Erinn Finley
Contributing Writer
efinley1@murraystate.edu
A recent graduate of Murray State presented her thesis at a national conference and published it in a peer-reviewed journal.
Amanda Swift, a 2020 marketing major graduate, presented her thesis at the Association of Marketing Theory and Practice 2020 conference. Because of COVID-19, Swift presented her thesis through Zoom instead of in person.
“I’ll admit that it was a bit disappointing to not be able to present in person,” Swift said. “There were only a few people who logged on to watch. I was still very nervous though and practiced quite a bit beforehand.”
Assistant marketing professor Ismail Karabas was Swift’s thesis advisor. He worked with her to prepare her thesis and later to get it published.
Karabas says when he is helping students prepare for their defense, his goal is to make sure they are in the driver’s seat. This was the role he filled at first for Swift’s thesis.
“My role for the thesis is to guide and advise without too much input that overrides the student’s work, effort and room to grow,” Karabas said. “After defense, my role switched from being an advisor to the role of a co-author.”
Swift wrote her thesis on how consumers view corporate-owned, non-profit foundations compared to when corporations sponsor a non-profit organization.
Swift said Karabas sent her research to Professor Sky King at Weber State University in Ogden,Utah, to review and revise. Karabas and King worked together to edit and format Swift’s thesis for journal publication.
“After Amanda completed her thesis with the help of the third co-author, Dr. Sky King, we revised it for the Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing,” Karabas said. “Although we all contributed to this work, Amanda is the first author because this is a product of her thesis.”
Karabas said the process to get the thesis published was straightforward. Karabas and King revised the thesis and then submitted it to the Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing. They received the first decision after a few months, and revised based on the reviewers’ suggestions before resubmitting.
Karabas and King worked diligently on the reviewers’ comments and then resubmitted within a couple months. After another couple of months they received the final acceptance decision.
Karabas said some papers can go through as many as four rounds of revisions. He says on average, papers go through two rounds of revisions, but they were fortunate enough to only have to do one revision for the journal.
Swift says that from the beginning Karabas told her he wanted her thesis to be about more than a grade.
“He talked about presenting at a conference and getting it published from day one, so that was always our goal,” Swift said. “I think it made me work harder and take more pride in the work that we were doing.”
Karabas said he encourages his students to set goals of presenting and publishing their theses. He says completing a thesis is good, but the difference on the job market is what a student has done with their thesis.
Karabas says he was very excited to submit this paper.
“I was very happy and proud when we received the acceptance notice,” Karabas said. “This is my first paper with an undergraduate student whom I mentored. Having published with my PhD advisor, it was a dream of mine to one day publish with my students and it came true.”
From this experience Swift said she learned to not talk yourself out of trying.
“What this experience has taught me is to not exclude yourself from something because you think you’re too young or too inexperienced,” Swift said. “Right now you may be saying ‘I’m just a college student I can’t do that,’ but you’re so much more than that. Learn to embrace it because you might just find that you can exceed your own expectations.”
Swift is currently working as a paralegal in Louisville, Kentucky.
Swift said that although being a paralegal was not what she initially planned, she put her marketing skills to use. She created a new website for the law firm and helped them prepare for a conference. She says she hopes to find a marketing-based job in the future.
“It is rare for undergraduate students to publish at quality double-blind peer-review journals,” Karabas said. “This is the main reason why I think Amanda accomplished a big goal, and I hope it is an inspiration to other students. A productive research agenda can help both for an industry job and an academic job.”
Swift’s article can be found in the August 2021 edition of the Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, or at https://doi.org/10.1080/10495142.2021.1941499.