Being an ardent lifelong learner taking interdisciplinary approaches to research and strategic marketing earned Durban University of Technology’s Abosede Ijabadeniyi an ACORN award for the best presentation on Corporate Communications.

The Department of Marketing and Retail Management Doctoral candidate was part of the group of students who took part at the Corporate Communications Conference at the Baruch College and City University of New York, recently. Using the intersection between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate marketing to leverage social and community development, saw Ijabadeniyi’s presentation recognised as the best.

The award is an acknowledgement of the ability of presenters to give listeners acorns, through active engagement and persuasion. “I was able to connect with my audience and I delivered the message in the way in which my audience could remember the message. ACORN is an acronym for – audience, credibility, order of message, remember me and need to connect” explained Ijabadeniyi.

In her presentation, Ijabadeniyi used an interdisciplinary approach which stems from economics and marketing. In her career, she has majored in the evaluation of the impact of foreign direct investment in the agricultural sector which made her develop a passion for social and community development for female small scale farmers. Her passion introduced her into social marketing which landed her into focusing more on marketing management.

“My research leverages social and community development for consumers and smallholder farmers through the intersection between corporate social responsibility and corporate marketing, with a focus on the manufacturing sector. My research has made contributions towards the corporate marketing strategies of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed manufacturing companies which anonymously participated in my doctoral study. This contribution is bearing positive change in the companies’ attitudes toward and perceptions of CSR corporate identity and corporate communication,” said Ijabadeniyi.

Ijabedeniyi plans to go into a revolutionary fully-fledged research and business intelligence consultancy as well as engaging in other academic responsibilities such as lecturing, supervision, community engagement and publications.

Pictured: Abosede Ijabedeniyi could not contain her excitement upon receiving news of her winning.

Noxolo Memela