An EconoTimes perspective

Joanne E. McNeish

Associate Professor, Marketing, Ryerson University

Associate Professor, Marketing, Ryerson University Prior to joining the Ted Rogers School of Management, Joanne held senior research, marketing and advertising positions in public and private sector companies. She was made a Fellow of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association in 2002. The MRIA Fellows program provides deserving recognition to those who have made distinguished contribution to marketing research in Canada. Joanne was one of the youngest candidates and one of only a handful of women to be so honored. She completed her PhD (Management) at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University in 2010. Joanne focuses on understanding the attitudes and behavior of simultaneous users, rather than non-adopters or full adopters (only use the replacement innovation). She believes that the consumer who demonstrates simultaneous use behaviour has consciously considered the benefits of both the incumbent and replacement technology. The long-term use of both suggests that the user believes that each technology has important benefits that one or the other does not have. Joanne has a particular interest in paper documents (e.g. bills and statements, textbooks, books used for leisure reading) as a powerful examples of resilient technologies. Paper documents are particularly fascinating objects to explore since they are widely available and consumers are very familiar with them. However, until her research, their meaning and function to consumers has been obscured from the researchers’ view due to their ubiquity and familiarity.