Chance McCullough

Feature article written by Susana Jaramillo – Updated (10/10/2022) -.

Chance McCullough was one of our Doctoral Student liaisons in 2022.

Before being a PhD student in marketing, Chance worked at the Walmart corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. He started his career at Walmart through the Merchant Leadership Program. After completing the program, he worked in the business analytics area, where he performed multiple roles to support the private label and the snacks and beverages business units.

What attracted Chance to marketing?

Chance’s love for marketing developed over time. His undergraduate degree was in English and professional writing, but it was his first job in social media and digital marketing for a nonprofit organization that attracted him to the marketing discipline. This first experience made him realize he wanted to reroute his career into the marketing field, so he took steps forward and decided to return to academia for a specialized master’s degree. According to Chance, “[He has] been on a knowledge binge ever since.”

Chance’s previous experience at Walmart clearly influenced his research interests. His main research focus is on private labels, which he believes needs more attention from academics. According to Chance, private labels have evolved over the last decades. As he explains, “They were originally introduced as generic products with poor quality in the 1970s, but modern-day product quality is now equal to or even better than the leading brand.” He believes that academic research can provide a “nuanced understanding of the private label landscape and benefit industry partners.” Culture and individual differences are also on Chance’s list of research interests. As he explains, “Culture is an invisible but powerful force that shapes individual and societal consumption, (…) [and it is fascinating] how it molds and is molded by individuals in turn.”

When asked what advice he would give PhD students, Chance answered, “Craft and maintain a living knowledge database for your research area(s) to keep track of papers and opportunities for addressing gaps in research. For example, some scholars create excel spreadsheets to keep track of papers and specifics such as keywords, the abstract, methods, and etc. However, there are many new knowledge database programs (such as Obsidian) that can not only track papers and specifics but can also create nomological networks to visualize the current state of research for a specific area. If you can start early and maintain your knowledge database, it can be a powerful tool for mapping out your understanding of an area and identifying future research ideas”.

Chance best advice for other PhD students is…”Craft and maintain a living knowledge database for your research area(s) to keep track of papers and opportunities for addressing gaps in research. (…) If you can start early and maintain your knowledge database, it can be a powerful tool for mapping out your understanding of an area and identifying future research ideas.”

Chance is a first-generation college student; he is very proud of his academic degrees (BS, MS, and PhD). – Congratulations, Chance; the RAPSIG family is also proud of you! -. To celebrate a job well done, Chance treats himself through his hobbies. Usually, he buys Warhammer model kits. He says, “[I] assemble and paint them to commemorate big wins. For example, after I passed the dissertation proposal, I purchased and painted my quintet of chaos terminators.”

When Chance is not working on his research and teaching, he spends his time doing:

1.  Miniature painting.
2.  Nutrition and cooking.
3.  Being a cat dad to his and his partner’s two six-year-old boys, Jack and Calvin.

Fun fact:

Breaking Benjamin and Korn were the first concerts Chance ever attended.

Chance can be reached at chance.mccullough@uky.edu.