Hongzhi Gao
Hongzhi joined the Department of Marketing in 2002. Having completed his thesis for the Degree of Master of Commerce with Distinction in 2004, Hongzhi decided to continue down an academic path by pursuing a PhD in the Department. He successfully defended his PhD thesis with an “A” pass (Minor Editorial Revision) in December 2008, and graduated in January 2009.
Before coming to New Zealand, he worked as a market analyst and project manager in China. He has worked on a number of international projects in the area of loan management and market risk analysis; projects which have been financed by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and foreign governments. These experiences provide a solid background for Hongzhi's research and teaching commitments.
His current research interests include intercultural relationship management, international crisis management, product-country-image, innovation and branding. Hongzhi's involvement in the Department includes MART 203 (Pricing and Channel Management), MART 306 (Innovation and New Product Development) and MART 326 (International and Export Marketing).
Alongside working on his PhD, Hongzhi has published a number of articles with his colleagues in well-regarded academic journals including: Industrial Marketing Management (impact factor: 0.9), Long Range Planning (impact factor: 1.667), the Journal of Marketing Management, Appetite (impact factor: 1.929), the British Food Journal, and the Journal of Business Communication in the last two years. He won a New Zealand Postgraduate Study Abroad Award in 2005, valued at $7,000 that funded his trips within New Zealand and to China for gathering data for his PhD. His PhD topic is "Guanxi dilemmas and gatekeepers: A qualitative study of Chinese-Western intercultural relationships in marketing". He was recently awarded the Early Career Researcher of the year by the Department. Hongzhi has also successfully acquired the Emerging Researcher Grant ($5,000) from the Asia New Zealand Foundation for his postdoctorate research in March 2008. Hongzhi and Associate Professor John Knight have jointly acquired an Otago University Out-Of-Season Research Grant ($24,000) to support their current research on the recent melamine contamination crisis in China, collaborating with colleagues in the Beijing University of China.
Hongzhi is now a Senior Lecturer and Associate Director in the School of Marketing and International Busines at Victoria University of Wellington.
Publications
Refereed Journal Articles
Refereed Conference Proceedings
Book Chapters
Non-refereed Journal Articles & Reports