Professor Sharon Purchase serves as Professor and Head of the Department of Marketing in the UWA Business School at the University of Western Australia. With a background in engineering, she holds a BE (Civil), an MBA completed part-time, and a PhD earned in 1999 on the internationalization processes of Australian engineering consultants through business networks and relationships. Before entering academia full-time, she accumulated 13 years of industry experience in marketing, sales, and consulting roles within the engineering sector for both private firms and public organizations, including positions as Marketing Engineer at Humes Plastics (1985-1988), Sales Engineer at Hardie Iplex Industries (1990-1991), Consulting Engineer at GB Hill & Partners (1990-1991), and Business Development Officer at the Department of Business, Industry and Regional Development in Queensland (1992-1995).

Purchase transitioned to academia part-time during her PhD studies from 1996 to 1999 and served as a Lecturer at Central Queensland University from 1999 to 2000. At UWA, she advanced to Deputy Head of School (Research) from 2017 to 2020 and has been Head of the Marketing Department since 2020, while also serving on the Graduate Research School Board since 2019. Her research focuses on industrial marketing, business relationships and networks, innovation development, market shaping, and innovation in business networks. She has authored numerous publications in prestigious international journals and conferences. Notable works include "Framing mechanisms and the emergence of dynamic coherence in orchestrated networks" (2026, with Al Adem and Schepis), "A prototype analysis of trust in autonomous vehicles (AVs)" (2026, with Kiffin-Petersen et al.), "Blurred vision: understanding barriers to initiating collaborative market driving" (2025, with Feddema et al.), "Application of prototype analysis to organizational research" (2025), and "Modelling Network Innovation Performance Capability: A Multidisciplinary Approach" (2012, with Olaru et al.). Purchase contributes to the field as Associate Editor for the Australasian Marketing Journal and the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, and as an Editorial Board member for Industrial Marketing Management. She was awarded the UWA Business School Award for Research Impact and Innovation in 2023 and has served on the membership committee of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (2007-2013).

Professional Email: sharon.purchase@uwa.edu.au