UT Business professor named Fulbright Scholar, will conduct research in Ukraine

Iryna Pentina, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing in The University of Toledo College of Business and Innovation, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and conduct research at the International  Solomon University’s Eastern Ukrainian Branch. This serial grant will allow Dr. Pentina to travel to Ukraine in May-June of 2013 for the first, qualitative, stage of her research project, and then in May-June of 2014 for its final, experimental stage.

“I am very excited and honored to receive this distinguished scholarship,” Pentina said. “In our ‘borderless’ economic environment, the discipline of marketing has increasingly focused on developing the body of knowledge based on international empirical findings. I anticipate that my work in the Ukraine will contribute to a better understanding of the institutional and cultural contexts for consumer decision making in emerging economies.”

Pentina will collaborate with Dr. Uliya Ukis, President of the International Solomon University and an economics professor. “Our research will test existing theories of individual and group decision-making in the culture transitioning from inter-dependent to individualistic personal identities and evaluate potential moderating roles of institutions and culture on consumer behavior. We will also study the specifics of emerging online marketing communications tools (e.g. social media and electronic word-of-mouth) in affecting online consumer behavior in the Ukraine.”

“The specific qualifiers of Ukraine consumers, as well as their consumption practices, deserve very close investigation as the Ukraine is gradually entering the global marketplace,” Pentina explained. “Boasting a high level of education and literacy, with great interest and involvement of the population in the Internet communities, the Ukraine represents an ideal context to study.”

The principal purpose of the Fulbright Program is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of more than 150 countries that currently participate in the Fulbright Program.

The announcement was made by the J William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the United States Department of State. Pentina is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in 2012-2013.

The Fulbright Program is a premier international educational exchange program sponsored by the United States government.  The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.

“We congratulate Dr. Pentina on her outstanding personal and professional achievement of being selected a Fulbright Scholar,” said COBI Dean Thomas Gutteridge. “It is a testimony to her commitment to the teaching/research profession and her dedication to personal lifelong learning which benefits both her students and her academic colleagues.”