Rate My Professor David Matthews

Dr David Matthews is a Lecturer in the School of Marketing within the College of Business and Law at The University of Adelaide, contributing to the Business & Economics discipline through his teaching and research. He holds a PhD in Marketing (2023), a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours (2016), and a Diploma of Languages in Japanese (2015) from The University of Adelaide, complemented by a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment from TAFE SA (2024). With nearly a decade of teaching experience at the University, Matthews has delivered a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including Consumer Behaviour, Contemporary Issues in Marketing, Marketing to the World, Digital Media in Business, Marketing Research Project, Introduction to Marketing, and Marketing Strategy. His pedagogical approach emphasizes critical, relational, and playful methods to foster belonging and curiosity, incorporating enquiry-based learning and industry insights to develop students' practical skills in creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. He is eligible to co-supervise Masters and PhD students and has received a Learning and Teaching Grant in 2025 for his project 'Queer Perspectives in Business: Uplifting Course and Program Uplift,' aimed at bridging business theory with authentic experiences.

Matthews' research focuses on the intersection of services marketing and social marketing, particularly transformative service engagement to drive meaningful social change for vulnerable and marginalized market actors. His current work examines the efficacy and meaningfulness of representation in marketing communications, including advertising, influencer marketing, and streaming. Publications include work in leading service journals such as the Journal of Services Marketing and the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, with a forthcoming article titled 'Doing good but feeling bad: How checkout donation requests might backfire for retailers by eliciting negative emotional and cognitive consumer response' (Zou, Matthews, Rao Hill, & Hoffmann, 2026, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services). Key conference contributions feature 'De-Influencing and Over-Consumption: Managing Ethical Contradictions in the Influencer Economy' and 'The Paradox of Influencers in Shaping Ethical Consumption' (Burgess et al., 2025), which won Best Paper at the Academy of Marketing Conference 2025. Earlier papers address frontline employee gender-job congruency in service failures (Matthews & Rao Hill, 2017-2020). Matthews serves on the ABLE Early Career Academic Network Committee (2024-present) and is available for media commentary.