Ivey’s PhD Program in Business Administration is a full-time research-based program designed to develop scholars and to place graduates at high quality research universities around the world. Our PhD candidates are showcased at conferences around the world, and regularly featured in top-tier academic and industry publications.
To help you get to know them, we’ve asked them about their academic and personal interests.
Get to know: Hoorsana Damavandi, PhD candidate
Hoorsana Damavandi is right at home in London, Ontario given her preference for colder weather and having found a great match with her PhD supervisor, Kersi Antia. Damavandi was born and raised in Tehran, Iran, where she spent the first 28 years of her life. London is the second city she has lived in, and she has grown to really like it despite the fact that the greater part of her stay has been overshadowed by lockdowns. She has a bachelor’s degree in geomatics engineering (and thus a great passion for spatial analytics and statistics), and an MBA, both from prominent Tehran-based universities.
Q&A with Hoorsana Damavandi
What attracted you to Ivey’s program?
I spent a lot of time going through the profiles of the faculty members of different (mostly Canadian) business schools before applying to any PhD programs. In doing so, I wrote to the faculty members with research interests close to mine and asked if they were interested in supervising me. During this process, I came across the profile of my current PhD supervisor, Kersi Antia, and was thrilled to find a Marketing professor who shared my interest in location-based analytics. I kept my fingers crossed from the time I wrote to him to the time he responded (which was not that long because he is amazing!). Right after our first meeting, I knew that if I was lucky enough to get into Ivey, I would truly enjoy working with him and learning from him. Here I am, almost three years later, and there isn’t a day that I don’t feel extremely lucky to be working with such an amazing, brilliant scholar.
What is your research focus?
Broadly speaking, I am interested in research questions concerning firms’ marketing relationships. Such marketing relationships are spread over a firm’s entire supply network – from forming, managing, and terminating buyer-supplier relationships and marketing alliances to the acquisition and subsequent management of relationships with end customers.
Why is that area appealing to you? What big problems/issues need to be addressed?
We live in an era marked by the advent of increasingly rich methods of communication, and as such, how firms’ approach their marketing relationships is evolving by the second. This is evident by the growing number of relationship channels, touchpoints, and the means of communicating information the firms are using nowadays to manage their various relationships. I find the fast pace of this evolution, and the substantial volume of data available that enables us to understand and predict new relationship marketing trends very interesting.
Naturally, the very same phenomena that make this area appealing give rise to many important research questions. At a big-picture level, how can firms take advantage of newly introduced relationship channels to strengthen their marketing relationships? How can they integrate new technologies into their old communication mediums to enhance their customers’ and partners’ experiences? How can such new technologies and/or communication mediums challenge or threaten firms’ well-established processes? These, along with the many smaller questions they give rise to, need to be addressed by today’s Marketing scholars.
How do you see your research making an impact?
I am very interested in constantly learning about new (or sometimes well-established in other disciplines but new to Marketing) analytical lenses through which we can approach our research questions. As a result, I often find myself extremely interested in a specific research methodology, and how this method can not only help answer new marketing research questions, but provide a novel angle to answer previously-sought questions. I believe (and hope!) that I can make contributions to the marketing literature through introducing novel analytical lenses that expand the research toolbox of future scholars interested in studying similar phenomena.
How do you see research as an aid to business improvement?
As a researcher, I have a strong natural preference for finding the answers to different questions through scientific methods. As such, I believe that as long as our research questions are rooted in industry stakeholders’ issues and concerns, and we make sure that the answers we find are not just through the most convenient, but the most rigorous approaches, the answers to such questions are directly applicable in improving businesses.
What previous experience prepared you for this?
I cannot pinpoint a specific experience that has especially prepared me for my life as a PhD student and hopefully a future career in academia, but I believe a deep passion for knowing more and more about the matters I find interesting is my greatest driver in this journey. For as long as I can remember, I have found it hard to stop digging deeper into, and blabbering on, about the subjects that I like, and I think this specific trait is what has kept me motivated throughout my journey.
Where did you grow up and what was it like there?
I grew up in Tehran, Iran. Like most other large and populous capital cities in the world, Tehran has a mixture of interesting and annoying features. The most annoying aspect of living in Tehran is that you can never find your way back home without wasting at least 45 minutes in traffic. One of the most interesting features of Tehran is that the city truly never sleeps. You can find a place packed with people and life in a 10-minute drive, regardless of your exact location, all day long.
Another interesting feature of Tehran is its astonishing cultural diversity. Iran is home to a myriad of ethnicities, from Kurds and Lurs and Turks, to Qashqais, Gilaks, and Talysh people. Naturally, as the capital city, Tehran is filled with individuals and families from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities, which means there are always new languages for you to learn about; interesting norms, habits, and rituals to hear about; and fantastic new cuisines to try.
Who have been your strongest influences in life?
Aside from my parents and my brother, who have obviously strongly influenced my personality and life views, my husband is one of the strongest influences in my life. I was very lucky to meet my husband, Saber, 12 years ago when we were both 18. I believe I would be in a very different place in my life right now without his constant love and support, and refreshing sense of adventure. Amongst many other things, living and growing up with him has taught me that you never need a reason to lend a helping hand to those around you, you can make the most arduous activities fun if you want to, and you never regret anything if you truly live in the moment.
What might someone be surprised to know about you?
That I have a strong preference for non-sunny weather. I am not saying that I love taking a walk when it is -15 degrees Celsius outside, but I would pick a snowy or rainy day over a hot, dry sunny day anytime.
What is the most played song on your playlist as of now?
Sahara by Sina Bathaie, a great Toronto-based Iranian artist.
What is your best podcast recommendation?
I am not much of a podcast listener, but among the podcasts I occasionally listen to, I really like CrowdScience.
What book would you recommend to others? Why?
I would recommend White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky because it is a quick, yet very meaningful read.
What tips have you learned for staying connected in an online learning environment?
An obvious but effective solution is to schedule regular check-in sessions not just with your close friends and family members, but with anyone you would have seen regularly in a non-pandemic alternate universe. You can try expanding your social/professional circle by asking everyone to invite one or two friends/colleagues to these sessions.
