Tobin Graduate Student’s Research Paper Accepted into Annual Association for Consumer Research Conference

Jennifer Maizel - November 25, 2009

November 25, 2009--Under the mentorship of Assistant Marketing Professor Ryall Carroll, Tobin graduate student Carleen Ramlochansingh’s thesis on social networking entitled, Social Networking Profiles & Cultural Dimensions: An Empirical Investigation, was accepted into the Annual Association for Consumer Research (ACR) Conference. “This was a great accomplishment for Carleen and St. John’s,” said Professor Carroll. “ACR, the leading premier marketing conference for consumer research, only accepted about 50% of the submitted working papers this year and this was the largest ACR conference to date with over 1200 participants! Carleen’s paper was competing with those submitted by PhDs and full time marketing practitioners around the world.”

Carleen’s paper investigated whether an individual’s culture is evident in their social networking profiles and involved analysis of profiles from the social networking site MySpace from three different countries, including Australia, Ireland and the United States; using three cultural dimensions: individuality, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. Three hundred customized profiles were reviewed by looking at the “About Me” section, where users write their personal information.

”I wanted a topic that encompassed marketing with an international impact. We thought about the global reach of the Internet and found that social networking is not a U.S. phenomenon but a global one,” said Ramlochansingh. “I loved the idea of social networking because it was a fresh, modern topic that has not been explored in depth.”The results of Carleen’s research confirmed her expectations that culture is indeed present in individual’s personal descriptions and her research helped to build a better understanding of the growing phenomenon of social networking.

The Tobin College of Business Dean’s office supported Carleen and her paper’s acceptance by covering her expenses to attend the ACP conference in Pittsburgh, including airfare, hotel, and conference registration.

“The conference was a great learning experience and was quite exciting. I felt a great sense of accomplishment and pride that I was able to create a research project that marketing professors and marketing practitioners from around the world found both interesting and insightful,” she said.

The Peter J. Tobin College of Business has provided the highest quality business education for over eighty years. Many alumni have risen to senior executive positions in the financial services community in New York and around the world. Degrees offered include the Bachelor of Science, Master of Business Administration and Master of Science. The College encompasses the School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science, which is housed at the University’s Manhattan location in the heart of the New York financial district. Recent recognitions for the Tobin College include a listing by The Aspen Institute among the top ninety business schools in the United States whose graduate curricula reflect a commitment to social responsibility and sustainability.