معرفی
Mary Harrison is a Visiting Associate Professor of Marketing in the Department of Entrepreneurship, Management and Marketing at Samford University’s Brock School of Business. She brings more than a decade of prior experience from Birmingham-Southern College (BSC), where she served from 2011 to 2024 as faculty member, department chair, and program leader.
Education
- Ph.D. in Marketing (concentration in Social Psychology) – University of Alabama
- MBA – University of Alabama
- B.S. in Business Administration – Mississippi College (including a semester of study in London)
Research Interests
Harrison’s scholarship centers on consumer behavior and services marketing, with particular emphasis on customer–firm relationships, service employee behavior, and the emotional dynamics of service encounters. She investigates how consumers react to service failures, penalties, and special requests, and explores factors that create “lock-in” and long-term loyalty. More recently, her work examines the intersection of artificial intelligence and personal branding in higher-education contexts.
Across her publications, three consistent themes emerge: (1) understanding and managing customer emotions during and after service experiences; (2) frontline employee decision-making when faced with ethically or operationally “gray” customer requests; and (3) mechanisms—psychological, relational, and technological—that deepen or dissolve customer–brand relationships over time.
Scientific Awards & Honors
- Omicron Delta Kappa Excellence in Teaching Award – Birmingham-Southern College
- Bob Whetstone Faculty Development Award – Birmingham-Southern College
- ACS Career Advancement Pathways Program Fellow – Associated Colleges of the South
- ACS Summer Teaching & Learning Experience Fellow – Associated Colleges of the South
Service & Professional Engagement
Harrison currently serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice and previously acted as Co-Associate Editor for Services Marketing at the Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science. She has delivered more than 25 conference presentations or panel discussions at leading marketing academic conferences, and advises Samford’s student chapter of the American Marketing Association.
