Texas Tech University

Doctoral Student Wins Academy of Marketing Science Award

April Chavez

May 26, 2020

Congratulations, K.T.

K.T. Manis was selected by an international panel as one of five recipients of the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Review / Sheth Foundation Doctoral Competition for Conceptual Articles awards.

K.T. Manis, a third-year doctoral candidate in the area of marketing at Texas Tech University's Jerry S. Rawls College of Business, was one of five winners of this year's Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Review / Sheth Foundation Doctoral Competition for Conceptual Articles awards.

The award was established to encourage, support and celebrate the conceptual contributions made by doctoral students to marketing literature.

Manis' paper, which was co-authored by Area Coordinator and Professor of Marketing Sreedhar Madhavaram, was selected from a competitive pool of 34 applicants from across the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Germany, India, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States. Titled "AI-enabled marketing capabilities: an exploration through the hierarchy of operant resources (HOR) perspective," the paper uncovered six general ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) can enable marketing capabilities, and identified how AI-enabled marketing capabilities can be developed and deployed. Furthermore, they conceptualize a hierarchy of automation and apply this hierarchy to the input and output process of AI-enablement.

K.T. Manis
K.T. Manis

"Developing and advancing theory in this area is essential for marketing to grow as a discipline. Both technological advancements and understanding the enabling aspects of technology are necessary for firm survival, especially in today's climate," said Manis. "Importantly, this paper is among the first to integrate technology with marketing capabilities, providing practitioners with a resource to understand how to integrate technology with their marketing capabilities, and scholars with a foundation for future research in this under-researched area."

As part of the process, Manis' submission was reviewed by a set of internationally esteemed marketing scholars who provided constructive reviews on how to improve the manuscript for publication. As a winner, Manis has been selected to participate in mentoring sessions with one of the competition chairs to further and enhance his conceptual article. He has also been invited to submit a conceptual paper for publication in the journal AMS Review. Manis will submit his final article to AMS Review in November, ahead of an expected 2021 publication date.

"The mentoring session will provide invaluable feedback that will ideally challenge my thinking, not only about this paper specifically, but about theory development and the writing of conceptual articles in general. Furthermore, this will provide an opportunity to have an even stronger publication at the end of the process, said Manis."

Manis will be recognized and invited to present at the next AMS Conference, which is currently being rescheduled due to the Coronavirus.