Celebrating Jos Lemmink's Career at His Farewell Symposium at the University of Maastricht

One of the key events of this trip to Europe was to attend Dr. Jos Lemmink's "Farewell Symposium" at the University of Maastricht.  This was a special event and was attended by many of his former PhD students and several colleagues. I served as a moderator for a session that included 8 former PhD students discussing service innovation and AI in business schools.  Several former students shared stories of how Jos had impacted their research and/or their academic careers.

Jos received the Tans Medal of Honor from Nick Bos

As I understand it, Jos was quite surprised to learn he was receiving the Tans Medal of Honor.  This is apparently a very BIG deal...If I understand correctly, only 5 have been so honored at the University of Maastricht.  The Tans Medal is the University of Maastricht's highest distinction and honors those who have made a significant contribution to the development of the university.

Jos and Dwayne after the Farewell ceremony.

Candy and I were able to spend a bit of time with Jos and Marian the day after the ceremony.  We had drinks on the Onzw Lieve Vrouweplein ("OLV Plein")...THE place in Maastricht to hand out with friends....and enjoyed catching up with them.

Dwayne, Jos, Candy, and Marian

In terms of my connection  with Jos, I first met him at a conference in Karlstad, Sweden, in June, 1996.  He invited me to visit his university, which I ultimately did for six weeks in 1998.  Shortly after that he became the Chair of the Department of Marketing.  In 2002 I helped to organize the Frontiers in Service conference in Maastricht (the first time it was held outside of the U.S.).  The entire family came with me...the first time our girls travelled outside of the U.S.

The Lemminks hosted the Gremlers in their back yard (in 2002).

A couple of years later I applied for a Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Maastricht.  Jos wrote a letter of invitation that was quite influential in me receiving the Fulbright.  Our entire family lived in Maastricht from January through July, 2006.  By that time Jos had become Dean of the Business School, a position he held for 8 years.

Dwayne and Dean Jos during Carnival at the Business School in February, 2006

Revisiting Our "Home Away From Home" in Maastricht, The Netherlands

 Nearly one year ago we kicked off my sabbatical travels with a trip to Maastricht to attend a conference they were hosting.  This trip will be the last of 5 trips to Europe that occurred in the past 12 months.  It is quite possible you have seen pictures of us at the Vrijthof in the city center.  We flew all night and stayed awake.  Once we arrived in Maastricht we took a walk around the city that seems like a second home.

Some iconic symbols of Maastricht (no, not Candy and Dwayne)

Although we recognize many stores in the city, some change has occurred.  Mallory's favorite store, Claires, is no longer.  And, there is now a store devoted to rubber duckies.

Enlightening Swiss Students on Publishing Their Research

I continued my sabbatical travels by heading south to Fribourg, Switzerland.  Olivier Furrer arranged for me to give a one-day seminar to Swiss PhD students and post-doc scholars at the University of Fribourg.  Our room was a bit cramped, as there were not many rooms available on a Monday.

They were very attentive and asked many good questions.  They discussed issues that likely led to my paper on Service Loyalty being rejected at the Journal of Marketing.

As the seminar concluded, we all practiced our celebration skills as we anticipate future publication success.  (As you can tell from the photo below, we did not have to spend much time in discussing how to celebrate.)

Catching Up with a Good Friend While in Paderborn

I have likely been to more than a dozen universities in Germany over the past decade, and as a result have crossed paths with Christof Backhaus many times.  He took the train from Muenster to Paderborn today just to have a coffee with me.  Our visit was quick, but quite enjoyable.  And, Christof informed me of his upcoming wedding plans!

Christof and Dwayne in  Paderborn

Confirming Celebration Skills at the Publishing Seminar in Paderborn

One aspect of the publication process that we discussed was celebrating key milestones in the process.  Obviously we should celebrate when our manuscripts are published, but we also discussed celebrating "revise and resubmit" invitations (and thus NOT receiving rejections).  I did not have to repeat the lecture points here...apparently many of them have been perfecting their celebration skills for years!

Michelle Mertens and the rest of the participants demonstrate their celebration skills!

Discussing Scholarly Research in Paderborn, Germany

Lena Steinhoff invited me to return to Paderborn, Germany, to conduct my "Publishing Scholarly Research" seminar.  (I had previously been to Paderborn in 2007 and 2015.)  We had 10 participants (3 from Paderborn, the rest from Germany and Austria) attend four day-long sessions as we discussed various topics related to publishing academic articles.  

Participants in the 2024 version of the "Publishing Scholarly Research" seminar.

Coaching at the "Let's Talk About Service" Conference in Namur, Belgium

Wafa Hammedi invited me to be a part of the "Lets Talk About Service" conference hosted by the University of Namur in Belgium.  (Click here for the conference website.)  This was the 10th year of this event; I also participated during my previous sabbatical (in 2015).  The event focuses on bringing Ph.D. candidates and assistant professors together to discuss service research issues.

The 2023 LTAS Participants (almost 100 in total)

My role at the conference was to serve as a "coach" for a group of seven young scholars for the LTAS "Collaborative Workshop."  They were given the task to develop ideas for a project that could lead to publication in a leading journal.  My team (Team DigiTAS) worked together in designing a study that could be targeted to the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

(Clockwise from upper left) Victor, Andreea, Samer, Lukas, Janice, Lisa, Dwayne, and Claire

Seven more "senior" scholars served as coaches for the various teams.  Wafa Hammedi (far left in photo below) and Linda Alkire (far right) were the LTAS organizers; Rebekah Russell-Bennett organized the "Collaborative Workshop." 

Wafa H., Jonas H., Anu H. , Jens H., Rebekah R-B, Matthew A., Andrew G., Dwayne, and Linda A.