Evangelos K. Tsoukatos
PhD Management Science
Country of origin: Greece
Employer: Technological Educational Institute of Crete
After a lengthy career in insurance sales I went on to lecturing in Management Science courses at the Technological Educational Institute of Crete. In 2005 I moved to the new Department of Finance and Insurance at the Institute. Very soon in my lecturing career, it became evident to me that insurance marketing is under-researched. I decided to combine my previous industrial experience with my current academic capacity in researching the behaviour of customers in insurance. This brought me to Lancaster to study for a PhD in Management Science, which I gained in July 2007.
I already knew Lancaster and the Department of Management Science well, having completed an MSc in Operational Research in 1978.
on my PhD I had the opportunity to undertake innovative research under the supervision of Graham Rand who shared with me his extensive research experience and a great deal of his time. No PhD programme would better fit my background – a first degree in Mathematics (Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki, Greece), Postgraduate Diploma and Master of Science in Operational Research (University of Lancaster, UK), my industrial experience in insurance and my research interests.
Drawing evidence from Greek insurance, I had the chance to examine the links between variables that influence the behaviour of customers. I extended my research to include culture as a determinant of these relationships. The objective was to establish a system that could be used for appropriately channelling quality improvement efforts and resources to maximize loyalty levels. I have the ambition that my conclusions will prove useful to other researchers who would wish to extend this line of investigation in other services markets. I had the chance to present parts of my research to the international research community in 2006 and 2007 with encouraging responses so far.
