Researcher biography

Janet R. McColl-Kennedy is Professor of Marketing, UQ Business School, and Lead, Innovation Pathways Program, FaBA (Australia's Food and Beverage Accelerator), Trailblazer Universities program, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Professor McColl-Kennedy is an Honorary Visiting Professor and Fellow, Cambridge Service Alliance, Institute for Manufacturing, in the Department of Engineering, the University of Cambridge, UK. Research Collaborators | Cambridge Service Alliance. She is also the Founding Co-Lead of the Service Innovation Alliance (SIA) Research Hub at the Business School, The University of Queensland. SIA is a multidisciplinary research hub focusing on Customer Experience, Service Innovation and Sustainability, with an emphasis on AI, digital transformation and service design.

Janet embodies scholarly excellence. She is an elected Fellow of the prestigious Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) in 2022 for her distinguished contribution to the social sciences. She is also a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) having "demonstrated outstanding contributions to the Academy and also demonstrated eminence in the Marketing discipline through research, scholarship, education and leadership". https://anzmac.org/fellows/

In 2024 Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy was appointed to the Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts based on her exemplary sustained track record of obtaining and leading her teams to the successful completion of their respective programs of research. The ARC College of Experts plays a very important role for the ARC and the research community more broadly. Appointees assign external assessors and help rank and moderate ARC grant applications that have been submitted under the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP). They also assist with recruitment of new assessors and provide advice for peer review reforms to the ARC. This appointment is recognition of her international standing and contributions to research both in Australia and internationally.

Professor McColl-Kennedy was recognised in the "Highly Cited Researcher Awards for 2021", released by Clarivate™. This outstanding achievement is for those who are pioneers in their field, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for the field and year in the Web of Science™. She received a commendation by UQ's Vice Chancellor Deborah Terry. "This is a very significant achievement that reflects the outstanding quality and impact of their research." Only two persons in Australia were listed in the "Economics and Business" category, Janet being the only academic in Marketing in Australia to receive this award. In 2023 and 2024 she was ranked in the World's Best Business and Management Scientists by Research.com. https://research.com/scientists-rankings/business-and-management/au

Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy has made a significant research contribution to the discipline of Marketing, specifically in her research area of "Services". With over 200 publications (90 being refereed international journal articles, 21 book chapters/books, 6 industry articles, white papers, and reports, 14 workbooks and 71 refereed international conference proceedings), Professor McColl-Kennedy is not only a leading senior marketing academic in Australia, she is internationally recognised as a leading researcher in Service Science. Her research interests focus on customer experience management and measurement, and the role of digital technology, AI, customer insights and choice preferences, customer complaining behaviour and customer value co-creation. She has particular expertise in health care services. Professor McColl-Kennedy is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of researchers mentoring over 20 PhD and honours students.

Janet leads several cross disciplinary and international research teams, obtaining over $83.9 million in competitive research grants, including 20 years of continuous funding from the prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC).

She has a H index of 61 (Google scholar) 43 (Scopus) and over 19,616 citations (Google Scholar).

Professor McColl-Kennedy has held several senior leadership positions in the UQ School of Management and UQ Business School, including Marketing Discipline Leader for 10 years from 1996 to 2005, Research Director of the UQ Business School from January 2006 to June 2008 and from April 2009 to January 2010, Director International in the School of Business from January to December 2010 and Associate Director, Research (Engagement and Impact) in 2019 before being appointed Director of Research again in January 2020 until January 2023.

Professor McColl-Kennedy has held Visiting Professorships at Indiana University, USA, Bocconi University Milan, Italy, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and the University of Cambridge, UK.

Professor McColl-Kennedy's work consistently appears in prestigious journals in her field such as the Journal of Retailing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Service Research, Harvard Business Review, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management and Industrial Marketing Management.

In recognition of her international research reputation she is an inaugural member of the Advisory Board of the Cambridge Service Alliance, University of Cambridge, UK, a global alliance between leading businesses and universities. Founded by Cambridge University Institute for Manufacturing and Judge Business School, in alliance with BAE Systems, IBM, and Caterpillar the Cambridge Service Alliance was formed in 2010 and is designed to bring together some of the world's best firms and researchers devoted to delivering today the insights, education and approaches needed for the Complex Service Solutions of tomorrow. For more information on Cambridge Service Alliance see http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/service/.

Her latest work focuses on measuring and managing customer experience (CX) See https://managementink.wordpress.com/2018/12/21/gaining-customer-experience-insights-that-matter/

  • Appointed to the Advisory Board of CTF Service Research Center, Karlstad University, Sweden from 2012 ongoing. Global companies on the board include Ericsson, Tetra Pak, Volvo and IKEA.
  • Appointed to the Internationally Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB), Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), Norway from 2014 -2022.
  • Appointed as Academic Scholar, Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures, Cornell University, New York, USA, 2016 -2019.
  • Appointed Research Faculty in the Center for Service, Arizona State University, USA in 2018 ongoing.

RESEARCH AWARDS

* April 2024 – Ranked in 2024 World's Best Business and Management Scientists. (See World's Best Business and Management Scientists: H-Index Business and Management Science Ranking in Australia 2024 | Research.com). Ranked second top Marketing Professor in all of Australia.

* June 2023 - Received the inaugural Bo Edvardsson Industry Impact in Services award, QUIS18, VinUniversity, Hanoi, Vietnam.

* November 2022 – Elected Fellow of the Academy of The Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA) https://socialsciences.org.au/

* June 2020 – Awarded highly commended paper. Finalist (with two others) for the 2019 Journal of Service Research best paper award.

[McColl-Kennedy, J.R., M. Zaki, K. Lemon, F. Urmetzer and A. Neely (2019), "Gaining Customer Experience Insights that Matter", Journal of Service Research, 22, 1, pp.8-26.]

* December 2019 awarded the 2019 University of Queensland Business School's "Research Team Engagement Award" for outstanding achievement in research - Service Innovation Alliance (SIA) interdisciplinary research group.

https://business.uq.edu.au/service-innovation-alliance

*July 2019 – "Robert Johnston Highly Commended Paper award of 2018". "Awarded for your outstanding research" by the Journal of Service Management Editorial Review Board. Award presented at Frontiers in Service Conference, 19 July 2019, Singapore.

[Bolton, R., J.R. McColl-Kennedy, L. Cheung, A.S. Gallan, C. Orsingher, L. Witell, M. Zaki (2018), "Customer Experience Challenges: Bringing Together Digital, Physical and Social Realms", Journal of Service Management, 29, 5, pp. 776-808.]

* November 2018 - Awarded the Cross-Discipline Research Award by the UQ Business School for outstanding achievement in research (29 November 2018).

* September 2018 - "the most influential marketing academic in Australia". Professor McColl-Kennedy is named "the leading researcher in the field of Marketing in Australia", "Australia's Research Field Leaders" The Australian, 26 September, 2018, page 12.

* June 2017 - Best Article Finalist – "Highly Commended Paper of 2016" Journal of Service Research article.

[Patterson, P. G., M. K. Brady and J.R. McColl-Kennedy (2016), "Geysers or Bubbling Hot Springs? A Cross-cultural Examination of Customer Rage From Eastern and Western Perspectives, Journal of Service Research, 19, 3, pp. 243-259.]

* February 2016 – "Highly Commended Paper of 2015". Short listed for the Journal of Service Management (JOSM) - 2015 - Robert Johnston Award with two others).

[McColl-Kennedy, J.R., P.G. Patterson, M.K. Brady, L. Cheung and D. Nguyen (2015), "To Give or Not to Give Professional Services to Non-paying Clients: Professionals' Giving Backstory", Journal of Service Management, 26 (3): 426-459.]

* October 2015 our paper Bolton, R.N., Gustafsson, A., McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Sirianni, N.J. and Tse, D.K. (2014), "Small Details that Make Big Differences: a Radical Approach to Consumption Experience as a Firm's Differentiating Strategy", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 253-274 made it into the top 20 most cited Marketing articles since 2011 list.

* March 2015 - Highly Recommended paper - Short listed (in the top four best papers) for the best 2014 article in Journal of Service Management."As of November / December 2014 , this highly cited paper received enough citations to place it in the top 1% of the academic field of Economics & Business based on a highly cited threshold for the field and publication year." Source: ISI Web of Science.

[ Bolton, R.N., Gustafsson, A., McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Sirianni, N.J. and Tse, D.K. (2014), "Small Details that Make Big Differences: a Radical Approach to Consumption Experience as a Firm's Differentiating Strategy", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 253-274.]

* March 2013 - Highly Recommended - Short listed (in the top five best papers) for the best 2012 article in Journal of Service Research. [McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Vargo, S.L., Dagger, T.S., Sweeney, J.C. and van Kasteren, Y. (2012). "Health Care Customer Value Cocreation Practice Styles", Journal of Service Research, Vol.15, No. 4, pp. 370-389 – the lead article.]

* 2011 Appointed Fellow of ANZMAC (Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy) since 2011, having "demonstrated outstanding contributions to the Academy and also demonstrated eminence in the Marketing discipline through research, scholarship, education and leadership". https://anzmac.org/fellows/

* 2011 Winner of the Distinguished Researcher Award (Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy). "This is an annual award for a member of the ANZMAC community judged to have made the most significant contribution to advancing our knowledge of marketing through their research".

* 2011 Short listed (with two other papers) for the Accenture Award. The award is given each year to the author(s) of the article published in the California Management Review in 2009 that has "made the most important contribution to improving the practice of management". [Patterson, P.G., McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Smith, A.K. and Lu, Z. (2009), "Customer Rage: Triggers, Tipping Points and Take-Outs", California Management Review, Vol. 52, No. 1, pp. 6-28.]

* 2011 "Outstanding author contribution" winner, Emerald Literary Network, Award for Excellence for 2010 chapter "Service encounter needs theory: A dyadic, psychosocial approach to understanding service encounters". [Bradley, G.L., McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Sparks, B.A., Jimmieson, N.L. and Zapf, D. (2010), "Service Encounter Needs Theory: A Dyadic, Psychosocial Approach to Understanding Service Encounters", in Zerbe, W.J., Härtel, C.E.J., and Ashkanasy, N.M. (Eds.) Research on Emotion in Organizations, Volume 6: Emotions in Creativity, Learning, and Change, Emerald Group Publishing/JAI Press, Bingley, UK, pp. 221-258.]

* 2010 Honorable mention - Short listed for best "Services" article published in 2009 by AMA SERVSIG [McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Patterson, P.G., Smith, A.K. and Brady, M. (2009). "Customer Rage Episodes: Emotions, Expressions and Behaviors", Journal of Retailing, Vol. 85, No. 2, pp. 222-237.]

* 2010 Awarded best paper in AMJ [Tombs, A.G. and McColl-Kennedy, J.R. (2010), "Social and Spatial Influence of Customers on Other Customers in the Social-servicescape". Australasian Marketing Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 120-131.]

* 2009 Best paper award 2009 EIASM Naples Forum on Service, Capri Italy (McColl-Kennedy et al 2009)

* 2008 Best paper award 2008 ANZMAC conference (McColl-Kennedy and Patterson 2008)

* 2003 Best paper award European Marketing Conference (EMAC) 2003

* 2001 Best paper award AMA SERVSIG Conference 2001

MAJOR GRANTS – Leads cross disciplinary international research teams

*2022-2024 ARC Linkage Projects Grant [LP2102000586] [$1,258,024 including $596,349 cash ($496,349 cash from ARC and $100,000 cash from partner organisations)] "Transforming Primary Healthcare Service Delivery: A Digital-Human Approach" Team: (Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy (Lead CI), UQ Emeritus Professor Mieke van Driel Kalwun Health Service, Associate Professor Lisa Hall UQ School of Public Health, Professor Damian Hine UQ GCI/QAAFI, Dr Mohamed Zaki Cambridge Service Alliance, The University of Cambridge, Dr Christoph Breidbach UQ Business School, Ms Tracey Johnson CEO Inala Primary Care and Adjunct Professor Paresh Dawda)

*2016-2022 ARC Discovery Projects Grant [DP160100421] [$330,000] "Modelling Multidimensional Multiparty Decisions to Improve Outcomes for Customers and Service Providers: New Theory and Measurement Tools" (Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy (Lead CI), Assoc. Professor Len Coote, Professor Claire Wainwright, (UQ Medical School) Professor Scott Bell (UQ Medical School), Professor Michael Brady, Florida State University)

*2015-2021 ARC Linkage Projects Grant [LP150100629] [$1.1 million including $180,000 from ARC] "Examining the Effectiveness of Patient-centred Practices on Health Outcomes" (Professor Pennie Frow Uni of Sydney (Lead CI), Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy, UQ, Professor Adrian Payne UNSW, Dr Rahul Govind UNSW)

*2011-2015 ARC Discovery Projects Grant [DP110102312] [$350,000] 'Pro Bono Service: Drivers, Delight, Dark Side and Downside for the Professional' (Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy (Lead CI), Professor Paul G. Patterson UNSW, Professor Michael K. Brady Florida State University and Dr Doan Nguyen The University of Queensland.)

*2008-2010 ARC Discovery Projects Grant [DP0879469] [$220,000] 'Balancing the needs of customers and employees following service failure: A dyadic psychosocial approach' (with Graham Bradley and Beverley Sparks, Griffith University; Nerina Jimmieson, University of Queensland; and Dieter Zapf , Frankfurt University.)

* 2007-2012 ARC Linkage Projects Grant [LP0775220] [$116,000] "Customer Co-production in Ongoing Health Service Delivery: A Longitudinal Study' (Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy UQ (Lead CI), Dr Tracey Dagger, University of Queensland, Professor Jill Sweeney, University of Western Australia, Bev Mirolo and Maryanne Hargraves, Haematology and Oncology Clinics of Australasia Pty Ltd).

* 2006-2008 ARC Discovery Projects Grant [DP0664410] [$240,000] "Customer Rage Spectrum Emotions in Service Failure Encounters: Linking Experience, Expression, Behaviour and Organisational Responses" Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy UQ (Lead CI), Professor P.G. Patterson, University of New South Wales, Associate Professor A.K. Smith George Washington University, USA, Professor M.K. Brady (Florida State).

* 2004-2007 ARC Discovery Projects Grant [DP0450736] [$210,000] "'The Impact of Customer-Focused Business Strategies on Organisational Performance in a Professional Service Context" (Assoc Professor J. Sweeney University of Western Australia (Lead CI), Professor G. Soutar, University of Western Australia and Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy UQ).

TEACHING

Professor McColl-Kennedy brings a wealth of experience from over 30 years of teaching at university level. She has taught classes at both the undergraduate level and postgraduate level, as well as undertaking executive training, across all modes of delivery including intensive, weekend, and weekly modes. She has taught in Australia, Singapore, Beijing, China, Seoul, Korea, Milan, Italy and in the USA.

Awards: 2020 Excellence Award in Blended Learning – Team Award UQ Business School

Awarded to: Master of Leadership in Service Innovation Team comprising of Assoc Professor David Solnet, Ryan Waters, Darren Mead, Carrie Finn, Anna Black, Elizabeth Sara Dominguez, Buddy Nuku, Michelle Goward, Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy, Dr Teegan Green, Assoc Prof Tim Kastelle, Assoc Professor Pierre Benckendorff, Dr Russell Manfield, Dr Ida Asadi Someh, Assoc Professor Nicole Hartley, Ms Daniela Berg, and Dr Richard O'Quinn.

She was the 2011 Winner of the UQ Business School Corporate Education Teaching Award. She has a sustained track record of high teaching evaluations in executive teaching and masters courses including MBA.

Professor McColl-Kennedy has supervised 50 masters dissertations and 15 PhD students to successful completion. Professor McColl-Kennedy has examined PhD theses from the University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, University of Auckland, Macquarie University, Sydney, and Griffith University, among others.