Bobbie Rathjens

Bobbie is a Business Communications Instructor in the full-time MBA program at the Eli Broad College of Business and a Ph.D. Candidate (ABD) in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University, with an expected graduation date of spring 2025.

Previously, Bobbie worked as a Director of Marketing at a nationally recognized ski and golf resort and as a Corporate Social Media Strategist in the healthcare sector, bringing a wealth of cross-disciplinary experience in business, marketing, and communication to her academic role. She possesses a Master's degree in Marketing Research from the Eli Broad College of Business.

Bobbie enjoys mentoring students and has led courses in Introduction to Marketing Analytics, Human Communication, Social Media Applications, Introduction to Marketing, and Leadership and Group Communication, along with others.

Bobbie's research focuses on consumer behavior in digital contexts, with a special emphasis on the impact of social media influencers, negative online reviews, and managerial responses. She explores the nuanced interplay of online reviews, social media influencers, and emerging communication technologies within the realms of business communication, marketing, and analytics. Her work has led to notable publications in the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, the International Journal of Hospitality Management, and Communication Reports.

Rathjens, B., Wu, A., Zhang, L., & Wei, W. (2024). When social media influencer endorsement backfires: Unpacking fallout from explicit endorsements across brand equity levels. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/10963480231223150Yang, W., Zhang, L., Wei, W., Yoo, M., & Rathjens, B. (2023). Do we love celebrity endorsers? The joint impacts of consumers’ need for status, celebrity’s star power and image congruence on celebrity endorsement effectiveness. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-05-2023-0313Rathjens, B., Gunden, N., Zhang, L., Jain, G., & Law, R. (2023). A systematic review of contactless technologies research in hospitality and tourism during the COVID-pandemic. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/10963480231191192Rathjens, B., Van Der Heide, B., Pham, D., Earle, K., Ulusoy, E., Mason, A. J., Zhang, Y., & Bredland, A. (2023). Negative online reviews and manager response: Applying expectancy disconfirmation theory in a CMC context. Communication Reports, 36(2), 110–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/08934215.2022.2154815Zhang, L., Wei, W., Rathjens, B., & Zheng, Y. (2023). Pet influencers on social media: The joint effect of message appeal and narrator. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 110, 103453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2023.103453
Wei, W., Zhang, L., Rathjens, B., & McGinley, S. (2022). Electronic consumer-to-consumer interaction (eCCI) post a service failure: The psychological power of need for approval. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/10963480221141649   Rathjens, B., Zhang, L., & Cha, J. [Title withheld.] Manuscript submitted for publication to Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology.