PhD Candidate
BCom (Shri Ram College of Commerce), MCom (Delhi School of Economics), MPhil (University of Cambridge)
Year of entry
2022
Supervisor
Pathway
Research topic
Up-skill to Up-scale: Micro-entrepreneur Mentor Matching in Emerging Markets
Biography
Soniya is a PhD student in Quantitative Marketing and a member of the Marketing group, advised by Professor Jaideep Prabhu and Professor Ahmed Khwaja. Her interest lies in the empirical analysis of marketing problems at the intersection of business innovation, social impact, and marketing strategy.
Soniya’s current research focuses on bridging the gaps in mentoring platforms for micro-entrepreneurs in emerging markets by developing the algorithmic criteria for promoting mentorship programmes, market skill training, and policies for micro-entrepreneurs. She also investigates the fit between the mentors for market skill training and the micro-entrepreneurs by combining machine learning and Bayesian inference with econometric modelling.
Prior to starting her PhD, Soniya graduated with an MPhil in Strategy, Marketing and Operations at Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, as a Commonwealth Masters Scholar 2021 from India. She was awarded the prestigious Mitsubishi UFJ Foundation Scholarship during her Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree at Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi (2014-2017). Soniya earned her Master of Commerce from Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi (2017-2019).
Her experience as a researcher in emerging markets fuels her inspiration to contribute to the sustainable business ecosystem for nano entrepreneurs, small and medium-scale enterprises, and technology-based industries. Soniya has held positions as a Researcher at the Department of Strategic Marketing, MICA, India; Research Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Policy Research; and Research Consultant at Ernst & Young, Global Delivery Service, India. She has interned at Grant Thornton, EY India, Urban Company and Parliament of India.
She is constantly learning and developing a comprehensive understanding of the working of markets and individuals at the intersection of the market, social and academic spheres.
Research interests
Business innovation; emerging markets; marketing strategy; entrepreneurship; social impact; business sustainability.
Soniya Gupta-Rawal is a member of the Marketing subject group.
Publications and papers
Published research papers
Gupta, S. and Jeyaraj, A. (2021) “Online-to-Offline (O2O) commerce in emerging markets: analysis of the retail sector.” Journal of Asia-Pacific Business, 22(4): 260-278 (DOI: 10.1080/10599231.2021.1983501)
Conference paper presentations
Gupta, S., Gupta, S. and Shrivastava, P. (2022) “Super app: a design innovation towards customer engagement.” (Paper presentation at the 2021 AMA Winter Academic Conference, preparing for submission in A* journal)
Gupta, S. (2021) “Capital-centric opportunities for skill training of microentrepreneurs in emerging markets.” (Presented MPhil dissertation at the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC) Annual Conference 2021-22, selected among the top 5% CSC scholars UK to present the findings to the CSC Commissioners)
Gupta, S. (2021) “The future is remote: social impact of telemedicine business in emerging markets.” (Presented at the Cambridge Zero Research Symposia 2021 at Cambridge Judge Business School)
Gupta, S. and Dangi, H. (2020) “Neuromarketing: substitute for a consumer’s decisions.” (Paper presented at the 5th Annual Global Strategy and Emerging Markets (GSEM) Conference 2020, hosted by Cornell University)
Gupta, S. (2020) “Store promotion using halo effect contamination in consumers’ decision making.” (Received Consolation Prize in the Best Paper Awards at International Communication Management Conference, MICA 2020; submitted for review in Journal of Consumer Marketing)
Gupta, S. (2020) “Assessing the viability of contract framing for small and marginal farmers in India.” (Awarded with a Research Grant of US$266 by the University of Delhi to undertake the dissertation project, representing SRCC; presented the report at Delhi University Innovation Project Program)
Contact details
Soniya Gupta-Rawal
Cambridge Judge Business School
University of Cambridge
Trumpington Street
Cambridge CB2 1AG
UK