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The Conversation

Tom van Laer

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35

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Associate Professor of Narratology, University of Sydney

The intentional placement of educational content in entertainment and vice versa, the widespread embrace of social media with fake news at centre stage, and the rise of addictive television shows and hybrid genres, such as live action role-playing games all indicate that the ways in which stories work constitute a key issue that demands scientific research attention. With these development in mind, I have formed and chair taskforces of storytelling experts as part of an integrated, interdisciplinary research program. I lead these teams into developing scores of initiatives for new research on the science of how stories work. These storytelling research initiatives have encouraged hundreds of published projects from backgrounds as diverse as anthropology, marketing, psychology, communication, consumer, and literary studies.

Experience

  • 2019–present
    Associate Professor of Narratology, University of Sydney
  • 2018–2019
    Reader (Associate Professor) of Marketing, City University of London
  • 2015–2018
    Senior Lecturer in Marketing, City University of London
  • 2017–2017
    Visiting Scholar, Monash University
  • 2014–2016
    Visiting Scholar, University of Sydney
  • 2011–2015
    Assistant Professor, ESCP Europe Business School
  • 2010–2011
    Visiting Scholar, University of New South Wales

Education

  • 2011 
    Maastricht University, Doctorate in Marketing (PhD)

Publications

  • 2020
    It’s the story, stupid: The consumer reviews most likely to influence purchasing decisions, Marketing Intelligence Review
  • 2020
    It’s not what you say, it’s the way you say it! Effective message styles for promoting innovative new services, Journal of Business Research
  • 2019
    What happens in Vegas stays on TripAdvisor? A theory and technique to understand narrativity in consumer reviews, Journal of Consumer Research
  • 2019
    Tweeting with the stars: Automated text analysis of the effect of celebrity social media communications on consumer word of mouth, Journal of Interactive Marketing
  • 2019
    A discourse analysis of pilgrimage reviews, Journal of Marketing Management
  • 2019
    Storytelling in the digital era: A meta-analysis of relevant moderators of the narrative transportation effect, Journal of Business Research
  • 2018
    The seven stages of the digital marketing cycle, Contemporary Issues in Digital Marketing: New Paradigms, Perspectives and Practices
  • 2018
    Need for narrative, Journal of Marketing Management
  • 2017
    Assessing the effect of narrative transportation, portrayed action, and photographic style on the likelihood to comment on posted selfies, European Journal of Marketing
  • 2017
    Using EEG to examine the role of attention, working memory, emotion, and imagination in narrative transportation, European Journal of Marketing
  • 2016
    Untangling a web of lies: Exploring automated detection of deception in computer-mediated communication, Journal of Management Information Systems
  • 2016
    Narrative consumption in a digital world, Advances in Consumer Research
  • 2016
    How word-of-mouth influences the storyteller: Does the effect replicate in China?, Advances in Consumer Research
  • 2016
    Brand story-making and digital conversations, Advances in Consumer Research
  • 2016
    Script for science fiction, Calabash Cadencé Taisgeadan
  • 2014
    The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model: A meta-analysis of the antecedents and consequences of consumers’ narrative transportation, Journal of Consumer Research
  • 2014
    It’s the social, stupid! Leveraging the 4C markers of social in online service delivery, Handbook of Service Marketing Research
  • 2014
    The means to justify the end: Combating cyber harassment in social media, Journal of Business Ethics
  • 2013
    A walk in customers' shoes: How attentional bias modification affects ownership of integrity-violating social media posts, Journal of Interactive Marketing
  • 2012
    In de schoenen van de klant: over de maakbaarheid van verantwoordelijke medewerkers, Ontwikkelingen in het marktonderzoek: Jaarboek MarktOnderzoekAssociatie
  • 2011
    Return of the narrative: Studies on transportation in social media,
  • 2011
    Een betrouwbaar verhaal: hoe te reageren op negatieve blogs van klanten, Ontwikkelingen in het marktonderzoek: Jaarboek MarktOnderzoekAssociatie
  • 2010
    In stories we trust: How narrative apologies provide cover for competitive vulnerability after integrity-violating blog posts, International Journal of Research in Marketing
  • 2007
    The shortage of legal dictionaries translating European languages, Terminology

Grants and Contracts

  • 2020
    Supporting CALD Australians to be responsible energy consumers
    Role:
    Chief investigator
    Funding Source:
    Energy Consumers Australia
  • 2017
    Automatic assessment of narrativity and consumer responses in big data
    Role:
    Chief investigator
    Funding Source:
    Marketing Science Institute
  • 2017
    Exploring linguistic signals in earnings update calls
    Role:
    Chief investigator
    Funding Source:
    Inveso

Professional Memberships

  • Association for Consumer Research
  • Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy

Honours

University of Sydney Business School Translation Publication Awards, City University of London Academic Staff Prize for outstanding contribution to Teaching and Learning, The Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference 2014 prize for Best Paper in the Sustainable Marketing Track, Syntec Academic Management Research Award Category Marketing / Decision Sciences, etc.