2004 RISK WORKSHOP - University of Utah

Co-Chairs:
   Debra Scammon University of Utah
   Josh Wiener Oklahoma State University
   

Researching Risk Workshop Realizes Vision

The Researching Risk:  Public Policy and Social Dimensions Workshop was held May 17-20 at the David Eccles School of Business. The Workshop, primarily for doctoral students and young faculty members, was sponsored by the American Marketing Association Academic Council.  Such a developmental Workshop has been a vision of leaders of the Marketing and Society Special Interest Group for many years.

Hosts for the Workshop were Debra Scammon, Emma Eccles Jones Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean for Academic Programs at the David Eccles School of Business and Josh Wiener, Professor and Chair of the marketing department at Oklahoma State University.  Thirty participants from 20 universities, including schools in Australia, the Netherlands, and Canada spent four intense days hearing from renowned experts on diverse approaches to studying consumer risks.  Faculty volunteered their time and the Workshop format gave participants an opportunity for personal interaction with experts.  As one student said, “Being surrounded and in close contact with such a combination of renowned scholars and fellow students who have a strong interest in public policy issues is a rare privilege.” 

Many doctoral programs do not offer courses in marketing and public policy, yet students often say they hope to tackle tough social issues through their research.  This Workshop provided a chance for students to earn course credit while learning with faculty from 8 different universities.  The format is a model for collaboration among universities to share expertise.  Faculty for the Workshop included experts in marketing and also from areas as diverse as psychology and engineering. They came from top schools with a  public policy focus, including Baruch College, California State University – Long Beach, Carnegie Mellon University, University of California, Irvine, University of Oregon, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, and University of Utah.

In addition, five “resident” faculty worked with participants individually and in small groups to help develop research ideas. Students appreciated this personalized attention observing “the resident faculty were inspiring in their lifelong commitment to and enthusiasm about research in public policy issues, and they created a nurturing environment for all the participants.”  The hope is that the nascent ideas discussed during the Workshop will develop into doctoral dissertations and be presented at future Marketing and Public Policy conferences and published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing.

The Workshop was the first multi-day doctoral consortium in marketing that focused specifically on public policy and social marketing issues. Participants appreciated the chance to meet and hear from some of the most influential thinkers on topics of risk assessment and risk communication as well as marketing scholars who have  contributed to the development of several important public policy initiatives including nutrition labeling, product warnings, anti-tobacco campaigns, and obesity interventions. As one student said, “(I) didn’t feel as intimidated to talk to “big names” in our field as I would at a normal conference.”  Student comments suggest that the Workshop met its goals: The workshop as a whole was excellent and far exceeded my expectations. The workshop was a remarkable experience, surpassing my expectations