Rebecca Dolan

Dr Rebecca Dolan

Senior Lecturer

Adelaide Business School

Faculty of the Professions

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Engagement is key to Dr Dolan’s research. Her work in the wine, tourism and sharing economy and other industries focuses on understanding the consumer decision-making process and how to leverage connection to create change.

Engagement across industries

Dr Dolan’s research encompasses influencer, social media, and diversity marketing, as well as purposeful and social enterprise branding, but the core of her work is consumer engagement in the wine industry, and student engagement in the education sector. In both areas, the key is understanding consumer trends and choices, and how these can be influenced to create positive change. ‘I find that interesting – how to engage customers in a new idea or a new behaviour and discover at what point they’re onboard with the idea rather than resisting it,’ says Dr Dolan. 

Influencing change

Dr Dolan’s ground-breaking work on the theory of engagement behaviour in the social media space was recognised early in her career, with a key paper published in Journal of Strategic Marketing. Increasingly cited each year, this work continues to shape Dr Dolan’s future research plans around influencer marketing, especially in the wine industry. She is keen to understand the characteristics of influencers and whether those who are health conscious can perhaps have an impact, for example, on consumer decisions around now or low (nolo) wine and alcohol alternatives. There are major shifts happening in the market in terms of consumption, which need further investigation. ‘There is a big consumer segment of young people who don’t drink at all or who don’t drink wines, so it feels like a good opportunity for the industry to explore these low or zero alcohol options.’

With an impressive pedigree in winemaking, it seemed inevitable that Dr Dolan would be involved in the industry in some way. Dr Dolan already has strong links to key industry organisations and leaders, and intends to strengthen those connections with more collaboration planned for the immediate future. As well as looking into the Australian wine drinking culture, Dr Dolan is also interested in investigating sustainability in the wine industry, in terms of alternative packaging and sustainability. ‘There’s still lots of consumer resistance to alternative packaging. But there’s actually no reason for wine to be packaged in glass bottles, unless you want to store them for some time,’ says Dr Dolan.

Student focused research

Dr Dolan has successfully dovetailed her passion for teaching with her research expertise via exploring student engagement. Dr Dolan has applied her knowledge in social media marketing to investigate how to engage students outside of traditional university platforms, by using, for example, Facebook. Her research in university O week activities has also provided insight into students’ sense of belonging and how connected they feel to their university as a result of those activities. With the education sector having gone through several upheavals recently, Dr Dolan anticipates generating much more work in this space.  

Delivery tangible outcomes

Keen to produce academic work and projects that address industry needs, Dr Dolan’s research seeks to solve problems and provide novel insights, especially in the wine area. ‘I want to know what’s creating challenges in marketing, or barriers in terms of engagement,’ Dr Dolan says. 

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  • Journals
    Year Citation
    2021 Shahbaznezhad, H., Dolan, R., & Rashidirad, M. (2021). The Role of Social Media Content Format and Platform in Users' Engagement Behavior. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 53, 47-65.
    DOI Scopus3 WoS4
    2021 Burgess, A. J., Wilkie, D. C. H., & Dolan, R. (2021). Towards successful diversity initiatives: the importance of building audience connectedness. Journal of Marketing Management, 37(1-2), 144-161.
    DOI Scopus1 WoS1
    2021 Hentzen, J. K., Hoffmann, A. O. I., & Dolan, R. M. (2021). Which consumers are more likely to adopt a retirement app and how does it explain mobile technology-enabled retirement engagement?. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 23 pages.
    DOI Scopus1 WoS1
    2020 Northey, G., Dolan, R. M., Etheridge, J., Septianto, F., & Van Esch, P. (2020). LGBTQ imagery in advertising: how viewers' political ideology shapes their emotional response to gender and sexuality in advertisements. Journal of Advertising Research, 60(2), 222-236.
    DOI WoS3
    2020 Septianto, F., Nallaperuma, K., Bandyopadhyay, A., & Dolan, R. (2020). Proud powerful, grateful powerless: the interactive effect of power and emotion on gift giving. European Journal of Marketing, 54(7), 1703-1729.
    DOI
    2020 Lang, B., Botha, E., Robertson, J., Kemper, J. A., Dolan, R., & Kietzmann, J. (2020). How to grow the sharing economy? Create Prosumers!. Australasian Marketing Journal, 28(3), 58-66.
    DOI Scopus7
    2020 Lang, B., Dolan, R., Kemper, J., & Northey, G. (2020). Prosumers in times of crisis: definition, archetypes and implications. Journal of Service Management, 32(2), 1-14.
    DOI Scopus4 WoS3
    2019 Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Frethey Bentham, C., Fahy, J., & Goodman, S. (2019). Social Media Engagement Behavior: A Framework for Engaging Customers in Social Media Content. European Journal of Marketing, 53(10), 2213-2243.
    DOI Scopus36 WoS28
    2019 Dolan, R., Seo, Y., & Kemper, J. (2019). Complaining practices on social media in tourism: a value co-creation and co-destruction perspective. Tourism Management, 73, 35-45.
    DOI Scopus44
    2019 Septianto, F., Northey, G., & Dolan, R. (2019). The effects of political ideology and message framing on counterfeiting: The mediating role of emotions. Journal of Business Research, 99, 206-214.
    DOI Scopus16 WoS15
    2019 Seo, Y., Dolan, R., & Buchanan-Oliver, M. (2019). Playing games: advancing research on online and mobile gaming consumption. Internet Research, 29(2), 289-292.
    DOI Scopus4 WoS5
    2018 Northey, G., Govind, R., Bucic, T., Chylinski, M., Dolan, R., & van Esch, P. (2018). The effect of “here and now” learning on student engagement and academic achievement. British Journal of Educational Technology, 49(2), 321-333.
    DOI Scopus14
    2018 Altschwager, T., Dolan, R., & Conduit, J. (2018). Social Brand Engagement: How Orientation Events Engage Students with the University. Australasian Marketing Journal, 26(2), 83-91.
    DOI Scopus4
    2018 Szolnoki, G., Dolan, R., Forbes, S., Thach, L., & Goodman, S. (2018). Using social media for consumer interaction: An international comparison of winery adoption and activity. Wine Economics and Policy, 7(2), 109-119.
    DOI Scopus13
    2017 Dolan, R., & Goodman, S. (2017). Succeeding on social media: Exploring communication strategies for wine marketing. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 33, 23-30.
    DOI Scopus9 WoS7
    2017 Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Fahy, J., & Goodman, S. (2017). Social Media: Communication Strategies, Engagement and Future Research Directions. International Journal of Wine Business Research, 29(1), 2-19.
    DOI Scopus30
    2016 Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Fahy, J., & Goodman, S. (2016). Social media engagement behaviour: a uses and gratifications perspective. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 24(3-4), 261-277.
    DOI Scopus177
    2015 Forbes, S., Goodman, S., & Dolan, R. (2015). Adoption of Social Media in the Australian and New Zealand Wine Industries. The Journal of New Business Ideas and Trends, 13(2), 1-14.
    — Dolan, R., & Shahbaznejad, H. (n.d.). Social Media Strategy in Services: The Effect of Airline Brand Posts on Engagement. SSRN Electronic Journal.
    DOI

  • Book Chapters
    Year Citation
    2018 Dolan, R., Conduit, J., & Fahy, J. (2018). Creating, contributing and consuming behavior: How rational and affective appeals in social media facilitate engagement. In B. Rishi, & S. Bandyopadhyay (Eds.), Contemporary Issues in Social Media Marketing (pp. 102-116). New York: Routledge.
    DOI
    2017 Dolan, R., & Conduit, J. (2017). Social Media Analytics: Measurement Tools for Exploring Online Engagement. In E. Juholin, & V. Luoma-aho (Eds.), Mitattava Viestinta [In Finnish: Measurable Communication] (pp. 47-54). Helsinki, Finland: ProCom Ry.
    2016 Dolan, R., Conduit, J., & Fahy, J. (2016). Social media engagement: a construct of positively and negatively valenced engagement behaviours. In R. Brodie, L. Hollebeek, & J. Conduit (Eds.), Customer Engagement: Contemporary Issues and Challenges (pp. 102-123). London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
    DOI

  • Conference Papers
    Year Citation
    2018 Shahbaznezhad, H., Dolan, R., & Tripathi, A. K. (2018). The power of facebook and instagram fans: An exploration of fan comments and their effect on social media content strategy. In Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing Vol. 328 (pp. 109-117). Springer International Publishing.
    DOI
    2018 Dolan, R., & Lang, B. (2018). #TipsyTuesday: Understanding Alcohol and Social Media Influence. In ANZMAC 2018 Conference Proceedings. Adelaide.
    2018 Etheridge, J., Northey, G., Septianto, F., Dolan, R., & van Esch, P. (2018). LGBT-Themed Advertising: Gender, Disgust, and Political Ideology. In ANZMAC 2018 Conference Proceedings. Adelaide.
    2017 Dolan, R., & Jury, K. (2017). Instafamous or Instafail? Exploring the relationship between Social Influencers and Engagement. In QUIS Conference Proceedings. Porto, Portugal.
    2016 Dolan, R. M. (2016). Communication orientations on Facebook: How do consumers perceive brand posts?. In Academy of Wine Business Research Conference. Adelaide, Australia.
    2014 Dolan, R. M., Szolnoki,, G., Taits, D., Hoffman, C., & Thach, L. (2014). A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Social Media Usage in the Wine Business. In Proceedings of the 8th AWBR International Conference. St Catherines, Ontario.
    2013 Dolan, R., & Goodman, S. (2013). South Australian Wine Brands on Facebook: An Exploration of Communication Orientations. In AWBR 2013 : Wine enrichment through experience : Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of the Academy of Wine Business Research. Ontario Canada: Academy of Wine Business Research and Brock University.
    2012 Dolan, R. M., & Reddaway, M. (2012). A Critical Reflection on the Application of Marketing Theory to an Accounting Problem. In ANZMAC. Adelaide, Australia.
    2012 Dolan, R. M., & Goodman, S. P. (2012). Engaging Friends and Influencing People: Consumer Perceptions of Brand Communication Strategies on Facebook. In ANZMAC. Adelaide.
    2012 Dolan, R. M. (2012). Netnography as a Research Method: Exploring Consumer Perceptions of Brand Communication Strategies on Facebook. In ANZMAC. Adelaide.

  • Conference Items
    Year Citation
    2019 Gray, H., Wilkie, D., & Dolan, R. (2019). Authenticity in social media sponsored posts. Poster session presented at the meeting of 2019. Wellington.
    2017 Altschwager, T., Dolan, R., & Conduit, J. (2017). University-Hosted Events Facilitate Social Brand Engagement. Poster session presented at the meeting of Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference (ANZMAC).
    2017 Wilkie, D., Johnson, L., Dolan, R., & Dwivedi, A. (2017). The Two Traditional Concepts Underlying Customer - Brand Engagement. Poster session presented at the meeting of ANZMAC 2017 Conference proceedings. Melbourne.
    2016 Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Fahy, J., & Goodman, S. (2016). Facebook for Wine Brands: An Analysis of Post Strategies and User Engagement Actions. Poster session presented at the meeting of Academy of WIne Business Research Conference.
    2016 Dolan, R., Conduit, J., & Fahy, J. (2016). Determining Uses and Gratifications for Social Media Engagement Behaviour. Poster session presented at the meeting of Frontiers in Service Conference. Bergen, Norway.
    2016 Dolan, R., Conduit, J., & Fahy, J. (2016). Information Overload in Social Media: The Effect of Social Media Content Types on Engagement Behaviour. Poster session presented at the meeting of AMA Servsig Conference. Maastricht, The Netherlands.
    2015 Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Fahy, J., & Goodman, S. (2015). Big Social Data and Social Media Analytics: Tools for exploring Social Media Engagement Behaviour. Poster session presented at the meeting of Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference.
    2014 Dolan, R., Fahy, J., Conduit, J., & Goodman, S. (2014). Customer Brand Engagement Behaviour in Online Social Networks: A Conceptual Framework. Poster session presented at the meeting of Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference. Brisbane, Australia.

Introduction to Marketing (UG)

Direct Wine Marketing and Cellar Door Management (PG)

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  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2020 Co-Supervisor The power of purposeful brands: An exploration of purposeful brands and their interactions Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Harriet Gray
    2020 Co-Supervisor Transcendent Customer Experiences Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Katelyn Jane Harris
    2020 Co-Supervisor Smartphone Apps and Millennial’s Engagement with Retirement Savings Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Janin Karoli Hentzen
    2019 Co-Supervisor Diversity in Marketing Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Amelie Jay Burgess

  • Other Supervision Activities
    Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
    2018 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Online Customer Reviews: Exploring the influence of online reviews on post-consumers online customer reviews University of Auckland — Master — Shujun Hughes
    2017 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Native Advertising: A revolutionary marketing technique or deception? University of Auckland — Honours Full Time Cavin Toh
    2017 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Fighting Binge Drinking with Facebook: An exploration of alcohol related social media campaigns and their potential impact on alcohol consumption in New Zealand University of Auckland — Honours Full Time Bianca D'Souza
    2017 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Fifty Shades of Gay: How an Individual’s Political Ideology Influences their Acceptance of LGBT Themes in Advertising University of Auckland — Master Full Time Jane Etheridge
    2017 - 2018 Co-Supervisor CONSUMER ONLINE ENGAGEMENT: An Exploration of the use of Mafengwo.com for High Involvement Decision Making of Chinese Tourists University of Auckland — Master Full Time Min Li
    2017 - 2018 Principal Supervisor E-Consumer Empowerment Practices University of Auckland — Master Full Time Michelle Kim
    2017 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Healthcare Systems Utilising Online Health Communities on Social Media: Perspective of New Zealand Healthcare Consumers and Providers University of Auckland — Master Full Time Justin Jang
    2016 - 2016 Principal Supervisor Instafamous or Instafail:An Exploration of Social Influencers and Engagement, Brand Attitudes and Purchase Intent Univeristy of Auckland — Honours Full Time Kirsty Jury
  • Position: Senior Lecturer
  • Phone: 83139272
  • Email: rebecca.dolan@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Nexus 10, floor 10
  • Room: 10 11
  • Org Unit: Faculty of The Professions
Connect With Me
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