Dr Fam has industry experience in retailing and advertising before turning to academia. His career began as a management trainee with a large retail organization in Malaysia before moving to Scotland to undertake an undergraduate degree in Business Studies and later an MBA in Retail Management. Upon graduation, Dr Fam went to Hong Kong to work as a media manager with multinational advertising agencies such as Bozell and Leo Burnett. A career break came about when Dr Fam was offered a PhD scholarship by the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Dr Fam’s research focuses on chopstick advertising, Confucian marketing, Asian culture and corporate social responsibility, marketing of education, and small business/entrepreneurship promotion strategy. His current research projects look at sales promotion, brand equity, and corporate social responsibility in collectivist China; and student-teacher relationship. In his inaugural professorial lecture, Dr Fam explained “Chopstick Advertising” as a metaphor for the need to bridge the culture and knowledge gap between international firms and local consumers.

Amongst others, his publications have appeared in the European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Advertising Research, Psychology & Marketing, and Journal of Business Research.