KNOXVILLE — The amount of research being done by retail faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, ranks in the top 20 internationally and in the top five nationally, according to published studies recently done by two members of the Retail, Hospitality and Tourism Management department.
Assistant Professor Rodney Runyan and doctoral candidate Jonghan Hyun studied faculty and program productivity in the retail discipline at colleges and universities around the world. They looked at research appearing in four key retailing journals over the past 15 years. A report of their findings has been accepted for publication in the International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research. A smaller version of the study has been published in the refereed proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science/American Collegiate Retailing Association Triennial Conference on Retailing.
“The scholarly productivity of a university department reflects upon both graduate and undergraduate education,” Runyan said. “Scholarly productivity such as we find from the UT retailing faculty shows a dedication to knowledge creation and preparation of future scholars through doctoral programs. This productivity also ensures that undergraduates are being taught by engaged faculty who are current in their fields.”
Looking at the amount of research done by retail faculty and programs worldwide, the researchers found that UT rates in the top 20 on two of three indices. UT is among only seven U.S. universities in the top 20.
Looking at national statistics, the researchers found:
- UT ranks fifth in total scholarly productivity.
- Two of the top 20 scholars (Brenda Sternquist and Jason Carpenter) have doctorates from UT, and together their output ranks second.
- UT ranks fourth in the percentage of its scholarly output in retailing coming from the retail program. That is, during the 15 years of data studied, 58 percent of the scholarly output in this area was produced by Retail and Consumer Sciences; the remainder was done by other UT departments, including marketing and management.
Further, the researchers found that two current faculty members ranked in the top 20 nationally in terms of productivity. Professor Youn-Kyung Kim ranked eighth and Professor Ann Fairhurst ranked 17th.
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C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely, (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)