Research Interests

My work lies at the intersection of cultural studies, consumer research and art/performance studies aiming to contribute to the ever-growing progressive marketing tendencies that examine the experiential, ethical and political dimensions of consumption as well as the historical, sociocultural and transformative market dynamics.

Research Approach

I examine marketplace phenomena and consumption from a philosophical, historical, sociocultural, macro-structural perspective, as opposed to psychological or purely economic investigations. This approach defines my disciplinary, ontological and epistemological orientation.

Typically, my research is theory or phenomenon-driven aiming at extending conceptualisations that originate from sociology, philosophy, cultural theory, politics and theories of aesthetics. I tend to amalgamate literature from marketing and consumer research, cultural studies, art history, theatre and performance studies, cultural policy and management to contribute to theory development for marketing, consumer and cultural scholarship. Methodologically, I follow an interpretive/hermeneutic (qualitative) approach with the aspiration to critically examine contemporary cultural marketplace phenomena, market structures and systemic market transformations.

In brief, we could say that my work lies in the nexus of recent progressive interpretive, cultural and critical branches of marketing, such as Interpretive Consumer Research, Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), Transformative Consumer Research (TCR) and Macromarketing. In the future, I would like to focus my efforts on placing the philosophy of ethics and politics at the heart of our marketing and business research and practice endeavours as well as in the centre of business education.

Research Work, Current Projects and Writings

My broad research areas coalesce around the politics of culture, the social orientation of aesthetics and the ethical dimension of consumption with a particular focus on participatory art, non-institutional creativity and their contribution to societal change. I also work on topics that concern creative epistemologies, dramaturgical marketing techniques and storytelling.

Recently, I turned my attention to the sociology and marketability of the body. In my future research, my goal is to look at the genealogy of the performing body and study the historical interrelationships between the body and the market.

Selected Publications

Murray, JB, Brokalaki, Z, (2019), “Resistance”, Journal of Customer Behaviour.

Brokalaki, Z and Comunian, R, (2019), "Participatory Cultural Events and Place Attachment: A New Path towards Place Branding?", in Place Event Marketing: Promoting and Branding Urban Places, Routledge London.

Brokalaki, Z and Murray, JB, (2019), "Creative Ethnography", in Food and Experiential Marketing: Pleasure, Wellbeing and Consumption, Routledge London.

Murray, JB, Brokalaki, Z, Bhogal-Nair, A, Cermin, A, Chelekis, J, Cocker, HL, Eagar, T, McAlexander, B, Mitchell, N, Patrick, R, Robinson, T, Scholz, J, Thyroff, A, Zavala, M & Zuniga, M, (2018) "Toward a Processual Theory of Transformation", Journal of Business Research.

Research Genealogy

My research endeavours come as a continuation of my life experiences, pursuits and dreams. I come from Greece, a country known for its history, culture and heritage. Since my very early years, I have been involved in the arts and have experienced the richness of the aesthetic world. My engagement with the arts as a child inspired me to professionally study ballet and to perform on stage for several years. However, having spent a significant period of my life in a studio, rehearsing and performing for an audience, I realised that what would give more meaning to my intellectual and practical pursuits was to move beyond my personal experience as an artist and try to understand what the audience benefits from the aesthetic experience.

This orientation and curiosity towards the art consumer was also reinforced by my academic background and practical expertise in marketing. Combining a consumer-centred mentality together with a great passion and belief in the power of art, I focused my efforts on exploring how we can make the arts more available and relevant to a larger part of the society . My wish was to understand how the arts could be accessed by a wider audience and enrich more peoples’ lives. To delve deeper into questions and theoretical speculations around the democratisation of the arts, I continued my academic studies concentrating on cultural policy, cultural management strategies and arts marketing practices. My goal was to examine how cultural organisations could contribute to audience development for the arts and how policy could engage more communities into artistic programmes. Therefore, when I completed my postgraduate studies, I started working with a range of cultural institutions, non-for-profit organisations and arts companies designing audience development strategies and implementing arts community projects. This is when I recognised the need of the sector for scientific knowledge, theoretical tools and empirical research that could provide insights on how art consumers experience the arts.

Thus, I decided to start a PhD that would enable me to concentrate on conceptually driven and empirically evidenced research aiming at expanding my knowledge horizons, enriching my theoretical understanding and obtaining primary data that could shed some light into the nuances of audience participation in the cultural domain and its relation to societal concerns and cultural democracy aspirations.

My research work is the outcome of my lifelong art experiences and art-stimulated contemplations, readings and pursuits, an honest faith in art’s power and numerous discussions around the philosophy of aesthetics. Although it’s almost unrealistic to demonstrate the tremendous impact that art can have on individual narratives, on our common lives, on our urban environments, on institutional arrangements and on structural formations, I hope that I will keep researching and being involved in inspiring discussions about how the arts might positively change our lives.