Contemplating the impact of technology on being a scholar-author

During a visit to the Department of Marketing Management in July 2015, Professor Julie Ruth from the Rutgers University School of Business in the USA delivered a presentation to the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences’ staff on the impact of technology on being a scholar-author.

Technology impacts the way we collect data, what’s expected in the review process and how reviewers and editors are changing their expectations of acceptable scholarly work. Prof Ruth has experience as an author, associate editor and reviewer for top journals and used published papers to share insights regarding the push and pull (the positive and negative) of technology on scholarship. It was argued that the peer review system will remain, despite any technological development, or will be one of the very last things to change as a result of technology. This topic resonated with all colleagues who attended the session. Two visitors from the North-West University, Ms Hester Spies and Ms Stefanie Kühn, also found the presentation insightful and inspirational.

Prof Ruth’s visit was made possible by the annual Stephan and Pierre Viljoen Award. In 2015 this award was utilised for hosting an expert in a sub-discipline (in this case marketing) at the University of Pretoria to share her experience with a broader stakeholder group. Prof Ruth’s research focuses on consumers’ emotional lives, with two primary streams: (1) how consumers’ affect shapes their responses to marketing stimuli such as brand alliances, advertising, and sponsorships; and (2) consumers’ relationships with meaningful objects (purchased items, gifts) and people in their social networks (family, business associates). She uses a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods and analytical tools. Her research has been published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and others. She served for more than four years as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Advertising and on multiple editorial review boards.

Professor Julie Ruth at the beginning of her presentation, themed ‘Contemplating the impact of technology on being a scholar-author’.