Esra Asif

Profile

Esra is a postgraduate researcher at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds UK. Her research is supported by the prestigious Marketing Studentship from Leeds University Business School. She has an MSC in International Marketing (Distinction) from Kings College London, UK (2015), and BA (Hons) in Business and Marketing (First Class) from Middlesex University (2014) where she was awarded the merit-based regional scholarship for the three years of her degree. Her degree is also recognised by CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing).

Esra has been keen on research-based activity since early academic years. Worked as Assistant Project Manager (R&D) for development projects at ILO (UN Subsidiary) and NRSP (Pakistan Government’s Rural Support Programme). The ILO (International Labour Organisation) project was based on mainstreaming the bonded labour to salary based labour. The NRSP (National Rural Support Programme) project provided microfinance to empower women in rural areas of Punjab to set up micro-businesses. Both the projects involved rigorous field research while NRSP project even followed an ethnographic research methodology. 

Working as Market Researcher at Kings College London she conducted academic research, on market performance when privacy is breached within American Cooperations, from 2015-2017. She is currently working as a Market Researcher at Leeds University (Marketing Division) and Middlesex University. She is an ad hoc sub-reviewer for a number of marketing academic conferences such as AMA Global Sig and GMC. 

Esra as a social entrepreneur secured investment from three angel investors and established and supervises a not-for-profit school (Smile International Learning School)  in rural Pakistan since 2015. She established the school after conducting interview-based field research and identifying the core handicaps of the local community. From the outcome of this research, the school was developed is to provide subsidized and Oxford standardized education (PBL) from Nursery to grade 7 to students within low-income brackets so that they can compete with the urban schooling system. This project also successfully generates employment for educated rural females with restricted mobility to empower the local community.

She has also worked on multi-platform, public-relations campaigns such as Doritos Mariachi Band (Freud Communications UK) and X-Factor along with Magna Carta Festival (Chelgate PR UK). This allowed her to expand her promotional skills in international event management which were acquired initially working for the organisation committee for World Islamic Economic Forum (Pakistan).  Furthermore working in public relations in the UK and freelance marketing for start-ups (fashion, interior design, health & lifestyle, hospitality) in emerging markets (UAE, Pakistan) allowed her to hone her skills in crisis management PR, digital marketing, SEO, blogging, website development and copywriting from 2013 to 2020. 

Her additional marketing industry experience was working as an Assistant Marketing Manager at Voki Telecom UK from July 2013-October 2014. Working for this B2B Telecommunications startup, where her role involved researching consumer trends within the telecom industry and identifying potential growth markets. She developed a B2B promotional strategy and communicated services and growth strategy to business clients and finally helped secure investment for the project. 

Teaching Experience 

• Module Leader (October 2020-August 2021): Leading, teaching, designing the module and assessments, grading the module for LUBS1860 Fundamentals of Marketing (Online Delivery) (Positive Student teaching Evaluations and Nomination of Union Partnership Award) 
• Module Assistant (February-June 2021): Assisting and teaching International Business students with data analysis for dissertations for LUBS 3321 International Business (Positive Student Teaching Evaluation) (Online Delivery)
• Module Assistant (2020): LUBS1175 Global Entrepreneurship (Positive Student Teaching Evaluations) (Offline Delivery)
• Tutor Leeds University Business School (2020) (Summer term): Tutored MSC Marketing Students remotely, to familiarise with quantitative data analysis techniques for their dissertations with a focus on experiment designs (Online Delivery) 
• Tutor Leeds University Business School (2019): Tutoring MSC Marketing Students to familiarise them with data analysis techniques within their dissertation projects (Offline Delivery)
• Shadowed and assisting module for Branding (MA Marketing and Advertising) & Principles of Marketing (BSC International Business and Marketing)  at Leeds University Business School (2018) 
• Middlesex Student Learning Assistant February (July 2013): (Peer Teaching Assistant Scheme): Taught material for the Economics and Accounting course, to aid student development, this led to Middlesex’s Marketing faculty awarding her an ‘SLA Excellence Certificate’ 

Research interests

Interests: Consumer behavior, Financial decision-making (construal), Message framing

Methods: Experimental Research, Biometrics, Structural Equation Modeling, Text Analysis, Ethnographic Field Research (UN/ Microfinance/Pakistan Government led Projects)

Software/Programming Language: SPSS, AMOS, R, Python, Biometric and Online Eye-tracking technology

Professional Membership

• AMA (American Marketing Association) 
• CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing)
• APA (American Psychological Association)
• AMS (American Marketing Science)
• APS (American Psychological Society)
• SCP (Society of Consumer Psychology)
• ACR (Association of Consumer Research)
• GAMMA (Global Alliance of Marketing and Management Associations)
• KSMS (Korean Academy of Marketing Science)  

Research Group & Institutes 

• Global and Strategic Marketing Research Centre (GLOSMARC)

 

Qualifications

• MSc International Marketing- Kings College London (Distinction)
• BA (Hons) Business and Marketing- Middlesex University, London (First Class)
• Oxford Spring School (Lady Margaret Hall) - Advanced Research Methods
• London School of Economics Summer School-HRM & Entrepreneurship