Rate My Professor Christine Armstrong

Dr Christine Armstrong serves as a Lecturer in Marketing within the Newcastle Business School at the University of Newcastle, part of the College of Human and Social Futures. Holding a Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Business Administration with merit (supported by the inaugural Club 13 and University of Newcastle MBA Scholarship), Bachelor of Arts Honours, and Bachelor of Arts—all from the University of Newcastle—she brings a blend of academic and industry experience. Before academia, she managed Film Hunter, facilitating productions like Superman Returns; worked as an Economic Development Specialist for the City of Newcastle; and consulted as a marketing researcher and strategist for Grassroots Group. Appointed lecturer in 2011, she continues industry engagement as a strategic marketing consultant for retail, not-for-profit, and government sectors. She directs the University’s Master of Business Administration program and has coordinated the International Hotel School project, involving industry consultations for tourism training.

Armstrong’s research centers on consumer complaints behavior and management on social media platforms, including organisational responses on Facebook business pages, social risk in observable complaining, visual cues influencing complaints, and the return on investment of effective complaint management. Recent projects explore humour’s role in online food complaints, AI to aid English-as-a-second-language complainants (funded by NSW Ombudsman), and observational versus direct complaining. As senior researcher, she collaborated with the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals Australia on ROI studies and with Newcastle Law School on government complaints processes. Key publications comprise “Feeding Comfort: The Role of Humor in Online Food Complaints” (Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 2025, with Kulczynski and Hook), “Return on Investment of Complaint Management: A Review and Research Agenda” (Australasian Marketing Journal, 2023, with Carlson et al.), “Cue the complaint: the visual cues of Facebook business pages and their influence on consumer complaint behaviour” (Journal of Marketing Management, 2021, with Kulczynski and Brennan), “For all to see: social risk and observable complaining on Facebook” (European Journal of Marketing, 2021, with Kulczynski and Brennan), and her PhD thesis “Organisational Responses to Consumer Complaints on Facebook Business Pages: The Effect on Consumer Behaviours and Attitudes” (2020). Her work offers strategic insights enhancing complaint resolution equity and organisational effectiveness.