International recognition for Northumbria academics

23rd October 2019

A research paper submitted by a Northumbria academic and PhD student has won a prestigious international award for the strength of its novelty, rigour, and potential impact.

Professor Xeumei Bian and PhD student Sadia Haque from Northumbria’s Newcastle Business School, presented their joint paper at the American Marketing Association (AMA) Annual Conference, held recently in Chicago. Their paper, Original versus Counterfeit Patronage: Do Emotional Brand Attachment, Brand Involvement, and Past Experience Matter? won the Best Paper Award on People and Brands Track.

The AMA Annual Conference is widely regarded as the leading conference in its field, attracting submissions from around the world.

Commenting on their award, Professor Bian said: “Having a paper accepted for presentation at the AMA Conference is difficult enough on its own, so to win an award as well is hugely satisfying for both myself and Sadia. To my knowledge this was also the only award taken by a UK university this year. Our study sought to identify the relative stronger effect of emotional brand attachment over simply creating brand involvement in securing customer loyalty in original branded products, and in helping to deter losing sales to counterfeit products. Understanding customer loyalty is a key to successful marketing strategies and our paper clearly resonated with our peers at the conference.

“Working on the paper with Sadia was also extremely rewarding. Sadia is one of Newcastle Businesses School’s research-funded PhD students, and this award clearly highlights the benefits of these funding opportunities.”

Professor John Wilson, Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Business and Law at Northumbria, added: “This is an exceptional achievement and I congratulate Professor Bian and Sadia on their success. It reflects the quality of research by our academics, and the impact their work is having at a global level. Award-wining papers such as this will also contribute to the University’s wider research power as measured by the Government’s Research Excellence Framework.

“With a clear focus on research-informed teaching, incorporating the findings from this study will also help to enhance the learning experience of our marketing students.”