Maria Kniazeva

kniazeva@SanDiego.edu
(619) 260-7837
Olin Hall 223

Office Hours

Monday, Wednesday:
1:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Tuesday:
2 to 5 p.m.

And by appointment

Associate Professor of Marketing

Ph.D. University of California, Irvine, Marketing
MBA University of California, Irvine, Marketing
M.A. Leningrad State University, Journalism
B.A. Leningrad State University, Journalism

Maria Kniazeva joined USD in the fall of 2003 as an assistant professor of marketing and is now an associate professor. Her teaching portfolio includes graduate courses in Marketing for International Managers, Marketing for Managers, International Marketing, Global Branding; and undergraduate courses in International Marketing and Fundamentals of Marketing. Prior to USD, she worked as a visiting professor at Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business in Washington D.C. and also taught a marketing course at the University of California, Irvine, The Paul Merage School of Business. She earned her Ph.D. in management with specialization in marketing from the University of California, Irvine, The Paul Merage School of Business, and her Masters in Journalism from Leningrad (St Petersburg, Russia) State University. Kniazeva was awarded the Edmund Muskie fellowship (1994-95) and American Association of University Women International fellowship (1997-98).

An ethnic Russian, Kniazeva used to live in Estonia where she worked as an executive editor of a newspaper and a free-lance business consultant to foreign investors. She authored a book published in English and Russian, titled America Through the Eyes of a Russian Woman. The English version was published on the grant Kniazeva was awarded by the United States Information Agency. As a journalist, she's had publications in the U.S., Austria, Estonia, and Russia.

Two major streams of research mark her latest academic activity: storytelling on food packages and cross-cultural consumption in the global marketplace. Moving in the first direction, Kniazeva explores how marketing stories, for example, on the bottles of water affect and reflect consumer behavior. With the second stream of research, she is in particularly interested in countries in transition, such as in how Chinese consumers let Western brands enter their homes. Her recent focus is on the concept of authenticity. A qualitative researcher, Kniazeva has lately been mastering a new research method, videography, and has produced her first documentary film “It all Began with a Kiss, or When Packaging Sells a Country.”

Kniazeva has published in the Journal of Consumer Behavior, Journal of Business Research, Consumption, Markets and Culture Journal, and Journal of Food Products Marketing. One of her recent works was reprinted in a 4-volume publication Brands and Brand Management. Cross-cultural and Critical Perspectives on Brands edited by R. Elliott (2009). Her academic publications include a chapter in the book, The Psychology of Entertainment Media: Blurring the Lines between Entertainment and Persuasion, edited by L.J. Shrum (2003).

Kniazeva serves as a member of a faculty advisory board for the Ahlers Center for International Business. She is a member of the American Marketing Association (AMA), Association for Consumer Research (ACR), and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Global Academy of Marketing Science headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.

Selected Current Research

Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New

Kniazeva, M. Western Brands in Chinese Homes. Handbook of Contemporary Marketing in China: Theories and Practices

Journal Article, Academic Journal

Kniazeva, M., Belk, R. (2009). "Packaging as a Vehicle for Mythologizing the Brand.". Brands and brand management. Cross-cultural and critical perspectives on brands., 4

Kniazeva, M., Belk, R. (2009). Supermarkets as Libraries of Postmodern Mythology. Journal of Business Research

Kniazeva, M., Belk, R. (2007). "Packaging as a Vehicle for Mythologizing the Brand.". Consumption, Markets and Culture, 10 (1), 51-69.

Kniazeva, M., Venkatesh, A. (2007). "Food for Thought: A Study of Food Consumption in Postmodern U.S. Culture.". Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 6

Kniazeva, M. (2005). "Marketing Frankenfood: Appealing to Hearts or Minds?". Journal of Food Products Marketing, 11 (4), 21-39.

Kniazeva, M. “It all began with a kiss, or When packaging sells a country.” . International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research

Conference Proceeding

Kniazeva, M. (2008). “American consumers in the kitchen or The meaning of cooking in the 21st century.". The Global Marketing Conference “Marketing in the Dynamic Global World."

Kniazeva, M. (2005). "How Many Wings Does a Butterfly have? Or Visual Stimuli as Elicitation Technique for In-Depth Interviews.". Advances in Consumer Research, XXXII

Other

Kniazeva, M. “It all began with a kiss, or When packaging sells a country.". International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality. Special Multi-media issue