Henry Boateng

Digital Information Management

I chose to study my PhD at UTS as I am convinced that UTS is one of the best young universities in the world because of the excellent track record of the Faculty and Research Fellows. I was also particularly aware of the international reputation UTS has as a hub for world-class education and research as manifested in the world university rankings. Not only was I excited about the available state-of-the-art research facilities, but also the renowned Faculty at UTS.

My two supervisors Bhuva Narayan (PhD) and Hilary Yerbury (PhD) have been awesome. They have always tried to bring the best out of me. They have really helped me to understand qualitative research and the social constructionism worldview, which I did not know much about. Furthermore, through their efforts and the KickStart@UTS programme I have gained a lot of skills in literature review.

My PhD Journey

I think my PhD journey has not always been smooth. There are times I get confused and feel empty but I just try to overcome the challenges with encouragement from my supervisors. My supervisors have been very supportive. Their friendliness helps me to approach them easily with questions on my project and I think that has been helpful. But overall, I can confidently say that I have learned a lot within the parts few years.

Recently one of Henry’s papers was published in the Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, titled: “Consumers’ attitude towards social media advertising and their behavioural response: the moderating role of corporate reputation”. Not only was this paper published, but Henry was also awarded a Highly Commended in the 2016 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence.

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between consumers’ attitude toward social media advertising and consumers’ response and the moderating role of corporate reputation in this relationship. I observed that some advertisers and organizations have started investing their energies and money into social media advertising but my argument was only reputable ones are likely to succeed in this regard.

I argued in the paper that although most consumers have favourable responses to social media advertising, the potency of social media advertising depends on the reputation of the firm employing social media advertising. In order words, companies that intend to use social media advertising must build a corporate image for themselves; such companies should empathize with their customers and instil trust and confidence in their customers. Again, such companies must create a memorable and lasting impression on the mind of their consumers in every encounter. Furthermore, such companies must link their corporate websites to their social media sites, so that visitors can validate the authenticity of the advertisements.

The paper was chosen for the award because of its internationality, diversity, support for scholarly research, encouragement of applied research (impact), commitment to high quality scholarship and a desire to ensure that readers have the best experience.

Advice to future research students who are looking to pursue research as a career

I believe pursuing research as a career demands a lot of commitment. Having a research degree might not be enough. One needs to be mentored by an experienced scholar. I worked as a research assistant after my MPhil degree and I think that has helped me a lot.