Professor van Bruggen has been invited to give a presentation at the annual EMAC conference in Budapest, Hungary in May, where he will be officially presented with the award that is regarded as the highest honour that a marketing educator with extensive connections to EMAC can receive. The two main criteria for the award areoutstanding marketing scholarship that is reflected in extensive, impactful research contributions, and outstanding contributions to the European Marketing Academy.
Prestigious recognition of profound impact
Prof. Stefano Puntoni, head of the department of Marketing Management at RSM, said: “It’s the most prestigious recognition bestowed by the European Marketing Academy and a fantastic achievement, and a witness to Gerrit’s profound impact on our discipline. It’s also a great recognition for the department and for RSM overall.”
RSM is the only business school with two winners of the EMAC award; RSM’s Emeritus Prof. Berend Wierenga won the inaugural EMAC Distinguished Marketing Scholar award in 2010.
IT and social media in marketing
Gerrit van Bruggen’s research is highly interdisciplinary. He studies the impact of information technology and systems on marketing strategy and marketing decision making. Specifically, he has been studying the impact and implementation of marketing management support systems, and the impact of information technology on relationships in marketing channels. Most recently he has been working on viral marketing and virtual communities in social media marketing. His marketing strategy projects – in corporate branding, marketing channels, and organisational research methods – have been the subject of research published in the major marketing, information systems, and management science journals. He teaches a series of topicsin a wide range of programmesfor a variety of audiences.
Within RSM’s department of Marketing Management Gerrit has been active in roles such as PhD director, department head, dean of faculty, mentor, and as member of the promotion and tenure committee.
RSM’s Dean of Research Prof. Pursey Heugens said: “This is a terrific achievement, which not only recognises Gerrit’s manifold contributions to the field, but also his institutional roles for EMAC itself.”
Professor van Bruggen’s contributions to EMAC stretch back 30 years. In 2005 he co‑organised the EMAC Doctoral Colloquium twice and he has also been faculty member in various doctoral colloquia. Around that time, he became national representative for the Netherlands in the EMAC executive committee and served two terms. He then served two terms as treasurer of the EMAC steering committee. In 2015 he became EMAC President and worked on increasing the number of activities of EMAC, and involving new members from new countries to become more active and visible within the organisation. In 2022 he will become the new Dean of the EMAC Fellows.
The EMAC Award Committee comprised Prof. Don Lehmann of Columbia Business School, Prof. Eitan Muller (Chair) of New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and Prof. Stefan Stremersch of Erasmus University Rotterdam.
