Broad School PhD candidate wins
national dissertation award

Linda (Hui) Shi, a PhD candidate in the Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department at the Broad School, has been selected in a national competition to receive a prestigious Doctoral Support Award. This recognition comes from a joint Duke University (Teradata Center) and Penn State University (ISBM) competition among doctoral candidates.

Shi's proposal, "Global Account Relationship Management: Sources of Competitive Advantage and Performance," was named a winner out of 41 entrants and 12 finalists. The award consists of $5,000 financial assistance for travel, data collection, and other expenses associated with conducting dissertation research.

The dissertation, chaired by Professor S. Tamer Cavusgil, J.W. Byington Endowed Chair in Global Marketing in the Broad School's Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department, addresses all-around capabilities, strategies, and structures of successful global account management approaches. So far, several interviews with business executives have been completed and a conceptual paper drawn from these in-depth case studies has also been conditionally accepted for publication.

Shi’s research explores the management dimensions of customer relationship management (CRM) in the context of global customer accounts, including why some succeed and others fail. Scant empirical research has been conducted on the interaction global suppliers and their key customers worldwide.

Shi previously worked for P&G China in Finance and Accounting, and earned her bachelor’s degree from Zhongshan University in Guangzhou.