Ko de Ruyter

Ko de Ruyter recently joined Cass as a Professor of Marketing. His research focuses on customer loyalty, marketing strategy, technology on the organizational frontline and social media. He has published widely in flagship academic business journals, such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research and Management Science. For his leadership in the academic research community, Professor de Ruyter has been awarded a life-time achievement by the American Marketing Association.

This honour has by no means made him want to rest on his laurels. With the best yet to come, and a ‘mid-career mission’ combined with maximal insights and experience, Ko is passionate about the practical relevance of his research and its value for businesses and their customers. Now, perhaps more than ever, in turbulent economic times and with market places rapidly changing into social spaces pushed by advances in IT, there is a need for guidance in strategy development that builds on fundamental as well as versatile thinking. Ko de Ruyter is able to offer such thinking and push its translation into actionable advice for businesses. He has proven experience in working closely with decision-makers in the private and public sectors, consulting on the challenges and opportunities that they face. This has made him an internationally renowned speaker at business events and conferences, as he is able to seamlessly explain the promise that state-of-the-art innovative technologies hold for business performance and transformation.

Ko is involved in a European-wide network of researchers and health care professionals that aims to research the societal and integrated care delivery challenge. He seeks to facilitate patient-centred services, sensitive to the needs of patients and carers, in a way which enhances dignity, autonomy, trust and choice. Ko leads an approach which draws from expertise in the design and construct of services in the widest sense, and in the marketing of services where ‘marketing’ relates to promoting their effectiveness, efficacy, construct and utility, together with management, quality control and governance. Conflict resolution, between medical professionals, patients and social carers takes central stage. This approach respects health and care traditions, but also challenge them to look outside at approaches already well proven in other sectors.

Ko teaches both on the MBA and PhD programs. He believes that the main aim of academic teaching should be to stimulate and interest students in developing an intrinsic motivation to venture and discover into areas of enquiry that fascinate them. University curricula should offer access to state of the art knowledge, provide skills and the intellectual efficacy to be constructively critical and foster the wonder of an open mind. Ultimately, the theories that we offer should be seamlessly applicable to everyday life, across various levels of abstraction. Ko sees it as his mission to equip students with these qualities so that they can rely on them and take an in-depth look at their lives and conclude that it is not the same.

Qualifications

MSc in Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, unknown PhD in Management Science, University of Twente, The Netherlands

Expertise

Primary Topics

• Social Media
• Service Management
• E-Marketing
• Services
• Marketing
• Leadership
• Innovation & Creativity
• Consumer Behaviour
• Management Learning
• MarketingE-Business
• Digital Marketing

Research Topics

• Enhancing the customer experience with Augmented Reality
• Gamification and customer learning
• Creativity in employee and customer teams
• Textual analytics and social media
• Technology and health care services

Books (2)

• Pauwels, P. and de Ruyter, K. (2004). RESEARCH ON INTERNATIONAL SERVICE MARKETING: ENRICHMENT AND CHALLENGES. ISBN 0-7623-1185-1.
• van Birgelen, M., de Ruyter, K. and Wetzels, M. (2004). THE ROLE OF SOCIALLY DESIRABLE RESPONDING IN INTERNATIONAL SERVICES RESEARCH. ISBN 0-7623-1185-1.

Chapters (7)

• De Ruyter, K., Caic, M., Mahr, D., Aguirre, E. and Wetzels, M. (2014). "Too Close for Comfort”: The Negative Effects of Location-Based Advertising. In Bušljeta Banks, I., De Pelsmacker, P. and Okazaki, S. (Eds.), Advances in Advertising Research (pp. 103–111). Springer. ISBN 978-3-658-08131-7.
• De Ruyter, K. and Van Laer, T. (2014). It's the social, stupid! Leveraging the 4C markers of social in online service delivery. Handbook of Service Marketing Research (pp. 413–436). ISBN 978-0-85793-885-5.
• De Ruyter, K., Patterson, P. and Yu, T. (2014). Are you (appropriately) experienced?: Service-sales ambidexterity. Handbook of Service Marketing Research (pp. 270–291). ISBN 978-0-85793-885-5.
• De Ruyter, K. and Yu, T. (2013). You can if you think you can The impact of customer and employee efficacy on technology-based service delivery. Serving Customers: Global Services Marketing Perspectives (pp. 161–175). Tilde Publishing and Distribution. ISBN 978-0-7346-1099-7.
• van Laer, T. and de Ruyter, K. (2012). In de schoenen van de klant: over de maakbaarheid van verantwoordelijke medewerkers. In Bronner, A.E., Dekker, P., de Leeuw, E., Paas, L.J., de Ruyter, K., Smidts, A. and Wieringa, J.E. (Eds.), Ontwikkelingen in het marktonderzoek: Jaarboek MarktOnderzoekAssociatie (pp. 9–26). Haarlem: Spaar en Hout.
• van Laer, T. and de Ruyter, K. (2011). Een betrouwbaar verhaal: hoe te reageren op negatieve blogs van klanten. In Bronner, A.E., Dekker, P., de Leeuw, E., Paas, L.J., de Ruyter, K., Smidts, A. and Wieringa, J.E. (Eds.), Ontwikkelingen in het marktonderzoek MA 2011 Jaarboek (Insights in Marketing Intelligence 2011 Market Market Research Association Yearbook) (pp. 43–61). Haarlem: De Vrieseborch.
• Warrington, P.T., Gangstad, E., Feinberg, R. and de Ruyter, K. (2008). Multi-channel retailing and customer satisfaction: Implications for eCRM. Contemporary Research in E-Branding (pp. 280–291). ISBN 978-1-59904-813-0.