops on different business and marketing subjects.

At the end of my visit, I used my consultancy experience in the Middle East to deliver a seminar to the staff members and doctoral students of the School of Business and Economics titled "No-One-Size-Fits All: Marketing strategy implications for online and sharing economy companies in the Middle East."

Finally, my visit to Loughborough University and the Centre for Service Management has significantly boosted my research career, and I am looking forward to building on these collaborations to continue working and publishing with centre members in top marketing journals.