National leader in hospitality and tourism management research joins Purdue’s HTM program

Author: Tim Brouk

The global reputation of Purdue University’s White Lodging-J.W. Marriott, Jr. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) turned a “Dream Hire” into a reality.

A three time Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher, professor Kevin Kam Fung So joined the HTM faculty this fall with a bevy of research awards and thousands of research article citations and downloads in tow. His passion for quality, future-focused and highly impactful research has earned him more than 100 publications on such topics as services marketing, management, and human responses to service robots and artificial intelligence (AI) in the hospitality and tourism management domain. More than 70 of his peer-reviewed articles appeared in internationally acclaimed ABDC A and A* journals.

After completing his undergraduate, graduate and doctoral studies in Australia, So moved to the United States, first as a tenure track faculty member in the hospitality and tourism management program at University of South Carolina, where he earned early tenure and promotion to associate professor, then over to Oklahoma State University where he served as the William S. Spears Chair, professor, and doctoral program director. After boosting both programs and gaining more and more research opportunities, So landed in West Lafayette with big goals.

“I am deeply passionate about working on cutting-edge, highly relevant, impactful research projects that aim to address important research questions. That’s what I was hired here to do — to contribute actively to the research enterprise of our program. Research is fundamental in driving the success of our program, and I am very much looking forward to working with our team of graduate students and faculty members,” said So, the Purdue College of Health and Human Sciences’ (HHS) Purdue Moveable Dream Hire.

The talent-based Moveable Dream Hires program is piloted by the college deans and provost to attract high-performing, top-caliber faculty to Purdue even when the topic-based openings in a given year do not match the moveable talent. It complements typical topic-based faculty searches across the university and enables the recruitment of faculty who may not be actively on the job market. These recruits are tenure-track or tenured faculty.

So added that he chose Purdue after being invited to a recent HTM Service and Experience Symposia, which he is now organizing. His decision was also influenced by the global strength of Purdue HTM’s reputation, especially its doctoral program. So revealed that he has collaborated with Purdue HTM alumni as well as current and former faculty.

“Before coming here, I have known most of my colleagues in the school already,” he said. “Purdue HTM has a long legacy of success as an academic program. The program has trained a lot of successful academics in our field and a lot of key administrators in our discipline actually had their first landing spot here in (Purdue) HTM.”

To the library!

Born in China and raised in Hong Kong, So was a top-performing student in mathematics in his school district. As college loomed, So looked into business as a study focus. But what kind of business to concentrate on? Like millions of students worldwide, he found his answer in the library.

“I flipped through quite a few introductory textbooks — supply chain and logistics, management, marketing, accounting, finance and then hospitality management. When I turned the pages of the bestselling hospitality management textbook, the first few pages — ‘This is what I want. This is what I like,’” So recalled. “That triggered my decision to pursue hospitality management. I was hooked.”

So earned his undergraduate degree in business management, specializing in hospitality management, from Griffith University in Australia. Of the approximately 5,000 graduates, So was one of two students to receive the prestigious University Medal. In 2010, he continued his graduate education in mathematical sciences, majoring in statistics and statistical modeling at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. He was then awarded three full scholarships for his doctoral studies at Griffith University, a top-five hospitality and tourism management program in the world where he graduated in December 2013 with his Ph.D.

Hospitality and tourism management may seem all glitz and glamour to an outsider, but through his working relationships with government agencies, So quickly realized the economic impacts the field has in cities, states and countries around the world. It affects the livelihood of millions of workers and business owners. It can make or break a city’s economic infrastructure.

“We are an important linkage with many other sectors in our economy,” So said. “For tourism, the consumption takes place where it is produced. All the jobs, the taxes, the revenue, the rentals, the insurance and everything is generated here and retained here.

“Indiana welcomes approximately 77.3 million visitors each year. As an industry, tourism supports more than 203,900 jobs in the state and generates $13.1 billion in total visitor spending, based on the data provided by Indiana Destination Development Corporation. When tourists come, they spend money. They are helping local businesses generate revenue; they are creating jobs for the residents of Indiana; they are generating tax revenue so we can build better leisure amenities so we can have more funding for our public services and infrastructure and have more additional revenue to fund the underserved communities in the state of Indiana.”

Before entering academia, So worked at multiple international luxury hotels and resorts in Perth, Australia, and the country’s Gold Coast, a huge tourist destination Down Under. Having hospitality and tourism industry experience is crucial before moving into academia, So believes.

“It gave me an understanding of the importance of the human element,” he explained. “Now, you see many of my research projects are directed to investigate the evolving dynamics of human factors in service innovation and human and AI interaction.”

Rising rankings

So’s office in Marriott Hall is decorated in numerous research awards. At Oklahoma State’s College of Business, he won “researcher of the year” each year from 2022-2024. At South Carolina, he was the recipient of the 2018 Patricia G. Moody Researcher of the Year Award and was named a Breakthrough Star of the University of South Carolina in 2019, a university-wide research award that “recognizes faculty members who exceed expectations in their fields, demonstrate exceptional potential, and have made outstanding contributions to research and scholarship during a short time at the university.” His work not only impacted the hospitality and tourism management field, but everywhere he went the program’s global rankings shined. At South Carolina, the university’s hospitality and tourism management program went from No. 32 to No. 17 globally in the six years So worked there. Oklahoma State’s department maintained top-15 status in the U.S. during his years there. He hopes to work with his colleagues to make Purdue’s HTM school another heat seeker on the top U.S. programs’ charts.

“As a team, we need to think about strategically how we can further elevate our position nationally and globally,” So stated.

HHS leadership reacts

Ceridwyn King, professor and White Lodging Services Head of Hospitality and Tourism Management said So’s expertise will enhance the program and will inspire students to dive into the many facets of hospitality and tourism research.

“Welcoming Dr. So to the White Lodging-J.W. Marriott, Jr., School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, a scholar who has a deep passion for award-winning research, graduate education and an overall continuous pursuit of excellence, will further drive our program’s research and programmatic outcomes to new heights,” she added. “His achievements have earned him a stellar reputation in the academy internationally, and I have no doubt his contributions to Purdue will be game-changing.”

HHS interim dean Aaron Bowman concurred.

“Dr. So comes to Purdue with a record of exceptional scholarly achievements. He is a thought leader in the hospitality and services marketing field, with his published work having already garnered over 10,000 citations.” Bowman said. “Dr. So joins our White Lodging-J.W. Marriott, Jr. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management under the forward-thinking leadership of Dr. Ceridwyn King where his recognized excellence will propel our teaching, research and engagement success.”

So said HTM services research impacts other fields such as financial planning, retail and health care. Learning how such services impact the economy and how to improve with the ever-changing times offers a wellspring of research opportunities. Humanity’s desire for quality of life and leisure time, and how cities and destinations can utilize their need to travel has survived wars, global pandemics and economic downturns, So pointed out.

“In the travel and tourism industry worldwide, business demand might fluctuate from time to time, but we are very resilient. If you look at history, from Roman times until now, our underlying need to travel and experience new cultures and environments has never changed. Our need may be suppressed temporarily by crises such as the recent global pandemic, but when it is safe to do so, we start to travel again. Revenge travel,” he said. “When people have increased disposable income — their standard of living is improved; their necessities are covered; their education is ensured — what else do they want? Quality of life, leisure time, wellbeing, and one of the best ways to enhance wellbeing is to travel, spending time with family, eat well, exercise outside. All of these things are tied to tourism and hospitality.

“Travel and tourism will continue to play a very important role in people’s lives and that will never change.”