2022 TCR-AMA Impact Festival:

Best Practices and Scholarship for Impact

 

Co-Chairs:

Chris Blocker, David Crockett, Benet Deberry-Spence, Julie Ozanne, and Brennan Davis

 

Co-Hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the 2022 Summer AMA Preconference

August 10-11, 2022

 

 

Transformative Consumer Research and the American Marketing Association are hosting the first Impact Festival to celebrate research that has had societal impact and build capacity to accelerate even greater impact. We are generating best practices and scholarship for doing impactful research. If you have ever wondered how you might amplify the impact of your research and help people and organizations use your findings for positive social change, this conference is for you.

 

 

For this inaugural TCR-AMA Impact Festival, we are seeking to amplify our field’s capacity to create and celebrate impact for important problems in our world. To do so, the process and outcome will be different than the traditional TCR dialogical conference. We still seek work with rigorous scholarly underpinnings. However, the conference co-chairs and track chairs will also be evaluating the work’s capacity to inspire insight and action through a compelling presentation.

 

The format will be akin to a TEDx talk with a target presenting time of 10-15 minutes and roughly 10 minutes of audience interaction. An interactive style with high-quality visuals, preparation, and thoughtful questions to prompt audience engagement will be important elements of a successful presentation. 

 

Please read the call carefully because this is an innovative format aimed at expanding the skills and capacities of our consumer and marketing research community. Our guiding vision is to create a gift economy for sharing best practices and scholarship on doing societally impactful research. 

 

Please follow the process below and submit your materials by March 1, 2022.


Submission link: Proposal Submission to the 2022 TCR-AMA Impact Festival

 

Festival Tracks

 

Track 1 Best Practices for Research with Societal Impact: Case Studies of Success

 

Doing research with societal impact involves an intentional process that begins with four stages: 1) doing and publishing research, 2) creating awareness, 3) using findings, and 4) documenting societal impact. Of these stages, the first two are typical for scholars, i.e., publishing our research and working with media to promote awareness of our findings. However, we usually do not promote the use of our research or document the societal benefits. This track focuses on developing best practices for doing research that is leveraged to drive social and environmental benefits.

 

Submissions are selected based on demonstrable use of research to drive social change and the extraction of best practices that are generalizable.  Given the measurement of social impact is a nascent area, we welcome creative metrics. We also welcome the sharing of missteps so that we can all benefit from mistakes.

 

 

Track 2 Best Practices for Relational Engagements with Impact

 

Increasingly, researchers are working in larger teams and collaborating directly with stakeholders who can benefit and directly apply the research. These relational engagements can span partnerships with non-profits and firms, but they also include interdisciplinary teams, multi-stakeholder coalitions, and even span efforts at community building and empowerment coalitions.

 

We welcome best practices for identifying partners, building teams, resolving conflict, managing power differences, respecting local differences, and developing long term commitment. Submissions will be evaluated based on demonstrable use and societal benefit of the research and the extraction of best practices that are generalizable.

 

 

Track 3 Basic Scholarship on doing Impact Research

 

This track invites more traditional scholarship on theoretical and methodological approaches for impact. Traditional theories and methods may be more focused on explaining and understanding human behavior, but they can be modified and extended toward affecting social change, such as using multi-method approaches.  A long tradition of scholarship also exists in other fields using critical, feminist, indigenous, and action research approaches to affect change.  This track invites scholarship on building and developing theories and methods toward increasing societal impact.  Traditional evaluative criteria on scholarship will be employed.

 

 

Track 4 Special Topics on Doing Impact Research

 

This is an open track for submitting special topics on doing impact research.  We are at the early stages of building practices and scholarship on doing impact.  What important topics need greater coverage? These topics might include but are not limited to: What are the best metrics for measuring social impact? What are the entrepreneurial skills needed to do impact research and how do you develop them? How does one leverage university resources and overcoming barriers when doing a program of impact research? How does one become a public academic?

 


Submission Template

All submissions MUST follow these formatting guidelines:

1. Use Times New Roman 12-point font throughout;

2. Double space all lines (including references); save and submit as .pdf.  
Please include the following headings and adhere to the word limits.

 

Title

 

Authors’ Names and Universities (*presenting authors)

 

Contact Information (corresponding author’s university address, email, and phone)

 

Summary of the Impact (50 words)

Write a cogent and accessible overview that a layperson could understand.

 

Underlying Research (1500-2000 words)

Please provide a detailed description of the empirical or conceptual evidence that underpins your scholarly work. Include references to any published work upon which the societal impact was based. Base submissions on the Track to which you are applying:

- Track 1 Case Studies: Many researchers publish traditional research that is then used by stakeholders to affect positive societal change. Reflect on how the design of your study affected the dissemination and use of the findings? What efforts were taken to increase the diffusion of the research findings? What could be improved in the design of the study to make the findings more useful?

 

- Track 2 Relational Engagements: Increasingly, academics are identifying external partners a priori to collaborate on research projects, which comes with unique challenges. Be sure to include any relevant insights on successes and obstacles faced when identifying partners, building partnerships, resolving conflict, being sensitive to power and local differences, or developing long term commitment. How did the relational engagement facilitate the use of the research and subsequent societal benefits?

 

- Track 3 Innovating Impact-Oriented Research: This track explores new theories and methods for doing impactful research, as outlined above, and traditional evaluative criteria will be used (such as rigor and relevancy).

 

- Track 4 Special Topics: This is an open track for exploring novel topics on doing impactful research, as outlined above, and traditional evaluative criteria will be used.

 

Evidence of Impact (250-500 words)

Document how the research has been/is being/should be used to stimulate change. Include any novel metrics.

 

Recommendations for Best Practices (250-500 words)

What are the lessons learned that provide best practices for other researchers seeking to do research that positively affects change?

 

References (no word limits)

 

 

Submissions due March 1st, 2022.