PhD Candidate, MPhil Graduate

BBus (Marketing) with Distinction, Master of Philosophy (MPhil)

About Alexandra

Alexandra is a service design researcher and practitioner, currently part of the double PhD program between QUT and Maastricht University in the Netherlands. With a background in innovation and human centred design, Alexandra has worked as a research assistant across a range of projects within the Behavioural Change and Social Marketing stream, applying service design principles to unpack complex problems such as trust in the Energy Sector (read here), increasing access to healthcare services in remote Queensland (read here) and preventing homelessness amongst mature aged women (see the Women’s Butterfly Project here).

Prior to commencing the PhD, Alexandra worked in the Australian federal government, on the review and design of national mental health and wellbeing services. Her current research interest is in the wellbeing and customer experience implications of extended service environments (e.g. aged care, higher education), where the consumer is in the service experience for many months and years. Her PhD topic explores how the anticipatory process can generate wellbeing benefits for consumers, staff and families in aged care, seeking to understand how structuring temporal landmarks can support a constructive passage of time in such settings. 

PhD Thesis Topic:

“Exploring the role of anticipation and temporal landmarks for wellbeing in extended service environments”

Supervisor Details:

Professor Amanda Beatson – Principal Supervisor – School of Advertising Marketing and Public Relations – QUT

Professor Dr Gaby Odekerken-Shroder – Principal Supervisor – School of Business and Economics – Maastricht University

Professor Evonne Miller  - Associate Supervisor – School of Design – QUT

Assistant Professor Katya Sion - Associate Supervisor – Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (Health Services Research) – Maastricht University

Professor Rebekah Russell-Bennett – External Supervisor – School of Business and Public Policy - University of Canberra

MPhil Thesis topic [Completed]:

“Designing for self-discovery: Towards a framework for transformative experiences in higher education”

Publications:

Zimbatu, A., & Russell-Bennett, R. (2025). Beyond ‘Eat-Pray-Love’: Designing transformative CX for self-discovery in extended service encounters. Journal of Business Research, 186, 115016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.115016

Bickley, S. J., Chan, H. F., Dao, B., Torgler, B., Tran, S., & Zimbatu, A. (2024). Comparing human and synthetic data in service research: using augmented language models to study service failures and recoveries. Journal of Services Marketing, https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-11-2023-0441

Zimbatu, A., & Whyte, S. (2024). What's love got to do with it? Exploring the role of universities and third places in supporting human mate choice. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 34(2), 295-318, https://doi.org/10.1108/jstp-02-2023-0043 

Projects:

• Trust building for collaborative win-win customer solutions in energy - Opportunity Assessment

• Women’s Butterfly Project: empowering mature women to maintain secure housing using high tech and high touch

• Design-led advanced manufacturing of smart orthotics for remote Australia