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Professor Nima Heirati

Professor of Marketing Strategy

Deputy director - The Henley Centre for Customer Management (HCCM)

Nima H Web profile

Specialisms

  • Marketing strategy, 
  • Servitization strategy, 
  • Customer-centric digitalisation, 
  • Business relationships, 
  • Customer experience

Location

Whiteknights Campus

Nima Heirati is the Professor of Marketing Strategy in the Department of Digitalisation, Marketing and Entrepreneurship.

Prof. Heirati previously held academic appointments at Surrey Business School, Queen Mary University of London, and Newcastle University Business School, and served as Director of Executive Education at Surrey Business School. Prior to joining academia, he worked as a marketing manager and business development manager in several manufacturing firms.

His research relates predominantly to the field of marketing strategy, servitization strategy, customer-centric digitalisation, business relationships, customer experience, and the impact of artificial intelligence on consumer well-being. His research vision is to make managers, consumers, and policymakers aware of the bright and dark sides of business practices (e.g., interorganizational trust) and technologies (e.g., AI, service robots). He is committed to impactful, collaborative research that brings together academics and practitioners to address complex business challenges and support the responsible use of emerging technologies.

His work has been published in leading journals, such as the Journal of Service Research, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Industrial Marketing Management, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and International Marketing Review among others. His research has received international Best Article awards and nominations. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals.

Taught modules:
MM335 International Marketing

In the media:
https://www.servsig.org/wordpr...


PhD Students

Prof. Nima Heirati welcomes inquiries from prospective PhD students who wish to conduct research in service marketing or business to business marketing. For an informal discussion, please send your resume and a research proposal to nima.heirati@henley.ac.uk. The proposal should not exceed 3000 words and must outline your research idea, rationale, questions or objectives, methodology, and potential data sources. Current research interests include:

Service Research

  • Customer participation (value co-creation)
  • Customer experience with smart products/services
  • Psychological implications of Artificial Intelligence and service robots

Business-to-Business Marketing

  • Service innovation and servitization
  • Business model innovation
  • Digitalization strategy
  • Business relationships and account management

Reference: Samadilashkariani, S., Ahmed, T., McCullough, A., Durán López, E., Tóth, Z. and Heirati, N. (2026) Digitalization strategy in service ecosystems: managing the interplay of tensions and empowerment. Journal of Service Management, 37 (6). pp. 50-77. ISSN 1757-5826 doi: 10.1108/JOSM-03-2025-0151
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Nima Heirati
Reference: Schoefer, K., Wäppling, A., Heirati, N. and Blut, M. (2025) An investigation of culture’s influence on new technology adoption: the case of mobile payment. International Marketing Review, 42 (2-3). pp. 283-308. ISSN 0265-1335 doi: 10.1108/IMR-09-2023-0223
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Nima Heirati
Reference: Heirati, N. , Thornton, S. C., Leischnig, A. and Henneberg, S. C. (2025) Capability configurations for successful advanced servitization. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 45 (2). pp. 329-354. ISSN 1758-6593 doi: 10.1108/IJOPM-03-2023-0226
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Nima Heirati
Reference: Heirati, N. , Pitardi, V., Wirtz, J., Jayawardhena, C., Kunz, W. and Paluch, S. (2025) Unintended consequences of service robots – recent progress and future research directions. Journal of Business Research, 194. 115366. ISSN 1873-7978 doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115366
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Nima Heirati
Reference: Wünderlich, N. V., Blut, M., Brock, C., Heirati, N. , Jensen, M., Paluch, S., Rötzmeier-Keuper, J. and Tóth, Z. (2025) How to use emerging service technologies to enhance customer centricity in business-to-business contexts: a conceptual framework and research agenda. Journal of Business Research, 192. 115284. ISSN 1873-7978 doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115284
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Nima Heirati
Reference: Heirati, N. , Pitardi, V. and Sobhy Temerak, M. (2024) When the recipe is more important than the ingredients: Unveiling the complexity of consumer use of voice assistants. Psychology & Marketing, 41 (7). pp. 1489-1501. ISSN 1520-6793 doi: 10.1002/mar.21992
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Nima Heirati
Reference: Heirati, N. , Leischnig, A. and Henneberg, S. C. (2024) Organization architecture configurations for successful servitization. Journal of Service Research, 27 (3). pp. 307-326. ISSN 1552-7379 doi: 10.1177/10946705231180368
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Nima Heirati
Reference: Zhang, Y., Leischnig, A., Heirati, N. and Henneberg, S. C. (2021) Dark-side-effect contagion in business relationships. Journal of Business Research, 130. pp. 260-270. ISSN 1873-7978 doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.03.047
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Nima Heirati