Associate Professor
Udo Gottlieb

Biography

Dr Udo Gottlieb is an Associate Professor in the QUT Business School. He completed a PhD in Management at The University of Queensland, Australia before entering the international automotive industry as a management consultant in Germany and the USA. Further to successive appointments advising organisations such as BMW, VW, GM, and Mercedes, Associate Professor Gottlieb also worked in an executive role to establish a management consulting firm with headquarters in Shanghai and further subsidiaries across China and Taiwan, R.O.C.. Drawing on extensive experience gained from working across four continents, Associate Professor Gottlieb applies a combination of practical experience and theoretical knowledge to ensure his units offer students relevant real world content. His research is in the area of service delivery. He focuses on the use of innovative technology to improve the efficiency of the supplier/client interface.  He has published in the European Journal of Marketing and Journal of Information Technology & Tourism among others. Associate Professor Gottlieb is currently recruiting Honours, Masters and PhD students to work with him on emergent research topics in the areas of

• Fraud and the marketer's response
• Trade show effectiveness
• Virtual services
• Virtual courtesy

Fraud and the marketer’s response Fraud hurts the global economy significantly. Billions of dollars annually get stolen from innocent market participants. Often, these illegal activities are outside of a company’s area of influence committed by a third party. Although not involved in the actual fraud, a company’s brand, its image, products, processes, reputation etc. can suffer when its customers fall victim to fraud committed by a third party. This project examines the marketing activities (pre-emptive & reactive) of organisations that potentially/currently have their customers suffer from illegal activities by fraudsters. Topics under consideration include:

• How can companies effectively warn their customers of the dangers of fraud in relation to the  company and its products on offer, through the use of marketing activities.
• Generating awareness of the dangers of fraudulent activities in the customer’s mind in relation to one’s company and products may cause unintended negative perceptions in the consumer’s mind. How can marketing activities assist in mitigating this effect.
• …
• Have you got a research idea that falls within the same/similar arena? Please do not hesitate to contact me on udo.gottlieb@qut.edu.au to discuss its feasibility and possible collaboration towards an Honours, Masters or PhD thesis.

Trade show effectiveness Despite their global popularity and industrial trade shows and consumer trade shows being a global multi-billion dollar industry, academic research on contemporary TSs is relatively limited. Topics under consideration include:

• A cross-cultural study: How does the perception of participation effectiveness at trade shows differ on a cultural level. A comparison of two (or more) trade show markets.
• Research has shown over and over again that the majority of trade show visitors do not participate at trade shows to purchase. Despite this reoccurring finding, trade show exhibitors regularly focus their communication strategies (before and at trade shows), on the purchase intentions of trade show visitors. How can trade show exhibitors better attract trade show visitors to their booth (before and at a trade show).
• …
• Have you got a research idea that falls within the same/similar arena? Please do not hesitate to contact me on udo.gottlieb@qut.edu.au to discuss its feasibility and possible collaboration towards an Honours, Masters or PhD thesis.

Virtual services A recent trend in the arena of TSs is the incorporation of virtual environments as a marketing tool. Academic circles have so far neglected the increasing possibilities of communication and information technologies available to trade show organizers and exhibitors. Given the online environment’s unprecedented potential to reach customers globally it is surprising how research is limited on understanding how a firm’s practices and structure need to change to incorporate the virtual environment into their strategy and add value to the organization. Conventional marketing practices used in other environments often lead to sub-optimal results, thus marketers have to learn new ways to operate in them through specific virtual capabilities. Topics under consideration include:

• To this day, virtual trade shows are a marketing communications tool that focus more on the niche than on the mass market. Given the global potential of virtual trade shows, how can organisations significantly increase the reach of virtual trade shows (in a specified country or industry).
• In the context of business-to-business marketing activities, what are the motivations and challenges of exhibiting organisations and trade show visitors.
• …
• Have you got a research idea that falls within the same/similar arena? Please do not hesitate to contact me on udo.gottlieb@qut.edu.au to discuss its feasibility and possible collaboration towards an Honours, Masters or PhD thesis.

Virtual courtesy Online and virtual environments are still a “new” concept for many marketers working on and in them. Organisations need to develop digital capabilities to successfully manage this constantly changing business environment. It is within the nature of information technology that it is constantly evolving and new inventions, upgrades, applications, and innovations are getting regularly developed and applied. Utilising information technologies for marketing communications therefore presents a constant challenge on various levels. Topics under consideration include:

• Research has shown that businesses often are frustrated with the lack of quality of their interactions with their target market in an online/virtual environment. Businesses argue that a lack of virtual politeness/etiquette is missing which results in demotivated staff, ineffective business processes and ultimately in lost sales. This therefore, is evidenced by a lack of common courteous language when interacting in online/virtual environments, etc.
• How can businesses improve their online/virtual communication strategies to increase virtual courtesy and thus their ROI?
• Research indicates that businesses struggle with the concept of online/virtual waiting time. In an online/virtual environment visitors regularly expect to get serviced and to get their case heard immediately. This is opposed to real-world business environments where it is acceptable and also polite to wait and queue as a visitor to a service environment if there is a delay in the service delivery.
• What are the motivations and the inhibitors for visitors to online/virtual service environments to wait online?
• How can online/virtual business environments increase the social acceptance of virtual queuing?
• …
• Have you got a research idea that falls within the same/similar arena? Please do not hesitate to contact me on udo.gottlieb@qut.edu.au to discuss its feasibility and possible collaboration towards an Honours, Masters or PhD thesis.