Melissa Akaka

Melissa Archpru Akaka is director of the Master of Science in Marketing and associate professor in the Department of Marketing at the Daniels College of Business. She is the Elizabeth and Ali Machado Faculty Fellow and teaches topics such as marketing research, introduction to marketing, customer experience design and collaborative innovation. Her research investigates the cocreation of value in consumer cultures and consumption experiences as well as collaborative innovation and entrepreneurship in dynamic service ecosystems. Akaka’s scholarly work has been published in a variety of academic journals, including Journal of Service Research, Journal of International Marketing and Industrial Marketing Management. Her work was recently recognized for being “highly cited” (in the top 1%) by Thompson and Reuters.

Education

• PhD University of Hawaii at Manoa (2012)
• MBA University of Hawaii at Manoa (2007)
• BBA University of Hawaii at Manoa (2002)

Academic Positions Held

• Associate Professor of Marketing (2018-present)
• Assistant Professor of Marketing (2012-2018)
• Co-Director, Consumer Insights and Business Innovation Center (2017-present)
• Innovation Fellow, Project X-ITE (2018-present)

Awards and Honors

• Elizabeth and Ali Machado Faculty Fellowship, Daniels College of Business, DU (2018)
• Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year, Daniels College of Business, DU (2017)
• Faculty Research Fund Grant, University of Denver (2015)
• Internationalization Grant, University of Denver (2015)
• Joseph I. Moreland Grant, University of Denver (2015)
• Highly Commended Award Winner of 2013 Emerald Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards (received in 2014) for dissertation research, titled “Toward a Theory of Market Culture”
• Honorable Mention for Service Science Best Paper Award (2013) for 2009 paper 2009 with Stephen Vargo, “Service dominant logic as a foundation for Service Science: Clarifications”
• Outstanding Author Contribution Award (2013) for chapter titled “An Exploration of Networks in Value Co-creation: A Service-Ecosystems View” in Review of Marketing Research