Interview with Prof. Judy Zolkiewski
Prof. Judy Zolkiewski
Dr Judy Zolkiewski is a Professor of Marketing at Alliance Manchester Business School, UK. She received her PhD in 1999 from UMIST. Before becoming a full-time academic in 1999 she had considerable industrial experience working for 15 years at Ferranti Computer Systems Ltd. She is an internationally-recognized scholar with research interests focussing on understanding the operation of business-to-business marketing and purchasing, both in the traditional manufacturing and engineering industries and in the evolving business-to-business services sector. She publishes in the leading international journals in her area and is also on the editorial boards of these journals. In addition to this, she has had a number of successful Knowledge Transfer partnerships, one winning the ESRC prize for the ‘Best Application of Social or Management Science’ and she has also hosted a prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship.
Judy, can you please tell us about your research?
My research focuses on business relationships and networks particularly from a service and services perspective. So I look at how service networks and relationships work on a variety of levels from looking at how networks develop and change over time through to the dynamics that exists in individual business relationships. Currently much of my work focuses on innovation in services and also how manufacturers can add services into their product portfolios –servitization.
You participated last year in the CBIM2017 in Stockholm. What did you like the most about the Conference?
The conference was an optimum size for networking, with many international researchers contributing to the discussions. The timing of the sessions was great with ample opportunity to comment on the papers being presented.
Is there anything that distinguishes CBIM from other conferences?
It provides an opportunity to meet a broad range of academics that are interested in B2B markets and who are from a variety of different academic perspectives.
What are your impressions the studies presented?
All the sessions presented were on interesting topics and they provided a good arena for discussion.
Why would you recommend academics to attend CBIM2018?
You get good feedback from the audience and the conference had a great atmosphere – I went away with lots of new ideas to think about.
What message do you have for young researchers on marketing?
Use conferences such as CBIM as an opportunity to get feedback on your work and to make new research contacts and new research collaborators.
From your perspective, which are the main future challenges in B2B Marketing?
As with all marketing, B2B is faced by significant changes that emanate from the digital revolution that is currently underway. We need to understand how these changes impact on our established understanding of the field and address both the challenges and the opportunities that these new technologies bring to business relationships and networks.
