Inaugural lecture Maarten Gijsenberg

Hic et nunc. Right here, right now. When making decisions, individuals and organizations alike often show a strong tendency to focus on the here and now, the narrow present. They thereby abstract from the fact that the outcomes of their decisions are shaped by both intra- and intertemporal influences. Moreover, a narrow short-term view of results ignores the potential long-term effects of their decisions. Thus, marketing-related decisions by individuals and organizations, as well as research on these decisions and their outcomes, are no exception.

The research domain of Marketing Dynamics explicitly addresses this issue. It examines the evolution over-time of both marketing decisions and their resulting effects on outcome metrics that are relevant to consumers, firms, and/or society as a whole. It examines how over-time evolutions can be driven by history, timing, competitive interactions, and macroeconomic fluctuations, among other factors. Relevant metrics include customer satisfaction and other measures of consumer mindset, brand sales and market share, sustainable consumption and employment. Analysis and insights are not limited to short-term effects, but also address long-term implications. As such, Marketing Dynamics recognizes that there is more than the narrow here and now, and that we should consider the past, present, and future.

Professor of Marketing Dynamics Maarten Gijsenberg: “This broader perspective becomes even more relevant in the exciting turbulent times we face today. Decision-making environments are currently being reshaped by the availability of ever more diverse data; by new and potentially disruptive technologies such as generative AI; by the ever faster servitization of economies; and by the need for new business models, new philosophies, and new paradigms for the world of tomorrow.”

These phenomena and the dynamics they unleash are creating a new, uncharted world in which existing knowledge with regard to marketing decisions and their outcomes needs to be updated, and new knowledge, also including new outcome measures with a more societal focus, needs to be created. Gijsenberg: “As professor of Marketing Dynamics I want to seize the opportunities offered by new types of data and technology to address the marketing communication and retail challenges facing individuals and organizations, both in a changing world and in changing the world for the better, thereby taking into account the past, present, and future.”

More information:

Maarten Gijsenberg’s inaugural lecture will take place on Friday 2 June 2023, 16:15 - 17:00.

Registration no later than 26 May via the registration form.

Livestream on 2 June 2023, see: www.rug.nl/digitale-oratie.

Questions? Please contact Maarten Gijsenberg.