Dr. Harald Pol

Since January 2024, Harald Pol has been appointed professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at the corresponding professorship. Through his professorship, he supports companies in leveraging marketing, customer experience, and entrepreneurship to contribute to a sustainable transition.

Contributing to a more sustainable society

The transition towards a more sustainable society requires a fundamentally different approach to marketing. Where the focus used to be on maximizing growth, revenue, and profit, attention is now shifting towards creating broader value for society. This requires organisations to become aware of their own role in this change and the transition they themselves need to undergo. Making different, more future-oriented choices is a key challenge in this process.
Together with researchers from his professorship, Harald Pol helps companies and organisations gain insight into the impact of these new choices, both for the organisation itself and for society. In addition, the Marketing and Entrepreneurship professorship develops practical tools to help shape this necessary transition.

The relationship between organisations and their customers plays a crucial role in this context, particularly when it comes to encouraging more sustainable consumer behavior. An important question is also what role digitalisation plays in this transition and how digital transformation can contribute to sustainability.

Harald Pol studied Business Administration and Marketing at the University of Groningen and has a broad background as a consultant and interim manager in the fields of marketing, communication, and customer relations. Since 1998, he has worked as an independent advisor, supporting both profit and non-profit organisations in strengthening their market and customer orientation. In 2017, he obtained his PhD from the University of Twente with research on building sustainable customer relationships and the role of customer experience and digitalisation. He is also the author of several books and scientific articles on customer-oriented entrepreneurship and customer experience.