Surrey Live Commerce project
Start date
March 2021End date
September 2021Overview
SHTM academics at University of Surrey are joining forces with Arcom IT and Surrey County Council in developing the UK’s first, local live-commerce platform that brings together Surrey’s stakeholder groups from local businesses to public service providers to residents and visitors. The innovative online platform works to bridge online and traditional offline commerce and services and to increase usage and footfall of Surrey’s town centres.
Funding amount
£10,000
Funder
SME Innovation Voucher
Team
Principal investigator
Dr Bora Kim
Senior Lecturer in Hospitality Management; Director of Studies, SHTM
Biography
Dr. Bora Kim is a Senior Lecturer in Hospitality Management. She examines managerially-relevant questions in the tourism and hospitality industry from the perspective of strategic and financial management. Particularly, she examines how characteristics of executives and corporate governance influence managerial actions and firm performance.
Bora's research focuses on how executive characteristics and corporate governance influence managerial actions and firm performance. Her work also explores the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors and the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in transforming business practices. She has a strong interest in promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and is committed to using strategic leadership as a means to foster positive social change.
She is a Fulbright Scholar, having earned her Ph.D. and MSc in Hospitality Management from Pennsylvania State University, and holds a BBA in Hotel Management (Summa cum laude) from Kyung Hee University. Bora's international education and diverse experiences across continents provide her with a global perspective on the impact of tourism, allowing her to bridge theory and practice in her teaching and research.
Co-investigators
Dr Lorna Wang
Associate Professor in Marketing and Revenue Management/Co-Director, Centre for Research on Ageing and Generations
Biography
Lorna joined University of Surrey in September 2017. She holds a PhD from Oxford Brookes University. She serves on the editorial boards of a number of leading hospitality and tourism management, revenue management journals. She also holds Visiting Professorship at University of Angers (France) and regularly gives talks in various Universities in Europe and in China.
Prior to her academic career, Lorna held a number of managerial positions such as Marketing Director and Rooms Division Director in China and in the UK. She won the ‘Lord Forte Award’ from the Institute of Hospitality in London in the year 2000. In China, she worked with ‘Guo-An Hotel Corporation’ based in Beijing, where she led her team to win ‘the Best Service Award’ from Beijing Tourism Administration Bureau after hosting ‘the 11th Asian Games’ in 1990. It was one of the first mega-events hosted by China and she was awarded as ‘Service Pacesetter’ in recognition of her personal contribution.
Dr Nima Heirati
Associate Professor (Reader) of Marketing
Biography
Dr Nima Heirati is Associate Professor of Marketing at Surrey Business School, University of Surrey. He has previously academic positions at Queen Mary University of London and Newcastle University Business School. Prior to joining academia, he held senior positions as marketing manager and business development manager in several manufacturing companies.
Dr Heirati’s research relates predominantly to the field of innovation strategy, servitization, business relationships, customer experience, and the impact of artificial intelligence on consumer well-being. His research vision is to make managers, consumers, and policymakers aware of the bright and dark sides of business practices (e.g., interorganizational trust) and technologies (e.g., AI, service robots). He is committed to developing high-impact research through collaboration between academics across disciplines and practitioners to address complex business problems, and to contribute to developing policies and business practices for the responsible use of emerging technologies.
Dr Heirati’s work has been published in leading international journals, such as the Journal of Service Research, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Industrial Marketing Management, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and International Marketing Review among others. His research has received international Best Article awards and nominations. He serves on the editorial boards of several marketing and service research journals, including Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Service Industry Journal, J of Business & Industrial Marketing, Service Business, and Australasian Marketing Journal.
Dr Heirati’s teaching vision is to explore and apply innovative pedagogical practices that inspire students and enhance their learning experience and employability. He follows a research-informed and practical teaching approach to ensure that graduates are fit for the workplace of the future. He has taught and teaches courses in Marketing Strategy, Services Marketing, Marketing Research, Digital Marketing, Marketing strategy, and International Marketing on undergraduate (UG), postgraduate (PG, MBA), and doctoral (PhD, DBA) levels.
Research themes
Find out more about our research at Surrey: