Dean Mark Rosenbaum.
HPU College of Business Dean Mark Rosenbaum, Ph.D., was recently named first in publication output and seventh for total number of citations for LGBTQIA+ research over the course of his 20+ year career in higher education. Rosenbaum began his incredible journey in academia at Arizona State University as a Ph.D. student researching the marketplace experiences of LGBT consumers. Rosenbaum notes that this type of research occurred to him well before cultural norms accepted or supported this kind of research.
“Homework assignments on Durkheim's Symbolic Theory turned into published research articles on how LGBT consumers rely on symbols (to be named the Symbolic Servicescape) to determine a sense of welcomeness,” said Rosenbaum. “Next, my attention turned to showing not only marketplace discrimination, but also how gay consumers and employees work together to obtain hidden discounts.
In later years, Rosenbaum and his colleagues identified how female shoppers often sought out gay male employees in retail settings (research conducted with Professor Rebekah Russell-Bennett). Together, with German Contreras Ramirez, Rosenbaum’s research focused on the plight of LGBT consumers in Colombia, despite recent social progress.
The results of Rosenbaum’s two-decade long research in the LGBTQIA+ field is an article by Montecchi, M., Micheli, M. R., Campana, M., & Schau, H. J. (2023), entitled “From Crisis to Advocacy: Tracing the Emergence and Evolution of the LGBTQIA+ Consumer Market” in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. Rosenbaum’s achievements are noted on page 11 of the article’s supplemental material.
“We must take a moment to reflect on how fortunate we are to have the freedom and privilege to conduct LGBT research and celebrate our successes,” noted Rosenbaum. “In many nations, this type of research would be frowned upon, even though history has taught us the significance of the pink triangle. I want to thank all my colleagues who joined me on the research endeavor, especially those of us in the early years who accepted risks to explore LGBTIQ consumers.”
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