The Guests

A. Parasuraman, Ph.D.

A. Parasuraman is a Professor and Holder of the James W. McLamore Chair in Marketing at the University of Miami. He has published over 100 scholarly articles and research monographs. He has received many awards for his teaching, research and professional contributions, including the AMA SERVSIG’s “Career Contributions to the Services Discipline Award” (1998) and the Academy of Marketing Science’s “Outstanding Marketing Educator Award” (2001). In 2004 he was named a “Distinguished Fellow” of the Academy of Marketing Science. He served as editor of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (1997-2000) and became editor of the Journal of Service Research on June 1, 2005 for a 3-year term. He serves on ten editorial review boards. He is the recipient of the “JAMS Outstanding Reviewer Award” for 2000-2003 and 2003-2006, and the “2003 Journal of Retailing Outstanding Reviewer Award.” He is the lead author of Marketing Research (2nd Edition), a college textbook published in 2006, and is a co-author of three other business books written for practitioners: Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations, Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality, and Techno-Ready Marketing: How and Why Your Customers Adopt Technology. He has conducted dozens of executive seminars on service quality, customer satisfaction and the role of technology in service delivery in many countries.

Zhou Nan, Ph.D.

Born in China and living through the early Cultural Revolution, Prof. Zhou went on to attend university in the USA, eventually earning a Ph.D. from University of Utah. Teaching in the USA and Canada for a number of years, Joe visited Hong Kong and ended up moving there to teach at City University of Hong Kong. Currently, he is the acting head of the department. Over the years, Prof. Zhou has published in the top marketing journals. His research includes an emphasis on local Chinese consumer issues and a deep understanding of how Chinese concepts integrate into modern retailing and consumer psychology.

Jane Lu, Ph.D.

Jane's background is in economics, spending most of her time now researching such issues as consumer responses to a possible Avian Flu outbreak. Professor Lu is an expert in local retailing and is a great resources we often turn to. She has done numerous studies on local retailing as well as the retailing scene in Shanghai.

Nickola Pazderic, Ph.D.

Dr. Pazderic has lived in Taiwan for nearly two decades. During that time, he performed anthropological research that was published in Social Sciences and Humanities journals, including the top ranked Journal of Cultural Anthropology. Currently, he is teaching at the University of Washington and raising his daughter, along with his wife in Seattle. Nick has been looking at English as a commodity within the larger trend of university education being treated like a consumable good.

Robert Reynolds, Ph.D.

Robert is an expert in Chinese linguistics, with a Ph.D. in the topic. Robert has experience in living in Taiwan from the early 1980s and more recently as the director of a university department.
Robert's Moodle Web site, personal Web site, university Web site.

Michael Turton

Michael's wide experience in Taiwan dates back to the late 1980s. Consulting, teaching, research, editing, and political studies are just a some of the things Michael has worked on over the years. He built the most complete online resource about teaching English in Taiwan at  Teaching English in Taiwan. After that, Michael moved into blogging and is currently the best known English blogger in Taiwan. Rather than just a report of daily experiences, The View from Taiwan is a serious voice for Taiwan democracy--so often overlooked as the Western press trip over themselves chasing favor in the PRC.