Dr. Sungjun (Steven) Park –National Chengchi University (NCCU)

On April 1, 2024, Dr. Park from NCCU presented a guest lecture in GHRM’s research methodology class. This lecture was intended to strengthen students’ ability in understanding research methodology. Dr. Park first introduced his research specialty in marketing, including high-tech marketing (human computer interaction and AI), digital marketing (mobile advertising and virtual influencers), and service marketing. Dr. Park will also share some tips for Masters’ students who might consider pursuing their PhDs.

Dr. Park presented his first paper titled, “It’s All about Timing: Captive Targeting through Mobile Ads,” where he investigated advertising effects in a captive environment like in cinemas, trains, or on YouTube, etc. This paper opened up more about advertising on mobile apps but within a captivated environment. Dr. Park guided students through the paper from the research background until the conclusion. Dr. Park started his lecture by showing how to conduct a literature review, find knowledge gaps, and determine a research methodology, i.e., a quantitative, qualitative, or a mixed study. Dr. Park also highlighted the importance of mediating and moderating factors and demonstrated how to design research and establish hypotheses. He then emphasized the multi-mode methods, in his example, a combination of lab experiments and field study. Dr. Park then discussed the importance of managerial and theoretical implications and stressed the significance of reflecting on limitations and paving revenues for future research.

In the second half of the lecture, Dr. Park shared his tips for those who would pursue further research endeavors like completing a master thesis. The first step is finding an interesting research idea that is close to daily life, but many people hadn’t thought of. At the same time, we need to consider the implications of the paper. The second step is to conduct literature review in credible sources like Google Scholar and find a key paper from a top journal that will serve fundamental reference for further endeavors. Next step is to establish clear and succinct hypotheses, which should be logically convincing and linguistically relatable. Dr. Park also stressed that it is essential to have a pilot study (pre-test) and receive feedback from colleagues to help further develop research ideas.