David Starr-Glass, a mentor with International Programs (Prague), has participated in the creation of a significant open educational resource (OER), which has been developed by the Hanken School of Economics, one of the oldest and most prestigious business schools in Scandinavia.

The OER, which has just become available, is a freely accessible 500-page collection of articles and reflections on the Nordic understanding of relationship marketing and service management.

The Nordic School of marketing centers on creating and maintaining a relational connection between market participants, and has been very influential in shaping contemporary marketing scholarship and practice. The present work contains almost 40 articles, many written by leading theorist and practitioners of the Nordic School of relational marketing – including world authorities such as Christian Grönroos, Evert Gummesson, Bo Edvardsson and Tore Strandvik.

The OER is now available as a downloadable book – The Nordic School: Service Marketing and Management for the Future – edited by Johanna Gummerus and Catharina von Koskull, both researchers at Hanken’s Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management.

Introducing Starr-Glass’ chapter, editors Gummerus and von Koskull note:

“The chapter ‘Of mutual benefit: Relationship marketing through the prism of metaphor’ by Starr-Glass contributes a nice ending of this book. It highlights the – perhaps somewhat ignored or forgotten – influence and power metaphors have on our thoughts and theory development. In so doing, the chapter suggests that the relationship metaphor had a central influential role in the paradigmatic shift from transactional marketing to interactive marketing. Today, the relationship metaphor is no longer provocative, as it has become part of the marketing lexicon. In regard to this, the author suggests how the metaphor might be re-approached and revitalized in contemporary marketing contexts.”

OERs save students the cost of traditional text books and, in so doing, expand access and contribute to degree completion. OERs also contribute to academic bodies of knowledge around the world.

For these reasons, and many others, the expansion of OERs for the college’s, and all SUNY students, are an important component of Open SUNY, a SUNYwide collaboration that opens the door to world-class, online-enabled learning opportunities.