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Featured Research Faculty

You may want to visit our more general School of Marketing and Innovation page for an overview of the school and our entire faculty, which includes additional scholars of interest. Many of our faculty conduct research, though the most research-active among them are on the tenure track (Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, and Professors). We also benefit greatly from numerous non-tenure track faculty, some of whom conduct research and all of whom are industry experts, such that everyone contributes to our research mission through their scholarship and/or business expertise.

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Featured Senior Professors

Dipayan Biswas, Frank Harvey Endowed Professor of Marketing
My current research projects are primarily in the topic domains of AI (Artificial Intelligence), digital marketing (including social media), and sensory marketing. I focus on managerially/practically relevant behavioral outcomes. I frequently collaborate with companies on research projects and for conducting field experiments. Methodologically, while I primarily conduct experiments, more recently, I have also started working with unstructured data.

Erwin Danneels, Professor of Management, and Muma Fellow
I focus primarily on corporate growth and renewal amidst changing technological environments, corporate outcomes often achieved through innovation and second-order competencies. My research investigates how to design firms to maximize their innovativeness, and how best to commercialize promising science, issues fundamental to business and society. I also study (1) early-stage ventures from both new and established firms, (2) the nature of entrepreneurial opportunities, and (3) knowledge sharing within nano-technology inventor teams and geographic clusters (e.g., innovation corridors and hubs).

Nate Hartmann, Assistant Professor of Marketing
I focus on improving sales force effectiveness as evidenced in (1) customer-centric outcomes such as customer satisfaction and retention, and (2) salesperson outcomes such as revenue generation, conversion rates, and turnover. My current research is characterized by the application of diverse artificial intelligence and statistical modeling approaches to real-world data accessed through company partnerships. I also use other quantitative methods plus qualitative approaches (e.g., focus groups) to delve deeper into contexts, processes, boundary conditions, and implications.

Timothy B. Heath, Interim Associate Dean for Research and Professional Programs, and Muma Fellow
I study decision making, persuasion, branding, and innovation, largely through experiments. Example findings: (1) Asymmetric line-extension effects in which higher-quality extensions improve brand evaluations more than lower-quality extensions reduce them (if at all). (2) Launching a minor innovation instead of a major innovation within a series of innovations can improve consumer evaluations of the innovation-series by tempering expectations. Currently, we are exploring how perceived crowding within online product displays impacts click-through-rates, how shoe-sounds influence persuasion, and how mathematics threatens science. 

Doug Hughes, Professor and Director, School of Marketing and Innovation
My research explores how firms maximize performance through sales-organization effectiveness and the accompanying management of external and internal relationships. I am particularly interested in examining what motivates salespeople and the leadership practices that facilitate salesperson and organizational success, as well as investigating the dynamics of the marketing-sales and sales-service interfaces, particularly as they relate to the creation of customer value. A secondary area of interest involves the relationships between consumers and the brands with which they interact.

Anand Kumar, Professor of Marketing
My research examines how marketer actions influence consumer preferences and decision-making. I focus on how consumers process marketing cues and messages, the thoughts and feelings they experience, and the resulting consumer perceptions of, and behaviors toward, the sources of the marketing initiatives (brands, service offerings, technology interfaces, etc.). My recent research (often with doctoral students) examines consumer responses to business attempts at creating a more equitable marketplace.

Mauricio Palmeira, Associate Professor of Marketing, and Muma Fellow
I am interested in seemingly irrational influences on judgments and decisions. I mostly use online experiments. Topics of recent projects include evaluations of professional advisors, salespeople or forecasters, reactions to companies associated with ethical transgressions, views on cultural appropriation in consumption, and feelings toward product upgrades.

Sajeev Varki, Professor of Marketing
I specialize in econometric modeling (e.g., latent-class models), though I am poly-methodological (below). My substantive interests lie in customer-brand relationships, which include customer satisfaction, delight, and loyalty. Although I am primarily known for my quantitative research, some of that research shows how empirical models can help extract especially rich meanings from qualitative data (e.g., focus group discussions). I thus cross-over to qualitative methods sometimes, methods I occasionally teach, and I also conduct experiments when rigorous tests of cause-and-effect are required.

Tenure-track Assistant Professors

Nicole Hess, Assistant Professor
My research interests lie at the intersection of marketing, consumer psychology, and technology. Specifically, through a consumer-based strategy lens, I investigate how innovative technologies—such as frontline cyborgs, service robots, and AI-driven solutions—influence consumer responses and shape firm-consumer interactions. Additionally, my work seeks to offer insights into consumer well-being and contribute to transformative consumer research, emphasizing the broader implications of these technologies. Methodologically, I primarily rely on laboratory and field experiments.

Carter Morgan, Assistant Professor
My primary field of interest is consumer visual information processing. Example findings include: (1) Star (vs. numerical) product ratings increase rating magnitude perceptions, thereby increasing product purchase likelihood, and (2) Brand familiarity affects consumers’ preferences for image-based versus text-based brand logos. I also investigate identity-motivated consumer behavior. My primary methodology is to conduct behavioral experiments, and more recently, I have experience collecting biometric data such as eye-tracking information.

Brianna Paulich, Assistant Professor
My research focusses on customer-centric marketing strategies to enhance customer engagement and firm performance. My recent research explores digital marketing, customer experience in various contexts, new venture success, and entertainment science, particularly in the movie industry. Using real-world data, I apply statistical methods and qualitative analysis to address marketing challenges that are both academically rigorous and managerially relevant.

Udit Sharma, Assistant Professor
I study the role of marketing function-led assets (e.g., the strength of customer-firm relationships) in helping firms weather major economic crises such as those brought on by the Great Recession of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., marketing professionals in the C-suite are associated with fewer disasters such as bankruptcies). I also study political polarization’s positive effects, such as increasing customer loyalty and brand advocacy, effects that are stronger when the brand is under threat.

Sonam Singh, Assistant Professor
My research examines the financial outcomes of marketing strategies, with a focus on applying cutting-edge AI/ML techniques and econometrics to address managerially relevant questions. I specialize in B2B firms’ strategy and the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors on firm performance. Her research has been published in premier journals, including the Journal of Marketing Research and Harvard Business Review. Dr. Singh also writes op-eds, offering practical insights for businesses.