Associate Professor Jay Weerawardena

Associate Professor

School of Business
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law

Overview

Overview

Associate Professor Jay Weerawardena is a leading researcher in Strategic Marketing and social Impact Research. His core theoretical foundation is the role of dynamic capabilities in innovation-based competitive strategy. Jay has expanded his research into related areas of international marketing strategy and social sector research. In social sector research, he has extensively published in social entrepreneurship, social innovation, and social value creation. In addition to his impactful papers in reputed journals, Jay has won ARC Discovery grants, edited special issues, represented his core research expertise in editorial boards of reputed journals, delivered keynote and plenary presentations, led special topic sessions, and taken leadership roles in reputed international conferences.

Jay has co-edited several special issues of internally reputed journals which include the Journal of Business Research (ABDC A) (2021) on ‘business model innovation in social purpose organizations’, Industrial Marketing Management Journal (A*) on ‘capabilities, innovation and competitive advantage’ (2011), Journal of World Business (A*) (2007) on ‘accelerated internationalization of born global firms’ and the International Journal of Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Marketing on ‘non-profit competitive strategy’ (2008).

Jay has actively collaborated with internationally reputed scholars that had led to higher-ranked publications and competitive grant success. His current work involves examining the role of big data and marketing analytics role firm competitive strategy and how social purpose organizations balance social mission and commercial value in their effort to build financially viable social purpose organizations. While the former is fuelled by the exponential growth of the digital economy the latter has attracted the increased scholar attention due to its pivotal importance for the sustenance of social purpose organizations.

Jay serves in several editorial boards of reputed international journals including the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship of which he is an Associate Editor. He is a fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) and a Certified Marketing Practitioner of the AMI.

Current service roles

Elected member of the UQ Academic Board and its Assessment Sub-Committee (ASC)

Co-lead, UQBS Research Hub on Social Impact and Social Enterprises

Current research interests

(1) Social entrepreneurship and social innovation-led dual value creation

(2) Non-profit brand vulnerability and building resilient non-profit brands

(3) Business model innovation in social purpose organizations

(3) Big data and marketing analytics capabilities in digital innovation and firm competitive strategy

(4) Value co-creation in digital services context

Research Interests

  • Dynamic capabilities and innovation-based competitive advantage
    Dynamic capabilities theory has emerged as a better explanation of firm performance heterogeneity. My work contributed to advancing the field by conceptualizing and measuring dynamic capabilities that facilitate innovation-based competitive advantage
  • Social entrepreneurship and social innovation-led dual value creation
    With the highly challenging operating environment social purpose organizations (SPOs) are forced pursue a dual value creation (social value to target communities and economic value for the sustenance of the organization). My work in very stages have made a notable effect in advancing this field of research
  • Building resilient non-profit brands, business model innovation in social purpose organizations
    With a reputed team of researchers, namely, Prof Peter Popkowski, Dr Jo Previte and Dr Cassandra France at the UQBS and Professor Roderic Brodie at Auckland University I have been working on this timely topic. Our work aims to understand what factors cause brand vulnerability and developing brand vulnerability index that can be used by non-profit practitioners to determine if their brand is vulnerable to external risks.
  • Big data and marketing analytics driven innovation and competitive advantage
    With the growing interest in understanding the role of big data in firm innovation and competitive advantage, I have extended my dynamic capability frameworks to examine what capabilities help big data driven innovation and firm competitive advantage.

Research Impacts

Research Impacts

Scholarly impact

Jay’s research has had an exceptional scholarly impact which is demonstrated by,

(a) his current Google Scholar citations which stands at 13,550 (26-06-23) with a corresponding h-index of 34 and exceptionally high Hg Index of 53.

(b)In 2017, the Google Scholar awarding the Classic Paper status to his co-authored paper 'Weerawardena, J. & Sullivan Mort, G. (2006), Investigating Social Entrepreneurship: A Multidimensional Model. Journal of World Business. (ABDC Tier A*). Citations = 2172 (as at 20-01-2023).

(b) AMA Gerald E. Hills Best Paper on Entrepreneurial Marketing award Professor Gillian Sullivan Mort, Associate Professor Jay Weerawardena and Professor Peter Liesch were awarded the, for their 2012 European Journal of Marketing paper, titled “Advancing Entrepreneurial Marketing: Evidence from Born Global Firms,” for making ‘a significant impact on marketing entrepreneurship interface research’, based on the paper’s impact, citations, and quality. The award was acknowledged by the AMA Entrepreneurial Marketing Special Interest Group (EM SIG) at the 2022 Global Research Conference on Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Whistler, BC, Canada on August 2-4, 2022.

(c) longevity of his citations indicated by 90% of his research are cited (Scopus, March 2020)

(d) his work has widespread application across disciplines incl Engineering, Decision Sciences, Computer Science (Scopus, March 2019) (Form A- p.45).

(e) his work receiving international attention - USA and UK leading followed by Australia (Scopus, March 2019), and

(f) his theoretical frameworks/measures are used by other scholars in his field.

Industry Impact

Jay’s research has also made a notable impact to industry, indicated by:

(a) Current joint research project with Surf Life Saving Queensland (SLAQ) on brand vulnerability and building resilient non-profit brands. With Dr Jo Previte, Professor Peter Popkowski-Leszczyc and Professor Roderick Brodie, University of Auckland Business School.

(b) the Australian Business Foundation, Sydney (ABF), inviting his ARC (2004) Discovery Grant team for a further study to examine post-internationalization growth secrets of born global firms for the benefit of their member firms.

(b) (2007) invited by the leading non-profit Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) to undertake a branding strategy for them

(c) (1995), his study on SME strategic planning practices in Queensland for the State Government for policy development purposes. Currently Jay is a Certified Marketing Practitioner (CPM) of the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) –a professional marketer recognised by his peers for his extensive experience and formal qualifications. CPM is the peak professional benchmark for marketers (AMI website).

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Masters (Coursework) of Business Administration
  • Bachelor of Economics

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Publications

Book

  • Cateora, Philip, Graham, John, Mort, Gillian Sullivan, D'Souza, Care, Taghian, Mehdi and Weerawardena, Jay (2008). International marketing. Macquarie Park, N.S.W.: McGraw-Hill.

Book Chapter

  • Weerawardena, Jay (2018). Non-profit marketing strategy. Transformational leadership and not for profits and social enterprises. (pp. 142-163) edited by Ken Wiltshire, Aastha Malhotra and Micheal Axelsen. Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom: Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9781315468570-12

  • Mort, Gillian Sullivan, Weerawardena, Jay, Sargeant, Adrian and Bennett, Roger (2015). Social Entrepreneurship and Value Creation in Not-For-Profit Organizations. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. (pp. 372-376) Cham: Springer Nature. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-18687-0_140

  • Ranasinghe, Sudatta and Weerawardena, Jay (2009). Sri Lanka. Handbook of Research on Asian Entrepreneurship. (pp. 297-306) edited by Léo-Paul Dana, Mary Han, Vanessa Ratten and Isabell M. Welpe. Cheltenham, Glos, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. doi: 10.4337/9781781952658.00039

  • Mort, G. and Weerawardena, J. (2008). Social entrepreneurship: Advancing research and maintaining relevance. The Routledge Companion to Nonprofit Marketing. (pp. 209-224) edited by Sargeant, A. and Wymer, W.. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203936023.ch12

  • Mort, Gillian and Weerawardena, Jay (2007). Social entrepreneurship: Advancing research and maintaining relevance. The Routledge Companion to Nonprofit Marketing. (pp. 220-236) Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9780203936023-20

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Edited Outputs

Other Outputs

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

Completed Supervision