Robert Kozinets (MBA, York University; PhD, Queen’s University) is the Jayne and Hans Hufschmid Chair of Strategic Public Relations and Business Communication at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and Marshall School of Business. He is known for introducing netnography, a cultural digital research methodology that has garnered recognition across academia and industry. Through his published research, Kozinets has provided insights into areas such as platform economies, social media marketing, fandoms, and digital activism. His work often ventures into the intersections of technology, markets, and culture, while shedding light on their relationship with broader societal structures. His publications span various mediums, from books and articles to videography, research poetry, and blog entries. He has published over 100 articles and seven books, including three editions of his netnography textbook. The latest version of that book was Netnography: The Essential Guide to Qualitative Social Media Research (SAGE, 2020). Another recent book, Netnography Unlimited: Understanding Technoculture Using Qualitative Social Media Research (Routledge, 2021), co-authored with Rossella Gambetti, looked at how netnography had been altered by different researchers and contexts. His latest co-authored book, "Influencers and Creators: Business, Culture, and Society", was published in April 2023. He has taught and conducted research at some of the world’s top universities, from Australia to Brazil, and Ireland to Israel, and for numerous companies, including L'Oréal, American Express, Ford, Merck, Campbell Soup, Lowe’s Hardware, ArtCosmetics, HSBC, TD Bank and Financial Group, and many others. He applies his knowledge of social media to serve as an expert witness, including in the multidistrict litigation against JUUL Labs which settled in April 2023 for $456 million. In 2023, he founded the Association for Netnographic Research and served as president of the first international netnography conference, Netnocon, which was held in Salford, UK. In 2022, he was presented with the Lifetime Research Achievement Award by EM-Normandie –Le Havre, Paris, France.