Sara is a Professor of Marketing and Director of the Institute for Innovation in Business and Social Research, a University of Wollongong Research Strength. She holds a Bachelor/Masters and PhD degree (1996) in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and a Bachelor/Masters degree in Psychology from the University of Vienna. Her research interests are market segmentation methodology and measurement in the social sciences. She has primarily applied her work to tourism and social issues (environmental volunteering, foster care and public acceptance of water alternatives). She has (co-)authored 175 refereed papers, including 77 journal articles, half of which were published in A* or A journals. Since moving to Australia in 2002 Sara won, from the ARC and ALTC alone, four Discovery ($1,079,000), three Linkage ($653,880), two Linkage International ($62,864) and one ALTC Leadership Grant ($220,000.00). Sara’s work is widely cited. Her H-index is 14 (Publish or Perish, Harzing, 2010) Sara won a number of best paper awards, the most prestigious being the Charles R. Goeldner Article of Excellence Award (Journal of Travel Research, 2004). Sara serves on numerous editorial boards, including those of the Journal of Travel Research (A*) and Annals of Tourism Research (A*). She assesses competitive research grant applications for the Australian Research Council and national research councils overseas.
Articles
Does water context influence behaviour and attitudes to water conservation? (with M Gilbertson and A Hurlimann), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2011)
Many rural and urban areas around the world are facing challenges to the supply of...
Key drivers of airline loyalty (with Klaus Grabler, Bettina Grun, and Anna Kulnig), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2011)
This study investigates drivers of airline loyalty. It contributes to the body of knowledge in...
Quick, simple and reliable : forced binary survey questions (with Bettina Grün and Friedrich Leisch), International journal of market research (2011)
Consumers are increasingly saturated by market research which leads to decreasing response rates and an...
Self-congruity and volunteering : a multi-organisation comparison (with M. Randle), European journal of marketing (2011)
- Purpose: To examine: (1) if individuals who prefer different volunteering organisations have different self-concepts;...
Voluntary relocation - an exploration of Australian attitudes in the context of drought, recycled and desalinated water (with Anna Hurlimann), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2011)
Throughout history settlements have been abandoned due to lack of water. Such a fate is...
Contributions to Books
Desalinated Versus Recycled Water – What Does the Public Think? (with A. Hurlimann), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2010)
A survey study was conducted with 1495 Australians asking them about their likelihood of using...
Different Tourists - Different Perceptions of Different Cities Consequences for Destination Image Measurement and Strategic Destination Marketing (with T. Huybers), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2010)
A destination marketing organization is charged with the task of convincingly appealing to potential visitors...
Tourism segmentation by consumer-based variables (with B. Kemp), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2009)
The basis for successful marketing is to understand and satisfy consumer needs. Sometimes it is...
Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Tourist Satisfaction: Assessing Analytical Robustness, Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2008)
Response styles can distort survey findings. Culture-specific response styles (CSRS) are particularly problematic to cross-cultural...
Segmenting tourists based on satisfaction and satisfaction patterns (with H. Le), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2008)
Market segmentation has a long history in empirical tourism research. So does satisfaction research. Yet,...
Presentations
Three good reasons NOT to use factor-cluster segmentation (with Bettina Grun), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2011)
Market segmentation is very popular both in tourism industry and among tourism researchers. Tourism industry...
Three good reasons NOT to use five and seven point Likert items (with Bettina Grun, Friedrich Leisch, and John Rossiter), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2011)
One of the main sources of knowledge development in tourism has been survey research. Through...
An initial empirical guide to translating between different answer formats (with B. Grun and J. R. Rossiter), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2010)
Surveys research remains the most popular source of market knowledge. Yet, there is not one...
Converting Business Travellers to Leisure Travellers (with G. Kerr and K. Lazarevski), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2009)
The aim of this paper is to propose a novel strategy for attracting vacation tourists...
Converting business travellers to leisure travellers (with Gregory M. Kerr and Katie Lazarevski), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2009)
The aim of this paper is to propose a novel strategy for attracting vacation tourists...
Other
Is Thinking Worthwhile? A Comparison of Corporate Segment Choice Strategies (with C. Buchta, R. Freitag, F. Leisch, D. Meyer, A. Mild, and M. Ossinger), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2003)
The field of strategic marketing has long been identified as fruitful ground for gaining competitive...
The influence of interactions between market segmentation strategy and competition on organizational performance – a simulation study (with R. Freitag), Faculty of Commerce - Papers (2003)
A computer simulation study is conducted to explore the interaction of alternative segmentation strategies and...