Professor Tracey Danaher’s (previously Dagger) research interests focus on (i) the customer experience, (ii) multi-media advertising effectiveness, and (iii) consumer well-being. Her research agenda is driven by a desire to provide consumers, marketers, firms, and policy makers with the means to make better, more informed decisions for themselves, their firms, and society. She has a particular interest in healthcare marketing. Tracey has published in top academic journals including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Service Research, International Journal of Forecasting, Journal of Advertising, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Managing Service Quality and Journal of Consumer Marketing, among others. Her research has been covered in the Conversation, Washington Post, ScienceDaily, and many other news outlets.

Tracey was the Academic Director of the Australian Centre for Retail Studies at Monash University for 3 years. She serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Retailing and Journal of Service Research. Tracey has presented her work at leading international conferences. She has received several academic awards including the ANZMAC Best Paper Award (2003), the Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award in Services Management (2005), the ANZMAC Emerging Researcher of the Year Award (2008), and the Services Science Forum Best Paper Award (2009). She and her co-authors were also finalists for the Journal of Service Research Best Article Award (2013) and for the Journal of Marketing Research Green Award (2016). In, 2016 Tracey was the recipient of the Faculty of Business and Economics Dean’s Award for Research Impact for innovations in approach and methods of measuring business investment of a major Australian retailer, and in 2017 the Dean’s Award for Research Excellence which recognizes exceptional research performance by an academic staff member.

Tracey has successfully won several national grants including ARC Linkage ($115,784) and Discovery Grants (($465,000), and several industry grants (totalling $47,893). She has previously taught at the University of Queensland and has been a visiting scholar at Florida State University, Arizona State University and New York University. Tracey joined Monash University in 2010 and earned her PhD from the University of Western Australia.

My research interests lie in several areas:

(1) Customer experiences including assessing and improving service quality and customer satisfaction, understanding and generating customer loyalty and building strong and effective loyalty programs, understanding frontline employee roles and ambidexterity, studying value co-creation, understanding the role of emotions in service encounters, improving customer service experiences, and building service environments (servicescape) to impact psychological and sales responses. For example:

Tracey S. Dagger and Peter J. Danaher (2014), “Comparing the Effect of Store Remodeling on New and Existing Customers”, Journal of Marketing, 78 (3), 62-80 we examine the effect of the store envionrment on those who visit the store for the first time after it is remodeled (new customers) versus those who had visited before the remodeling (existing customers). This study contrasts the effect of store remodeling on new and existing customers in two field experiments with stores that underwent a major remodeling. Treatment and control stores are used in both experiments. We measure sales before and after the remodeling for new and existing customers; and in one store, we also measure customers’ psychological responses. In both cases, sales increase after the remodeling effort. However, sales for new customers are significantly higher than for existing customers after the remodel, and this difference persists for a year. Higher sales to new customers are mostly due to more new customers being drawn to the remodeled store, their higher spend per visit, and their subsequent increased visit frequency.

Dagger (Danaher), Tracey S.,  Peter J. Danaher, Jillian C. Sweeney and Janet R. McColl-Kennedy (2013), “Selective Halo Effects Arising from Improving the Interpersonal Skills of Frontline Employees,” Journal of Service Research, 16, 488-502 

(2) Advertising effectiveness research including media planning, advertising and media optimization, using new technology as an advertising medium.

For example, in Danaher, Peter J., and Tracey S. Dagger (Danaher) (2013), “Comparing the Relative Effectiveness of Advertising Channels: a Case Study of a Multimedia Blitz Campaign,” Journal of Marketing Research, 54 (4), 517-534 we compile a single-source database of individual-level exposure to 10 media (television, radio, newspaper, magazines, online display ads, sponsored search, social media, catalogs, direct mail and email) as well as the sales and profits for these same individuals during a retailer’s promotional sale. We find that 7 of the 10 media have a significant positive impact on purchase outcomes. The most effective media, ranked in terms of advertising elasticity, are catalogs, TV, direct mail, radio, email, newspaper and sponsored search. Although online display advertising and social media have no direct impact on purchase outcomes they do drive significantly more traffic to the retailer’s website. We additionally look for potential media synergy effects and find that a model without synergy effects performs better than when pairwise media interactions are included. However, it is still worthwhile to advertise in multiple media rather than a single medium.

See also: Danaher Peter, J. Mike Smith, Kulan Ranasinghe and Tracey S. Danaher (2015), “Where, When and How Long: Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of Mobile Phone Coupons” Journal of Marketing Research, 52, 5 (October), 710-725. [Finalist for the Green Award for the best paper in JMR]

(3) Consumer well-being which aims to transform the lives of individuals, their families and the broader community through research aimed at improving quality-of-life and well-being.  Within the transformative service research agenda my interests lie in health service marketing and behaviour change. This involves understanding customer value co-creation in health care and the patient journey, and how to bring about behaviour change to elicit positive outcomes like improved health and quality-of-life.

For example, in Sweeney, Jillian C., Tracey S. Danaher .and Janet R. McColl-Kennedy (2015) "Customer Effort in Value Cocreation Activities: Improving Quality of Life and Behavioral Intentions of Health Care Customers", Journal of Service Research, 18(3), 318-335 we explore customer value co-creation in health care, identifying a hierarchy of activities representing varying levels of customer effort from complying with basic requirements (less effort, easier tasks) to extensive decision making (more effort, more difficult tasks).  We define customer Effort in Value Cocreation Activities (EVCA) as the degree of effort that customers exert to integrate resources, through a range of activities of varying levels of perceived difficulty. Our findings underscore the importance of viewing health care service as taking place within the customer’s service network which extends well beyond the customer-firm dyad to include other market-facing as well as public and private resources.  Moreover, we demonstrate the transformative potential of customer EVCA linking customer EVCA to quality of life, satisfaction with service and behavioral intentions. We do so across three prevalent chronic diseases - cancer, heart disease and diabetes.  Our findings highlight how an integrated care model has benefits for both customers and providers and can enhance customer EVCA.

See also: McColl-Kennedy, Janet R., Steve L. Vargo, Tracey S. Dagger, Jillian C. Sweeney., and Yasmin van Kasteren (2012), “Health Care Customer Value Co-creation Practice Styles,” Journal of Service Research, 15 (4), 370-389.

Dagger, Tracey S., Jillian C. Sweeney., and Lester W. Johnson (2007), “A Hierarchical Model of Health Service Quality: Scale Development and Investigation of an Integrated Model”, Journal of Service Research 10 (2), 123-142.

Dagger. Tracey S. and Jillian C. Sweeney (2006), “The Effect of Service Evaluations on Behavioral Intentions and Quality of Life,” Journal of Service Research, 9 (1), 3-18.

I have supervised many PhD and Honours students through their research journey.  I am keen to supervise research topics that fall within my areas of research interest (see above) and my methodological approach (field experiments, laboratory experiments, survey research). I challenge my students and expect that they will work hard towards achieving their goals.  In return, I will pass along knowledge, support and encourage them during this process.  I have co-authored articles with many of my PhD and Honours students.  Research is a journey we take together and so it is important that the relationship bewtween a student and supervisor is characterised by open communication, goal setting, mutual interest and enthusiasm for research.   

I have expereince in consulting for a wide range of firms from health care organizations to department stores to media organizations.  I bring my experience working with firms into my class so that students can see the link between theroy and practice. 

Services Marketing

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