The Open University

Professional biography

Morteza Abolhasani joined the Open University Business School as a Lecturer in Marketing in 2017. He received a Civil Engineering and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, followed by an MSc in Consumer Marketing and a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Liverpool.

Research interests

Morteza’s main research interests focus on consumer behaviour, consumer psychology, and sensory marketing. Following on from the programme of research in his doctoral studies including examining the effects of background music in advertising, he is embarking upon exploring the effects of music in/congruity upon consumers’ affective, cognitive, and behavioural responses, as well as their lived experiences of musical consumption in advertising and service/retail environments. Morteza serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Academy of Marketing Studies Journal and is a reviewer for several journals, including Marketing Theory, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, Sustainability, and Journal of Advertising.

Teaching interests

At the Open University Business School, Morteza contributed to the production and presentation of B206 (Understanding Customers) and B328 (Marketing in Action). He has been involved in the presentation of various modules, including BB844 (Marketing in the 21^st Century), B324 (Marketing and Society), and B122 (An Introduction to Retail Management and Marketing). Morteza is now chairing the production of B128 (Marketing Essentials).

Impact and engagement

Morteza was the Academic Consultant for Inside the Supermarket: Sainsbury's, a six parts series exploring behind the scenes of Britain's oldest supermarket.

External collaborations

Morteza collaborated with colleagues at SKEMA Business School - France, on a research project exploring the effects of music in online and VR-aided learning environments on students' learning experiences.

Publications

Journal articles

Disentangling Effects of Subjective and Objective Music Characteristics in Advertising (2022-03-17)
Liu, Gordon; Abolhasani, Morteza and Hang, Haiming
European Journal of Marketing, 56(4) (pp. 1153-1183)

Eat to the Beat: Musical Incongruity Resolution in Restaurant Advertising (2022)
Abolhasani, Morteza and Golrokhi, Zahra
Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 34(5) (pp. 567-591)

Music in advertising and consumer identity: The search for Heideggerian authenticity (2017-12-01)
Abolhasani, Morteza; Oakes, Steve and Oakes, Helen
Marketing Theory, 17(4) (pp. 473-490)

Book chapters

Advertising Music and the Effects of Incongruity Resolution on Consumer Response (2021-09-02)
Abolhasani, Morteza; Oakes, Steve and Golrokhi, Zahra
In: Waiguny, Martin and Rosengren, Sara eds. Advances in Advertising Research: Designing and Communicating Experience (pp. 183-193)
ISBN : 978-3-658-32200-7 | Publisher : Springer Gabler

Musical Congruity in Advertising: Established and Emerging Themes (2021-03-01)
Oakes, Steve and Abolhasani, Morteza
In: Deaville, James; Tan, Siu-Lan and Rodman, Ron eds. The Oxford Handbook of Music and Advertising (pp. 757-774)
ISBN : 9780190691240 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford

Investigating the Influence of Musical Congruity in Higher Education Advertising: A Genre Congruity Perspective (2017)
Abolhasani, Morteza and Oakes, Steve
In: Zabkar, Vesna and Eisend, Martin eds. Advances in Advertising Research: Challenges in an Age of Dis-Engagement (pp. 183-196)
ISBN : 978-3-658-18731-6 | Publisher : Springer Gabler

Conference items

The Influence of Music Liking in Green Product Advertisements on Purchase Intention: Positive Brand Attitudes, Music Mode, and Music Tempo (2021-06-24)
Abolhasani, Morteza; Liu, Gordon and Hang, Haiming
In : International Conference on Research in Advertising (ICORIA) (24-26 Jun 2021, Bordeaux, France)

Advertising Music and the Effects of Incongruity Resolution on Consumer Response (2019)
Abolhasani, Morteza and Oakes, Steve
In : ICORIA 2019 (18th International Conference on Research in Advertising) (27-29 Jun 2019, Krems, Austria)

Advertising music and the effects of incongruity resolution on consumer response (2019)
Abolhasani, Morteza; Oakes, Steve and Oakes, Helen
In : 52nd Academy of Marketing Conference (2-4 Jul 2019, Regent's University, London, UK)

Reclaiming the 'tribe' from 'consumer tribe' (2019)
Lindridge, Andrew; Abolhasani, Morteza; Michuki, Gidraph and Simões, Claudia
In : Consumer Culture Theory Conference 2019 (17-19 Jul 2019, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada)

Investigating the influence of background music in higher education advertisements: A genre perspective (2016)
Abolhasani, Morteza and Oakes, Steve
In : The 15th International Conference on Research in Advertising (ICORIA) 2016 (30 Jun - 2 Jul 2016, Ljubljana)

A mixed methods approach to investigating the influence of background music in Higher Education Advertising (2015)
Abolhasani, Morteza
In : 1st IBSS-ULMS Marketing Research Workshop (17-18 Jun 2015, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), Suzhou, China)

Other

The soundtrack to selling: why advertising with popular music needs to be pitch perfect (2023-05-18)
Abolhasani, Morteza
The Conversation

Greenwashing: how ads get you to think brands are greener than they are (2022-06-20)
Abolhasani, Morteza; Liu, Gordon and Golrokhi, Zahra
The Conversation, United Kingdom.