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Dr Carmen Mal

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Lecturer in Marketing
  • The Faculty of Business & Law
  • The Open University Business School
  • Department for Strategy & Marketing
  • carmen.mal

Web links

Professional biography

Carmen joined the Open University Business School in November 2017 as a Lecturer in Marketing. She received a Bachelor degree in Business Management from University of Oradea, Romania (2002), a MSc in Global Business Analysis (2013) and a PhD in Business Management (2018) from Alliance Manchester Business School, the University of Manchester, UK. Carmen was awarded a Merit Scholarship during her undergraduate degree (by University of Oradea, Romania), a  Specialist Masters Scholarship and the competitive Manchester Business School Doctoral Studenship for pursuing her masters and doctoral studies (both awarded by Alliance Manchester Business School, UK). Before pursuing her PhD she  worked for 11 years in the private sector, mainly in the retail sector. 

Research interests

Carmen's research interests are mainly in the areas of cultural branding, brand activism, consumer acculturation, immigrant consumer identity, and consumer trust/distrust in brands. Carmen is an ad hoc reviewer for Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Psychology&Marketing and Journal of Product&Brand Management; additionally, she has previously reviewed for the Association of Consumer Research Conference and Academy of Marketing - Global Brand Conference. 

Teaching interests

At the Open University Business School, she contributed to the production of B206 ‘Understanding customers’ and B126 'Business data analytics and decision making'. She is currently chairing  the presentation of  B206 ‘Understanding customers’  and has previously chaired the presentation of  BXM191 'Business and finance fundamentals in practice'. She is also the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion champion for  B206 ‘Understanding customers’.  Carmen has tutored at residential schools for MBA students (B870 'Managing in a changing world' and B716 'Management: perspectives and practice'). Carmen is Associate Fellow HEA.

Carmen currently supervises PhD students in the areas of green demarketing and brand activism. 

External collaborations

Carmen is currently collaborating with researchers from UK, Canada and France on research projects related to consumer identity (and acculturation) and brand activism. 

Publications

The Primacy of Corporate Brand Trust for New Market Entrants (2023-01-19)
Mal, Carmen and Davies, Gary
Journal of Product and Brand Management, 32(1) (pp. 79-92)

Through the looking glass: the factors that influence consumer trust and distrust in brands (2018-11-06)
Mal, Carmen Iuliana; Davies, Gary and Diers-Lawson, Audra
Psychology & Marketing, 35(12) (pp. 936-947)

Acculturation strategies of stigmatized groups: a case of Romanian immigrants in the UK (2023-06)
Carmen Iuliana, Mal; Tana, Licsandru and Ela, Veresiu
In : CCTC2023: Consumer Culture Theory Conference 'Utopia Revisited' (27-30 Jun 2023, Lund, Sweden)

Taking a cultural perspective on teaching and learning about customer behaviour (2022)
O'Sullivan, Terry and Mal, Carmen
In : Equality Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2022: Inclusive Institutions in Action (Higher Education Academy) (16-17 Mar 2022, Manchester)

Blogging as assessment: some insights from an online course in consumer behaviour (2021)
Mal, Carmen and O'Sullivan, Terry
In : Academy of Marketing Conference (2021) Reframing Marketing Priorities (5-7 Jul 2021, Online)

Corporate misconducts and their effects on consumer distrust (2018-05-02)
Mal, Carmen; Davies, Gary and Diers-Lawson, Audra
In : 13th Global Brand Conference (02-04 May 2018, Northumbria University Newcastle, UK)

Order effects in brand trust formation and development (2017-07)
Mal, Carmen; Davies, Gary and Diers-Lawson, Audra
In : Academy of Marketing Conference (03-06 Jul 2017, Hull University Business School, UK)

Employer brand trust: a grounded theory approach to conceptualization (2016-09)
Mal, Carmen and Davies, Gary
In : British Academy of Management Conference (6-8 Sep 2016, Newcastle University, UK)

Consumer trust and distrust in brands: an exploratory study (2016-04)
Mal, Carmen; Davies, Gary and Diers-Lawson, Audra
In : 'Brands that do good': Academy of Marketing's 11th Global Brand Conference (27-29 Apr 2016, Bradford University School of Management)