Emerging scholar advancing consumer behaviour and brand relationship theory. Employs innovative methods from netnography to latent class analysis to examine digital consumer engagement, brand advocacy, and service-based relationships. 20 peer-reviewed publications (including Journal of Business Research and Journal of Vacation Marketing) and over $120,000 in funding and grants, including an SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant. Recognized as Journal of Vacation Marketing’s 2024 Reviewer of the Year. Experience in academic leadership, cross-sector collaboration, and student-centred learning.
Experience
Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) July 2022 – Present
Fairleigh Dickinson University (Vancouver Campus)
International School of Hospitality, Sports, and Tourism Management
Courses taught: Research Methodology I; Research Methodology II; Food & Beverage Management; Social Media in Hospitality; Revenue Management/Lodging Operations; Accounting for Hospitality Managers; Event Technologies; Entrepreneurship and You; Special Project
Professor, School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Fall 2020 – Spring 2022
George Brown College
Courses taught: Marketing Management; Global Tourism Geography and Culture, Bridging 2
Sessional Lecturer, Gordon S. Lang School of Business & Economics, Fall 2019 – Spring 2022
University of Guelph
Courses taught: Destination Management & Marketing; Advanced Lodging Management; Strategic Management
Education
2020
Doctor of Philosophy in Management
University of Guelph
2014
Master of Science in Management
University of Ottawa
2010
Bachelor of Commerce (Honours), Specialization in Marketing
Ontario Tech University
2008
Business Administration Diploma, Marketing
Durham College
Awards
2023
Co-Principal Investigator, Student-Assisted Research Grant ($20,000)
In collaboration with Destination B.C., this grant helped fund two part-time research assistants for the Summer of 2023 to analyze and report on an industry-wide Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility survey. I provided guidance and research support throughout.
2021
Co-Principal Investigator, SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant ($24,741)
In collaboration with Destination Canada, this grant focused on rebuilding trust in Canadian travel by highlighting the role of Canadian residents as tourism advocates to support the vital work of the national destination management organization.
2021
Gordon S. Lang Experiential Learning Fund ($7,950)
This funding helped to embed active learning into the Advanced Lodging Management course at the University of Guelph by incorporating hotel simulation software into the course design. The software allowed students to create and manage a fictional hotel business that competed with other students’ hotels in the class. Feedback was positive.
2019
Board of Graduate Studies Research Scholarship ($2,000)
I was nominated and selected for this award due to my demonstrated academic excellence in my program.
2018
Ontario Graduate Scholarship ($15,000)
Merit-based scholarship received for high academic performance.
2018
Elizabeth Upton Memorial Travel Grant ($1,000)
Offered to students interested in engaging in tourism-related activities. After expressing my desire to present at TTRA Canada in Nova Scotia by making a 1,900km road trip from Ontario, I was selected for the award.
2018
CBE Graduate Excellence Scholarship ($10,000)
Recognized for excelling academically and to support the remainder of my graduate research program.
Research
Research interest
Tourist behaviour
Place branding
Host-guest relationships
Publications
Lever, M., Bachman, J., & Roy, H. (2025). Encouraging Student Engagement in Extra-Curricular Activities. PDGIA Journal of Higher Education, 2. https://journal.pdgia.ca/index.php/education/article/view/65
Lever, M. W. (2025). All Play and No Work: The Case of Revitalizing Career Perceptions in Canada’s Tourism Industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Cases, 00(0), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/21649987251314618
Mulvey, M. S., Elliot, S., & Lever, M. W. (2025). Global staycation trends: A comparative analysis of consumer interest across time and regions. Tourism Analysis, 30(1), 87–106. https://doi.org/10.3727/108354224X17275202230523
Lever, M. W., Mulvey, M. S., & McDonald, M. (2025, June). Assessing the Usefulness of Social Media and Generative AI in Pre-Travel Planning for Individuals with Mobility Challenges. Travel and Tourism Research Association International 2025 Conference, Galway, Ireland. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/57368
Elliot, S., & Lever, M. W. (2024). You Want to go where? Shifts in social media behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic. Annals of Leisure Research, 27(1), 152–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2022.2041448
Lever, M. W. (2024). Cutting Retention with a Knife: Managing COVID-19-Impacted Turnover Within the Rooms and Culinary Departments at Fairmont Banff Springs. In M. Sigala, M. Fang, A. Yeark, J. N. Albrecht, & O. Vorobjovas-Pinta (Eds.), Case Based Research in Tourism, Travel, and Hospitality: Rethinking Theory and Practice (pp. 145–157). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1891-7_8
Lever, M. W. (2024). Tourism and Everyday Life in the Contemporary City. International Journal of Tourism Cities, 10(3), 1175–1178. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-08-2024-303
Lever, M. W., Mulvey, M. S., & Elliot, S. (2024). A typology of residents’ travel safety perceptions and geopolitical border hesitancy. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 31(4), 813–831. https://doi.org/10.1177/13567667241236975
Teng, L., Sun, C., Chen, Y., Lever, M. W., & Foti, L. (2024). Partner or servant? The influence of robot role positioning on consumers’ brand evaluations. Journal of Business Research, 180, 114698. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114698
Bachman, J. R., Hodgins, E., & Lever, M. W. (2023). Rethinking Resident Perceptions of Tourism in British Columbia, Canada. ICHRIE Research Reports, 8(2), 1–18. https://via.library.depaul.edu/ichrie_rr/vol8/iss2/1
Lever, M. (2023). Exploring the Non-Economic Impacts of Tourism and Hospitality on the Health and Well-Being of Residents. PDGIA Journal of Higher Education. https://journal.pdgia.ca/index.php/education/article/view/11
Lever, M. W., & Elliot, S. (2023). A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Shares: The Case of Destination Canada’s Social Media Visual Storytelling Campaign. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Cases, 11(1), 10–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/21649987231208765
Lever, M. W., Elliot, S., & Joppe, M. (2023). Pride and promotion: Exploring relationships between national identification, destination advocacy, tourism ethnocentrism and destination image. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 29(4), 537–554. https://doi.org/10.1177/13567667221109270
Lever, M. W., & Elliot, S. (2022). Show Me a Story: Social Media-Based User-Generated Videos and Destination Brand Engagement. In A. C. Campos & S. Almeida (Eds.), Global Perspectives on Strategic Storytelling in Destination Marketing (pp. 230–245). IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-3436-9.ch012
Mulvey, M. S., Padgett, D. T., & Lever, M. W. (2022). Sustaining travel dreams in retirement: Guidance at the crossroads. In L. J. Garcia, L. Bélanger-Hardy, & M. Łuszczyńska (Eds.), Well-being In Later Life: The Notion of Connected Autonomy (1st Edition, pp. 65–81). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003242468
Lever, M. W., Mulvey, M. S., Elliot, S., & Dubreuil, M. (2022, June). Segmenting Sentiment: Categorizing Keen and Averse Travellers during the COVID-19 Pandemic. 2022 TTRA International Conference, Victoria, BC. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/49430
Lever, M. W., & Elliot, S. (2021). Exploring Canadians’ Social Media-Based Advocacy to Inform Domestic Travel Recovery. 2021 TTRA Canada Conference, Victoria, BC. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/49718
Lever, M. W., Elliot, S., & Joppe, M. (2021). Exploring destination advocacy behavior in a virtual travel community. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 38(5), 431–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2021.1940421
Lever, M. W. (2020). The Resident-Advocacy Link: Exploring the Relationship Between a Resident’s National Identification and Destination Advocacy as Mediated by Tourism Ethnocentrism and Destination Image [PhD Thesis, University of Guelph]. https://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/aeb46e42-f6b4-493e-bb37-27765381adfb/content
Mulvey, M. S., Lever, M. W., & Elliot, S. (2020). A Cross-National Comparison of Intragenerational Variability in Social Media Sharing. Journal of Travel Research, 59(7), 1204–1220. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287519878511
Shen, Y. (Sandy), Lever, M. W., & Joppe, M. (2020). Best Practices for Eye-Tracking Studies: Dos and Don’ts. In M. Rainoldi & M. Jooss (Eds.), Eye Tracking in Tourism (pp. 29–43). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49709-5_3
Shen, Y. (Sandy), Lever, M. W., & Joppe, M. (2020). Investigating the appeal of a visitor guide: A triangulated approach. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 32(4), 1539–1562. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-03-2019-0281
Lever, M. W., & Abbas, R. (2019). Albania (Go Your Own Way!) to Zimbabwe (A World of Wonders): A rhetorical analysis of the world’s country tourism slogans. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 25(3), 320–333. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356766718778878
Lever, M. W., & Elliot, S. (2019). Residents as Destination Advocates: A Netnographic Exploration of Resident-Generated Advocacy through a Facebook Travel Group. TTRA Canada 2019 Conference, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/237407231.pdf
Lever, M. W., & Elliot, S. (2019). The Northern Likes: The Case of Northwest Territories’ Social Media Campaign. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Cases, 7(3), 37–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/216499871900700305
Lever, M. W., Shen, Y., & Joppe, M. (2019). Reading travel guidebooks: Readership typologies using eye-tracking technology. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 14, 100368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2019.100368
Lever, M., Shen, Y. (Sandy), & Joppe, M. (2018). Using Eye-Tracking Technology to Segment Tourism Brochure Reading Typologies. 2018 TTRA International Conference, Miami, Florida. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/49031
Lever, M. W., Mulvey, M. S., & Elliot, S. (2018). Keep Exploring, Sharing, and Tweeting: Connecting Millennials, Social Media and Destination Canada’s Brand. 11, 1–4. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/ttracanada_2018_conference/11
Shen, Y. S., Lever, M. W., & Joppe, M. (2018, June). Determining Visitor Guide Appeal Using Eye Tracking and In-depth Interviews: The Case of Ottawa, Canada. 2018 TTRA International Conference, Miami, Florida. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/48991
Lever, M. W., Mulvey, M. S., & Elliot, S. (2017). From hashtags to shopping bags: Measuring the rise of eWOM through social media and its impact on travelers’ shopping patterns. Tourism Travel and Research Association: Advancing Tourism Research Globally, 12, 1–6. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/ttra/2017/Grad_Student_Workshop/12
Mulvey, M. S., Gengler, C. E., & Lever, M. W. (2017). Perspective-taking for policy-making: An analysis of Canadian cross-border shopping. NMIMS Journal of Economics and Public Policy, 1(2), 54–70.
Mulvey, M. S., & Lever, M. W. (2017). Discerning Differences in Cross-border Shopping Occasions. 2017 TTRA International Conference, Quebec City, Quebec. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/54688
Lever, M. W. (2014). Understanding Variability in Modern Cross-Border Shopping Occasions [Masters Thesis, University of Ottawa]. http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-6747