Sara Harcourt

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PhD in Management, Marketing

Educational Background

• MSc in Management, Lazaridis Executive Master’s of Technology Management, Wilfrid Laurier University
• Honours Bachelor of Business Administration, Information Technology Management, Nipissing University 

Reasons for Choosing Laurier

Selecting a school where the faculty are supportive of students, encourage new thinking, and have a depth of experience in research theory and methods was key for me. Dr. Sarah JS Wilner advised me throughout my Master’s research and she pushed my thinking on innovation and narrative study as well as the style of research I was undertaking. In addition, meeting Dr. Tripat Gill and Dr. Hae Joo Kim, through the selection process further confirmed that the Marketing faculty are a strong team of scholars from whom I can learn new theories, methodologies and expand my capabilities as a researcher. 

As a new graduate student, I have already been growing in leaps and bounds. While learning research foundations, the professors are inspiring me with their own scholarly work which has evolved my world view of marketing and research areas of interest. 

Research Interests

Having spent over 15 years in the corporate world, I am fascinated by the phenomena of corporate “say” versus “do” and how those two don’t often align. That has brought me to focus on corporations’ use of rhetoric and brand management. While I have focused on studying rhetoric within the innovation space, I also see the potential to provide greater clarity and truth in corporate discourse in the area of corporate social responsibility. 

Career Goal

I plan to continue on in academia post PhD. My goal is to obtain a research and teaching position with a university.