Dr Michael Harker

Personal statement

I joined Strathclyde in 2004 after some years in London.

I have two main themes in my research activity. The first of these concerns the relationships between organisations and consumers and how they learn about each other as these relationships are initiated, developed and maintained - but also how and why they end. These are issues that concern all of us. It is far more likely than not that you will be transferring vast amounts of personal information to private enterprises via your 'loyalty cards' and/or your social media activities. A recent focus in my research has been to try and draw connections between concepts and theory in relationally based marketing and elements of human resource management - to better comprehend the humans in these relationships inside and outside the organisation.

The second theme is research into the who, what, how and why of business education with a particular focus on marketing. I recently completed a nationwide project with the support of the Higher Education Academy on current undergraduate teaching provision at British universities.

If my name is familiar to you, it is most likely as one of the names from the cover of our best-selling textbook - 'Marketing: An Introduction'. The third edition of this will appear in Spring 2015.