News & Awards

2024
Marketing Department News
Prof. Vanessa Patrick

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was named President-Elect of the Society for Consumer Psychology.

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz won the Mahajan Award for Lifetime Contributions to Marketing Strategy Research given by the American Marketing Association Marketing Strategy SIG.

Doctoral student Arpit Agrawal, Prof. Michael Ahearne, doctoral alum Yashar Atefi, and Prof. Johannes Habel won the Best Paper Award in the Sales Management and Organizational Frontlines track at the AMA Winter Academic Conference.

Doctoral alum Yashar Atefi was named Evelyn & Jay G. Piccinati Endowed Chair at University of Denver.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Michael Ahearne

The AMA Doctoral Student Special Interest Group (AMA DOCSIG) released a tabulation of publications in top marketing journals over the past ten years which showed our Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship 17th in the world for publications in Journal of Marketing and Journal of Marketing Research. At an individual level, Prof. Michael Ahearne was 10th in the world and Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was 26th in the world for publications in JM and JMR.

The AMA DOCSIG tabulation also showed doctoral alums Werner Reinartz and Alina Sorescu tied for 18th, Zachary Hall tied for 26th, and Willy Bolander and Raghu Bommaraju tied for 49th in the world for publications in JM and JMR over the past 10 years.

Doctoral student Arpit Agrawal was named a winner in the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science (ISMS) Doctoral Dissertation Early-Stage Research Grants competition.

Doctoral student Arpit Agrawal was named runner-up for the 2024 AMA Sales SIG Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Award.

Doctoral student Arpit Agrawal was named a winner of the 2024 AMA Organizational Frontlines Young Scholar Research Competition.

2023

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz was named an MSI (Marketing Science Institute) Fellow, the highest honor given by MSI.

Marketing Department News
Werner Reinartz

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz won the American Marketing Association Retail & Pricing SIG Lifetime Achievement Award.

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz won the 2023 European Marketing Academy (EMAC) Distinguished Marketing Scholar Award. This annual award is designed to be the highest honor that a marketing educator who has had extensive connections with EMAC can receive.

Doctoral alum Yashar Atefi was named to the Journal of Business Research editorial board. Yashar also serves on editorial boards for International Journal of Research in Marketing and Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Johannes Habel

Prof. Johannes Habel was named to the Journal of Marketing editorial board.

Prof. Johannes Habel was named to the Journal of Retailing editorial board.

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander was named as one of Poets and Quants “40 Under 40” Top MBA Professors.

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander was named Rader II Professor of Industrial Distribution and Associate Director of Read Center for Distribution at Texas A&M. Willy previously served as Carl DeSantis Professor of Marketing at Florida State.

Marketing Department News

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship was ranked as the #1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation by The Princeton Review for the 5th straight year.

WCE alum Zoey Barker, RED Labs alum Mehdi Mortazavi, and their company ExoBraced won 1st place in the Innovation category at the Liftoff Houston business plan competition.

Program for Excellence in Selling student Christian Gonzales won 1st place in the International Collegiate Sales Competition (ICSC).

Prof. Johannes Habel was named Senior Editor at Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Prof. Michael Ahearne was named an MSI (Marketing Science Institute) Academic Fellow, the highest honor given by MSI.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Melanie Rudd

Prof. Melanie Rudd was named Associate Editor at Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship alum Mila Golovine was named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2023 Gulf South winner.

Doctoral alum Doug Walker was named Robin Hagans Maupin Endowed Chair in Business and Swann-Campbell Faculty Fellow at Kansas State University.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Vanessa Patrick

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was re-appointed as Associate Editor at Journal of Marketing Research.

Doctoral alum Irene Nam, Prof. Michael Ahearne, and Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai won the 2023 AMA Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award, which honors the journal article published during the previous year that has made the most significant contribution to the sales discipline. This is the ninth year in a row (2015-2023) that our faculty or alums have won this award.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Johannes Habel

Prof. Johannes Habel won the 2023 National Conference on Sales Management Best Paper Award for his research titled “Sales Content Platform Usage and Sales Success.”

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was named a finalist for the 2023 AMA-EBSCO-RRBM Award for Responsible Research in Marketing for her Journal of Consumer Psychology article “Designing for All: Consumer Response to Inclusive Design.”

Marketing Department News
Prof. Michael Ahearne

The AMA Doctoral Student Special Interest Group (AMA DOCSIG) released a tabulation of publications in top marketing journals over the past ten years which showed our Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship 39th in the world for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS, and 17th in the world for publications in JM and JMR. At an individual level, Prof. Michael Ahearne was 22nd in the world for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS and 9th in the world for publications in JM and JMR, and Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was tied for 26th in the world for publications in JM and JMR.

The AMA DOCSIG tabulation also showed doctoral alums Alina Sorescu and Zachary Hall tied for 26th in the world for publications in JM and JMR over the past 10 years.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Martin Kramer

Prof. Martin Kramer was named winner of the 2023 AMA Organizational Frontlines Young Scholar Research Competition.

Prof. Martin Kramer won the 2023 IMU Research for Practice Award given for a doctoral dissertation that addresses marketing issues highly relevant to practitioners.

2022
Marketing Department News
Werner Reinartz

Doctoral alum Abhijit Biswas won the American Marketing Association Retail & Pricing SIG Lifetime Achievement Award.

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz won the 2022 Hunt/Maynard Award for the Journal of Marketing paper that made the most significant contribution to marketing theory. Werner won for "The Platformization of Brands."

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz was a finalist for the 2022 AMA/MSI/H. Paul Root Award for the Journal of Marketing article that made the most significant contribution to the advancement of marketing practice. Werner was a finalist for "The Platformization of Brands."

Doctoral alum Demetra Andrews was Track Chair for Consumer Behavior at the AMA Summer Educators Conference.

Doctoral alum Yashar Atefi was Track Chair for Sales and Sales Management at the AMA Summer Educators Conference.

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander won the Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Best Paper Award.

Doctoral alum Ryan Mullins was named Senior Editor at Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Doctoral alum Son Lam and co-authors won the 2022 AMA Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award, which honors the journal article published during the previous year that has made the most significant contribution to the sales discipline. This is the eighth year in a row that our faculty or alums have won this award.

Doctoral alum Babu John-Mariadoss was named to the editorial board of Journal of Business Research. He also serves as an Editor at International Journal of Public Opinion Research, as Associate Editor at Journal of International Marketing and European Journal of Marketing and on the editorial boards of Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, and Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Sanchez Program for Excellence in Selling students Dana Fattouh and Toni Gilmore won 2nd place in the State Farm Sales & Marketing Competition.

Marketing Department News

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship was ranked as the #1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine for the fourth year in a row.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick received the 2022-2023 American Marketing Association CBSIG Research in Practice Award for rigorous research with managerial implications.

Doctoral alum Son Lam was named a Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Scholar. This program recognizes the top mid-career scholars worldwide in the field of marketing.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was named a Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Scholar. This program recognizes the top mid-career scholars worldwide in the field of marketing.

Doctoral alums Irene Nahm and Mohsen Pourmasoudi were co-winners of the 2022 AMA Sales SIG Doctoral Dissertation Award for best dissertation in the field of selling and sales management. Our alums previously won this award in 2006 through 2009, 2013 through 2015, and 2019.

Doctoral alum Sonja Prokopec was named Associate Dean of Faculty for ESSEC Business School''s Singapore campus. Sonja previously held the LVMH Chair in Luxury Brand Management at ESSEC.

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was named Outstanding Editorial Review Board Member at International Journal of Research in Marketing. Seshadri also serves on editorial boards for Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, and Journal of Interactive Marketing.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Michael Ahearne

The AMA Doctoral Student Special Interest Group (AMA DOCSIG) released a tabulation of publications in top marketing journals over the past ten years which showed our Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship 34th in the world for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS, and 17th in the world for publications in JM and JMR. At an individual level, Prof. Michael Ahearne was 32nd in the world for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS and 10th in the world for publications in JM and JMR.

Prof. Michael Ahearne won the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Marketing Association (AMA) Selling & Sales Management Special Interest Group (AMA SalesSIG) for his impact on the academic sales community.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Kitty Wang

Prof. Kitty Wang was a finalist for the 2022 Weitz-Winer-O'Dell Award, which honors the Journal of Marketing Research article published five years earlier that has made the most significant, long-term contribution to marketing theory, methodology, and/or practice.

Prof. Johannes Habel received the 2022 Best Reviewer Award from Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

The UH American Marketing Association chapter won a Top 10 Chapters Award at the 2022 AMA International Collegiate Conference, recognizing them as one of the top 10 collegiate AMA chapters in the world.

Doctoral alum Nancy Albers was named Dean of the School of Business Administration at University of South Carolina Aiken. Nancy previously was Dean at Louisiana State University Shreveport and Pacific Lutheran University.

Marketing Department News
Prof. William Zahn

Prof. William Zahn, doctoral alum Willy Bolander, and co-authors won the Top In Conference Award for best paper at the 2022 Association of Marketing Theory and Practice (AMTP) Conference.

Program for Excellence in Selling students Dana Fattouh, Raquel Munoz-Badell, Valeriia Chukhnenko, and Valerie Perez Lugo won 2nd place at the 2022 National Collegiate Sales Competition. This is the twelfth consecutive Top 10 finish for PES teams at live NCSC events.

Two papers co-authored by UH faculty were named as winners of the 2022 AMA Organizational Frontlines Interest Group Young Scholar Research Competition: "When Does Reducing Sales Force Incentives Help or Harm? Understanding the Trade-off Between Performance Quantity and Quality" by Martin Kraemer, Sascha Alavi, Johannes Habel, and Michael Ahearne, and "Give Me Your Genes and I Tell You Your Sales Success?" by Christian Winter, Nicolas Zacharias, Ad de Jong, and Johannes Habel.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick-Ralhan was named Associate Editor at Journal of Marketing. Vanessa also is Associate Editor at Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Consumer Research and Chair of the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research Policy Board.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Melanie Rudd

Prof. Melanie Rudd was named to the Journal of Consumer Psychology editorial board.

Prof. Shijie Lu was named to the Marketing Science editorial board.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick-Ralhan was named Chair of the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research Policy Board.

2021

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz won the 2021 Steenkamp Award for an International Journal of Research in Marketing article that has made exceptional long-term impact on academic marketing research. Werner won for the 2009 article "An Empirical Comparison of the Efficacy of Covariance-Based and Variance-Based SEM."

Doctoral alum Yashar Atefi was named to the International Journal of Research in Marketing editorial board. Yashar also serves on the editorial board for Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.

Doctoral alum Babu John-Mariadoss was named as an Editor at International Journal of Public Opinion Research. He also serves as Associate Editor at Journal of International Marketing and European Journal of Marketing and on the editorial boards of Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, and Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Doctoral alum Babu John-Mariadoss was named J.B. Hoskins Professor at Texas Tech University.

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander was a finalist for AMA-EBSCO Annual Award for Responsible Research in Marketing, which honors outstanding research that produces both credible and useful knowledge that can be applied to benefit society.

Former doctoral research fellow Adam Rapp was named Associate Dean, External Affairs for the College of Business at Ohio University. Adam also serves as Ralph and Luci Schey Professor of Sales and Executive Director of the Schey Sales Centre at Ohio University.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Vanessa Patrick-Ralhan

Prof. Vanessa Patrick-Ralhan was selected by the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to serve as a Fulbright Specialist with the Institut Teknologi Bandung in Indonesia.

Program for Excellence in Selling students Kara Theriot, Maria Candurin, Bri Young, Atika Fatima, Kaelin Robinson, and Dana Fattouh won 2nd place at the 2021 International Collegiate Sales Competition.

Program for Excellence in Selling students Elizabeth Lopez Aguilar and Bryce Watts won 1st place in the 2021 State Farm Collegiate Sales Competition.

Marketing Department News

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship was ranked as the #1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine for the third year in a row.

Prof. Kitty Wang won the Best Paper award at the 2021 Conference On Information Systems And Technology (CIST) for "Revenue Sharing Designs for Platforms" by Hemant Bhargava, Kitty Wang and Luna Zhang.

Doctoral alum Yong Zhang was named Robert E. Brockway Endowed Distinguished Professor at Hofstra University.

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander was named Associate Editor at Journal of Retailing. Willy also serves as Area Editor at Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and as an editorial board member at Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander was named Area Editor at Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Michael Ahearne

Doctoral alums Yashar Atefi and Zachary Hall and Prof. Michael Ahearne won the 2021 AMA Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award, which honors the journal article published during the previous year that has made the most significant contribution to the sales discipline. This is the seventh year in a row that our faculty or alums have won this award.

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz won the 2021 ISBM-David Wilson-Sheth Foundation Award for Long Term Impact in B2B Marketing for his 2011 Journal of Marketing article "Hybrid Offerings: How Manufacturing Firms Combine Goods and Services Successfully."

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander received the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management Marvin Jolson Award for Best Contribution to Selling and Sales Management Practice.

Doctoral alum Alina Sorescu was named Co-Editor of International Journal of Research in Marketing. Alina also serves as an Associate Editor of Journal of Marketing and on the editorial boards of Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Sam Hui

Prof. Sam Hui was named to the International Journal of Research in Marketing editorial board. Sam also serves on the editorial board for Journal of Marketing Research.

Doctoral alum Raj Echambadi was named President of Illinois Tech (Illinois Institute of Technology). Raj previously served as Dunton Family Dean at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University and Alan J. and Joyce D. Baltz Professor and Senior Associate Dean at the Gies College of Business at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was named to the Journal of Marketing editorial board. Seshadri also serves on the editorial boards of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Journal of Interactive Marketing.

Doctoral alum Irene Nahm won the Mary Kay Award given by the Academy of Marketing Science for best doctoral dissertation in the field of marketing. Irene's dissertation also received Honorable Mention for the John Howard Award given by the American Marketing Association.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Johannes Habel

Prof. Johannes Habel received honorable mention for the Marvin Jolson Award for Best Contribution to Selling and Sales Management Practice given by the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Undergraduate students Maria Carmelita Gomez and Anthony Hernandez were winners in the Spotify Opening Act Innovation Challenge.

The UH American Marketing Association chapter, led by President Valeria Rodriguez, was once again named a Top 20 AMA student chapter.

Doctoral alum Irene Nahm received honorable mention for the 2021 John Howard/AMA Award for best doctoral dissertation in the field of marketing.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was named Associate Editor at Journal of Consumer Research.

2020

Doctoral alum Yashar Atefi was named to the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management editorial board.

Doctoral alum Babu John-Mariadoss was named Associate Editor at Journal of International Marketing. He also serves as Associate Editor at European Journal of Marketing and on the editorial boards of Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, and Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Doctoral student Irene Nahm was a winner of the 2020 AMA Organizational Frontlines Interest Group Young Scholar Research Competition for "Transitioning Customers from Frontline Employees to a Digital Channel in Business Markets: a Field Study."

Doctoral alum Ryan Mullins was named the J. Daniel and Nancy Garrison Endowed Professor at Clemson University.

Marketing Department News
WCE ranks #1

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship was ranked as the #1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. We have ranked #1 or #2 in 10 of the past 13 years.

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship received the 2020 Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) Award for Outstanding Student Engagement & Leadership. WCE also was a finalist for this award in 2019. The award "honors a center that amplifies their impact by achieving high levels of student engagement and student leadership in its entrepreneurship programs."

Doctoral alum Scot Burton received the AMA Marketing & Society SIG Lifetime Achievement Award for his extensive research and contributions regarding consumer well-being.

Doctoral alum Anish Nagpal was named Associate Editor at Journal of Consumer Marketing.

Doctoral alum Anish Nagpal was named to the Australian Journal of Management editorial board.

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz was named to the Journal of Marketing editorial board. He previously served on the JM editorial board from 2005-14 and as Area Editor from 2014-2018.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Sam Hui

Prof. Sam Hui was named a Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Scholar. This program recognizes top scholars whose research is practically relevant for the fields of marketing and marketing research.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick received the 2020 Journal of Retailing Outstanding Reviewer Award.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was named an Associate Editor for Journal of Marketing Research.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Rex Du

Prof. Rex Du was nominated for the 2020 Robert D. Buzzell Award for the Marketing Science Institute working paper that has made the most significant contribution to marketing practice and thought.

Doctoral alum Jaime Noriega was named to the Journal of International Marketing editorial board.

Prof. Rex Du and Prof. Sam Hui were named to the Journal of Marketing Research editorial board.

Prof. Michael Ahearne, Prof. Shijie Lu, Prof. Vanessa Patrick, and Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai were reappointed to the Journal of Marketing Research editorial board.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was a finalist for the 2020 ISMS Long-Term Impact Award. This award is given to a paper published in Marketing Science, or Management Science, or another INFORMS journal, that is viewed to have made a significant long run impact on the field of marketing. Seshadri was a finalist for his 2012 Marketing Science paper with Gerry Tellis, "Does Chatter Really Matter? Dynamics of User Generated Content and Stock Performance."

Doctoral alums Jeffrey Boichuk and Raghu Bommaraju and Prof. Michael Ahearne won the 2020 AMA Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award, which honors the journal article published during the previous year that has made the most significant contribution to the sales discipline. This is the sixth year in a row that our faculty or alums have won this award.

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was a finalist for the 2019 Paul Root Award. The Root Award is given by the American Marketing Association and Marketing Science Institute to recognize the Journal of Marketing article from that year that makes the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of marketing.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Randy Webb

Prof. James (Randy) Webb received the 2019-20 UH Clinical/Instructional Teaching Excellence Award.

Doctoral student Mohsen Pourmasoudi received the 2019-20 UH Teaching Excellence Award for graduate teaching assistants.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Vanessa Patrick

Prof. Vanessa Patrick received the 2019-20 UH Teaching Excellence Award.

The AMA Doctoral Student Special Interest Group (AMA DOCSIG) released a tabulation of publications in top marketing journals over the past ten years which showed our Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship tied for 42nd in the world for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS, and 15th in the world for publications in JM and JMR. At an individual level, Prof. Michael Ahearne was 13th in the world for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS and 4th in the world for publications in JM and JMR.

Doctoral student Mohsen Pourmasoudi was named runner-up in the 2020 AMA Sales SIG Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Competition.

2019

Doctoral alum Yashar Atefi was a winner of the 2019 AMA Organizational Frontlines Interest Group Young Scholar Research Competition for "The Aftermarket Benefits of Frontline Employees'' Transparency"," co-authored with Michael Ahearne, Zachary Hall, Sebastian Hohenberg, and Florian Zettelmeyer.

Doctoral alum Ryan Mullins was named to the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science editorial board. Ryan also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Service Research and Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander was named to the Journal of Retailing editorial board.

Doctoral alum Sarah Gardial was named Dean of the Belmont University Massey College of Business. Previously, she was Henry B. Tippie Dean of the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business.

Prof. Michael Ahearne was named as the 2020 Routledge/Taylor & Francis Society for Marketing Advances (SMA) Distinguished Scholar.

Marketing Department News
Sales for Social Impact class

Program for Excellence in Selling students won 1st place in the Sales for Social Impact competition sponsored by 3M. Our students won for their work in developing a marketing program for Elijah Rising, which helps victims of sexual exploitation transition from sex trade and rebuild their lives.

Marketing Department News
WCE ranks #1

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship was ranked as the #1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. Princeton Review has ranked WCE as one of the top programs in the nation every year since 2007.

Program for Excellence in Selling students Maysarah Kazia, Aileen McComiskey, Anh-Minh Nguyen, James Oliver, Gabriel Ponce, and Brianna TenBrink won 2nd place at the International Collegiate Sales Competition.

Program for Excellence in Selling students Nalani Gruel and Drew Crichton won 1st place in the State Farm Marketing & Sales Competition. In addition to the team result, Nalani finished 1st and Drew finished 3rd in individual standings.

Doctoral alum Son Lam was named Terry Dean's Advisory Council Professor in the Terry College of Business at The University of Georgia.

Marketing Department News
Ody de la Paz

Sensytec was named one of the top three companies in the inaugural MassChallenge Texas cohort and received a special investment prize from Houston Angel Network. WCE alum Ody de la Paz is CEO of Sensytec, which is a spinout of UH technology.

Doctoral alum Doug Hughes was named Department Chair for Marketing in the Muma College of Business at University of South Florida. Doug previously served as Department Chair for Marketing and United Shore Fellow in Sales Leadership at Michigan State.

UH received The Entrepreneurial University Award from the Deshpande Symposium in recognition of our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship. This award honors an institution that demonstrates overall excellence in innovation and entrepreneurship, and requires excellence in both curriculum innovation and student engagement.

Marketing Department News
Dean Paul Pavlou

Dean Paul Pavlou won the 2019 Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award, which honors a Journal of Marketing article that has had the most significant long-term impact on the field of marketing. Paul won for his 2014 paper with Manjit Yadav, "Marketing in Computer-Mediated Environments: Research Synthesis and New Directions."

Doctoral alum Yashar Atefi and Prof. Michael Ahearne won the 2019 AMA Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award, which honors the journal article published during the previous year that has made the most significant contribution to the sales discipline. This is the fifth year in a row that our faculty or alums have won this award.

Doctoral alum Raghu Bommaraju won the 2019 AMA Sales SIG Doctoral Dissertation Award for best dissertation in the field of selling and sales management. Our alums previously won this award in 2013 through 2015 and 2006 through 2009.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai won the 2019 O’Dell Award, which honors a Journal of Marketing Research article that has made the most significant long-term contribution to marketing theory, methodology, and/or practice. Seshadri won for his 2014 paper with Gerard Tellis, "Mining Marketing Meaning from Online Chatter: Strategic Brand Analysis of Big Data Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation."

Marketing Department News
Prof. Shijie Lu

Prof. Shijie Lu was named to the Journal of Marketing Research editorial board.

Prof. Rex Du's paper with Mingyu Joo and Ken Wilbur, "Advertising and Brand Attitudes: Evidence from 575 Brands over Five Years," was runner-up in the Marketing Science Institute Research Priorities Working Paper Competition.

Prof. Michael Ahearne was named to the Journal of Marketing Research editorial board. Mike also serves as Associate Editor at Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Service Research, Senior Editor at International Journal of Research in Marketing, editorial board member for Journal of Retailing and Academy of Marketing Science Review, and member of the Senior Advisory Board for Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Marketing Department News
Nalani Gruel

Program for Excellence in Selling students Nalani Gruel, Sue Lynn Law, Kristin Powell, and Joy Yang placed 6th at the 2019 National Collegiate Sales Competition. This is the eleventh year in a row that our PES team has finished in the Top 10 at NCSC. Nalani Gruel finished 4th in the individual competition.

Program for Excellence in Selling student Kristin Powell won 2nd place in the Gartner national sales competition.

The AMA Doctoral Student Special Interest Group (AMA DOCSIG) released a tabulation of publications in top marketing journals over the past ten years which showed our Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship tied for 43rd in the world for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS, and 17th in the world for publications in JM and JMR. At an individual level, Prof. Michael Ahearne was 14th in the world for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS and 4th in the world for publications in JM and JMR.

Marketing Department News
Omar Alvarado and Jonathan Thomas

Undergraduate WCE students Omar Alvarado and Jonathan Thomas won third place in the SXSW Project Innovation competition sponsored by Dell.

Doctoral student Mohsen Pourmasoudi was a winner of the 2019 AMA Organizational Frontlines Interest Group Young Scholar Research Competition for "Selling in the Digital Age," co-authored with Michael Ahearne, Zachary Hall, and Partha Krishnamurthy.

Doctoral student Phillip Wiseman won Best Paper in the Personal Selling and Sales Management track at the 2019 AMA Winter Educators Conference for "How Should Firms Onboard New Salespeople? The Relative Efficacy of Centralized vs. On-The-Job Training," co-authored with Michael Ahearne, Zachary Hall, and Seshadri Tirunillai.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was named as a Fulbright Specialist.

Prof. of Practice Phil Morabito was named to Houston Business Journal’s inaugural Most Admired CEO list. Phil is CEO of Pierpont Communications, the state’s largest independent integrated marketing/PR firm.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Vanessa Patrick

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was named an Associate Editor for Journal of Consumer Psychology. Vanessa also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, is an Associate Editor at Journal of Retailing, and is currently serving as Editor for an issue of the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research on Everyday Consumer Aesthetics.

Prof. Michael Ahearne was named an Associate Editor for Journal of Marketing. Mike also is Area Editor for Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Associate Editor for Journal of Service Research, Senior Editor for International Journal of Research in Marketing, editorial board member for Journal of Retailing and Academy of Marketing Science Review, and a member of the Senior Advisory Board for Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was named to the International Journal of Research in Marketing editorial board. Seshadri also serves on the editorial boards of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of Interactive Marketing.

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai received the 2018 Best Reviewer Award from Journal of Interactive Marketing.

2018

Doctoral alum Babu John-Mariadoss was named Associate Editor at European Journal of Marketing. Babu also serves on the editorial boards of Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, and Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Doctoral alum Babak Hayati was appointed Head, Research & Publications at Asian Institute of Management.

Doctoral alum Raj Venkatesan was named Area Editor at International Journal of Research in Marketing. Raj also is Associate Editor at Journal of Marketing, Area Editor at Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. and a member of the Journal of Marketing Research editorial board.

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz was a finalist for the 2018 Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science Sheth Foundation Best Paper Award.

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz was named Co-Editor for International Journal of Research in Marketing.

Former doctoral research fellow Adam Rapp won the 2018 AMA Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick received the 2018 Best Reviewer Award from Journal of Consumer Research.

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was named to the Marketing Science editorial board. Seshadri also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Interactive Marketing.

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship was ranked as the #2 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. Princeton Review has ranked WCE as one of the top programs in the nation every year since 2007.

Marketing Department News

WCE Class of 2018 students Christian Kladzyk, Viviane Nguyen, and Juan-Pablo Pimienta were named to Forbes 30 Under 30. Their company PolarPanel won 2nd place at the MIT Clean Energy Prize business plan competition and 3rd place at the US Department of Energy National Cleantech University Prize Competition. Co-founder Brad Cathcart turned 31 over the summer and didn’t qualify for 30 Under 30, but did get a shout-out from Forbes.

Doctoral alum Alina Sorescu was named an Associate Editor for Journal of Marketing. Alina also serves on the editorial boards of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Doctoral alum Zachary Hall was named as a 2019 Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar. This program recognizes the most productive young scholars in the field. Zach joins doctoral alums Hua Chen (2017), Son Lam (2013), Raj Venkatesan (2009), and Werner Reinartz (2005) as MSI Young Scholars.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Michael Ahearne

Prof. Michael Ahearne was named an Associate Editor for Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and Journal of Service Research. Mike also is a Senior Editor for International Journal of Research in Marketing, editorial board member for Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, and Academy of Marketing Science Review, and a member of the Senior Advisory Board for Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Undergraduate WCE students Brad Cathcart, Christian Kladzyk, Viviane Nguyen, and Juan-Pablo Pimienta (Team PolarPanel) won 3rd place at the 2018 US Department of Energy National Cleantech University Prize Competition. They had previously qualified for the national finals by winning 2nd place at the MIT Clean Energy Prize business plan competition.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was named to the Journal of Marketing Research editorial board. Seshadri also serves on the Journal of Interactive Marketing editorial board.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was named to the Journal of Marketing Research editorial board. Vanessa also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Consumer Psychology, is an Associate Editor at Journal of Retailing, and will serve as Editor for an upcoming issue of the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research on Everyday Consumer Aesthetics.

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was named to the Journal of Interactive Marketing editorial board.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Kitty Wang

Prof. Kitty Wang was a finalist for the 2018 Paul Green award, which honors the Journal of Marketing Research article published in the previous year that demonstrates the most potential to contribute significantly to the practice of marketing research.

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship won the 2018 Deshpande Symposium Award for Excellence in Student Engagement in Entrepreneurship.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick and her co-author, Ludovica Cesareo, won a research grant from the Carolan Research Forum.

Marketing Department News
Brad Cathcart, Viviane Nguyen, and Juan-Pablo Pimienta

Undergraduate WCE students Brad Cathcart, Christian Kladzyk, Viviane Nguyen, and Juan-Pablo Pimienta (Team PolarPanel) won 2nd place at the MIT Clean Energy Prize business plan competition.

Doctoral alum Suresh Sundaram received the 2018 Department of Business Administration Outstanding Faculty Award in the Lerner College of Business & Economics at University of Delaware.

Prof. Joel LeBon was named Chair-Elect for the American Marketing Association Sales Special Interest Group (AMA Sales SIG).

Program for Excellence in Selling students Andrea Acosta-Rivera and Brianna Ferguson placed 9th at the 2018 National Collegiate Sales Competition. This is the tenth year in a row that our team has finished in the Top 10 at NCSC.

Prof. Steve Brown and doctoral alum Babu John Mariadoss, along with co-authors Shankar Ganesan and Dixon Ho, won the 2018 Louis W. Stern Award given by the American Marketing Association for the outstanding article that has made a significant contribution to the literature on marketing and channels of distribution.

Prof. Joel LeBon received the 2017-18 UH Clinical/Instructional Teaching Excellence Award.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Rex Du

Prof. Rex Du was named a Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Scholar. This program recognizes top scholars whose research is practically relevant for the fields of marketing and marketing research.

Doctoral student Rita To was named a 2018 Emerging Fellow and given a research grant by the Academic Advisory Council for Signage Research and Education (AACSRE) .

Doctoral student Shashank Vaid was named an ISBM Doctoral Fellow and given a research grant by the Institute for the Study of Business Markets.

Doctoral student Shashank Vaid won the 2018 AMA Sales SIG Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Competition.

Prof. Edward Blair was elected President of the Journal of Consumer Research Policy Board.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Vanessa Patrick

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was named to the Journal of Marketing editorial board. Vanessa also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Consumer Psychology, is an Associate Editor at Journal of Retailing, and will serve as Editor for an upcoming issue of the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research (JACR) on Everyday Consumer Aesthetics.

2017

Doctoral alum Ryan Mullins received the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management James M. Comer Award for Best Contribution to Selling and Sales Management Theory.

Doctoral alum Scot Burton was named Co-Editor in Chief for Journal of Public Policy and Marketing.

Doctoral alum Anish Nagpal was named Assistant Dean (Graduate Research) for the University of Melbourne Faculty of Business and Economics.

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander received the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science Outstanding Reviewer Award.

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz was a finalist for the 2017 Shelby Hunt/Harold Maynard Award for Journal of Marketing best article.

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander won the 2017 AMA Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award.

Doctoral alum Alina Sorescu was named Paula and Steve Letbetter Chair in Business in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. Alina previously was Rebecca U. and William S. Nichols III Professor of Marketing at Texas A&M.

Doctoral alum Ryan Mullins was named to the Journal of Service Research editorial board. Ryan also serves on the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management editorial board.

Doctoral alum Son Lam was named Area Editor for Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Marketing Department News
Melvyn and Cyvia Wolff with WCE alum Billy Ayoola and family

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship was ranked as the #2 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. Princeton Review has ranked WCE as one of the top programs in the nation every year since 2007.

Doctoral alum Hua Chen was named as a 2017 Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar. This program recognizes the most productive young scholars in the field. Hua joins doctoral alums Son Lam (2013), Raj Venkatesan (2009), and Werner Reinartz (2005) as MSI Young Scholars.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Joel LeBon

Prof. Joel LeBon won the 2017 Society for Marketing Advances Axcess Capon Distinguished Teacher Award for lifetime contributions to marketing and sales education. Joel previously received the 2017 Academy of Marketing Science Outstanding Marketing Teacher Award, the 2016 American Marketing Association Sales Special Interest Group (AMA Sales SIG) Excellence in Teaching Award, and the 2007 American Marketing Association Solomon-Marshall-Stuart Award for Innovative Excellence in Marketing Education.

Undergraduate WCE students Anthony Carvajal, Jonathan Daniels, Aisha Dosani, Owen Loock, and Mandu Mbride (Team FreeBar) and Brad Cathcart, Juan-Pablo Pimienta, Luke Walther, Christian Kladzyk, and Viviane Nguyen (Team PolarPanel) won 3rd and 4th place, respectively, at the Texas Business Plan Competition at the University of Texas.

Undergraduate WCE students Jacquelyn De La Garza, Caroline Duym, Giovanna Jimenez, and Dane Ralph (Team Zapp) and Anthony Carvajal, Jonathan Daniels, Aisha Dosani, Owen Loock, and Mandu Mbride (Team FreeBar) won 1st and 2nd place, respectively, at the IDEAS Pitch Competition in Houston.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Edward Blair

Prof. Edward Blair was named Visiting Scholar at the National Center for Education Statistics and Senior Fellow at National Institute of Statistical Sciences.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was being named Issue Editor for a Journal of the Association for Consumer Research issue on Everyday Consumer Aesthetics.

Doctoral student Shashank Vaid was named as a finalist in the 2017 ISBM Doctoral Dissertation Award Competition.

Doctoral alum Doug Hughes was named Department Chair for Marketing in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Doug is the United Shore Faculty Fellow in Sales Leadership at MSU and previously served as Interim Department Chair.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Rex Du

Prof. Rex Du was named as a finalist for the 2017 O’Dell Award, which honors a Journal of Marketing Research article that has made the most significant, long-term contribution to marketing theory, methodology, and/or practice. Rex was named for his 2012 paper with Wagner Kamakura, “Quantitative Trendspotting.” That paper previously won the 2011 Best Paper award at the AMA Advanced Research Techniques Forum, the top forum for commercial market researchers, and the procedures described in the paper have been adopted by many major companies.

Doctoral alum Raj Echambadi was named Dunton Family Dean of the Northeastern University D’Amore-McKim School of Business. Previously, Raj was Alan J. and Joyce D. Baltz Professor and Senior Associate Dean for MBA Programs & Strategic Innovation at the University of Illinois College of Business.

Program for Excellence in Selling students Yissel Lerma and Justin Anderson placed 9th at the 2017 National Collegiate Sales Competition. Our PES teams have finished in the Top 10 at NCSC in 11 of the past 13 years.

Marketing Department News
Bryan Martinez, Kiran Meghani, Emmit Schultz, Arsheen Memon and Rishabh Jain (from left)

Undergraduate WCE students Arsheen Memon, Kiran Meghani, Rishabh Jain, Bryan Martinez, and Emmit Schultz – team Vecense – won 1st place in the FLoW Business Plan Competition at Cal Tech. This is the second time in four years that WCE teams have won the FLoW competition.

WCE undergraduates Arsheen Memon and Kiran Meghani won third place in the Draper (Business Plan) Competition for Collegiate Women Entrepreneurs.

Doctoral student Shashank Vaid was named a winner of the 2017 AMS Review/Sheth Foundation Doctoral Competition for Conceptual Articles. Sash will receive a cash award and present his work at the 2017 Theory Forum held in conjunction with the Academy of Marketing Science Doctoral Consortium.

Marketing Department News
Raghuram Bommaraju

Doctoral student Raghuram Bommaraju won Best Paper in the Managing Human Capital category at the AMA Winter Educators Conference for "Self-Selected Incentives: Evidence from Two Field Experiments on How to Customize Sales Force Incentivizing," co-authored with Sebastian Hohenberg.

Prof. Joel LeBon won the 2017 Academy of Marketing Science Outstanding Marketing Teacher Award for long-term contributions to marketing education and teaching innovation. Joel''''s previously awards include the American Marketing Association Sales Special Interest Group (AMA Sales SIG) Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016 and the American Marketing Association Award for Innovative Excellence in Marketing Education in 2007.

Senior marketing major Camille Corales won the Penny Todd Scholarship from the American Marketing Association Houston chapter.

The AMA Doctoral Student Special Interest Group (AMA DOCSIG) released a tabulation of publications in top marketing journals over the past five years which showed our Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship tied for 38th in the world for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS, and 21st in the world for publications in JM and JMR. At an individual level, Prof. Michael Ahearne was 28th in the world for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS and 7th in the world for publications in JM and JMR.

Prof. Edward Blair was re-elected Vice-President of the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) Policy Board.

2016

Doctoral alum Babak Hayati was appointed Department Chair for Marketing at Asian Institute of Management.

Doctoral alum Anish Nagpal was named to the Journal of Business Research editorial board.

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander was named to the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science editorial board.

Doctoral alum Doug Hughes was named as Editor-in-Chief for Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.

Prof. Michael Ahearne and doctoral alums Willy Bolander, Zachary Hall, and Doug Hughes won the 2016 AMA Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award.

Prof. Rex Du's paper with Linli Xu and Ken Wilbur, "How do TV Ads Drive Brand Searches?" was selected as a “10 Best” paper and given a main stage presentation at the 2016 Advertising Research Foundation Re!Think Conference.

Doctoral alum Raj Venkatesan was named Ronald Trzcinski Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia Darden Graduate School of Business. Raj previously was Bank of America Research Professor at Darden.

Marketing Department News
Alina Sorescu

Doctoral alum Alina Sorescu was named to the Journal of Marketing Research editorial board. Alina also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Marketing and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Doctoral alum Alina Sorescu was named to the Marketing Science editorial board. Alina also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Doctoral alum Willy Bolander was named Carl DeSantis Associate Professor of Marketing in the College of Business at Florida State University.

Undergraduate WCE students Rishabh Jain, Bryan Martinez, Kiran Meghani, Arsheen Memon, and Emmit Schultz – team Vecense – won 1st place at the IDEAS Pitch Competition in Houston.

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship was ranked as the #6 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. Princeton Review has ranked WCE as one of the top programs in the nation every year since 2007.

Doctoral alum Doug Hughes was named United Shore Endowed Faculty Fellow in Sales Leadership in the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University.

Doctoral alum Raj Echambadi was named Alan J. and Joyce D. Baltz Professor at the University of Illinois College of Business. Raj is Senior Associate Dean for MBA Programs & Strategic Innovation at Illinois, and previously held the position of James F. Towey Faculty Fellow.

Doctoral alum Judy Harris was named Associate Dean for the College of Business and Economics at Towson University.

Undergraduate WCE students Kevin Cho, Ody De La Paz, Nick Ravanbakhsh and Dylan Senter – team Sensytech – won 2nd place in the elevator pitch competition at the California Dreamin' business plan competition.

Undergraduate WCE students Kevin Cho, Ody De La Paz, Nick Ravanbakhsh and Dylan Senter – team Sensytech – won 2nd place at the Tulane Business Model Competition.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Joel LeBon

Prof. Joel LeBon was named Co-Chair of the 2017 Global Sales Science Institute Conference.

Doctoral alum Nancy Albers-Miller was named Dean of the College of Business, Education, and Human Development at Louisiana State University Shreveport. Nancy previously was Dean of the School of Business at Pacific Lutheran University.

Prof. Joel LeBon won the American Marketing Association Sales Special Interest Group (AMA Sales SIG) Excellence in Teaching Award for 2016. Joel also received a Melcher Teaching Excellence Award from the Bauer College last year and was part of the PES group that received a UH Group Teaching Excellence Award this year.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Betsy Gelb

Prof. Betsy Gelb and doctoral alum Manoshi Samaraweera won the 2015 Marvin Jolson Award given by Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management for Best Contribution to Selling and Sales Management Practice. The award was given for their paper “Formal Salesforce Controls and Revenue Production: A Meta-Analysis.”

Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship alums Casey McNeil and Susan Tran Bohuslav and their company REEcycle won the 2016 Texas A&M New Ventures Competition.

Prof. Bette Stead (emerita) received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Volunteer Houston in recognition of her work with The Women's Home. Bette's work with TWH was previously recognized in 2010 when she was one of ten Houstonians named to receive the Mayor's Volunteer Houston Award and in 2015 when TWH honored her at a gala event.

Prof. Joel LeBon was named Vice-Chair for Conference Programming by the American Marketing Association Sales Special Interest Group.

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship received the 2015-16 UH Group Teaching Excellence Award.

Marketing Department News
PES faculty Carl Herman, Joel LeBon, Randy Webb, and Amy Vandaveer

Our Program for Excellence in Selling received the 2015-16 UH Group Teaching Excellence Award.

Prof. Amy Vandaveer received the 2015-16 UH Clinical/Instructional Teaching Excellence Award.

Program for Excellence in Selling students Lauren Cuevo and Naomi Cosman placed 8th at the 2016 National Collegiate Sales Competition. Our PES teams have finished in the Top 10 at NCSC in 10 of the past 12 years.

Undergraduate WCE students Kevin Cho, Ody De La Paz, Nick Ravanbakhsh and Dylan Senter – team Sensytech – won the 2016 Carnegie Mellon Venture Challenge business plan competition.

The Greater Houston Business Ethics Roundtable honored Prof. Bette Stead (emerita) by creating the Bette Stead Leadership Award for ethics and compliance leadership. GHBER previously honored Bette by naming their scholarship program for her.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was named Visiting Research Fellow by Singapore Management University.

Marketing Department News
WCE students Nick Ravanbakhsh, Kevin Cho, Dylan Senter and Ody De La Paz

Undergraduate WCE students Kevin Cho, Ody De La Paz, Nick Ravanbakhsh and Dylan Senter – team Sensytech – won the 2016 LeanModel Start-up Competition at San Diego State.

Our Program for Excellence in Selling received a major gift from Andy and Barbara Gessner that will allow PES to reward our top performing students and support teams of students who participate in national competitions.

Prof. Edward Blair was named Vice-President of the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) Policy Board.

Prof. Edward Blair was reappointed to the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) Policy Board, where he represents the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).

Doctoral student Mahdi Ebrahimi was named co-winner of the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Alden G. Clayton Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Competition for his proposal titled “To Merge or to Balance? How Integration versus Segregation of Multiple Identities Influences Time Perception.”

Doctoral student Yashar Atefi won the American Marketing Association Sales SIG Dissertation Proposal Competition for his proposal titled “Does Selective Sales Force Training Work? A Field Experiment.”

2015

Doctoral alum Raj Venkatesan was named to the Journal of Marketing Research editorial board.

Doctoral alum Mary Gilly was named Senior Associate Dean at the UC-Irvine Paul Merage School of Business.

Doctoral alum Anish Nagpal was named to the Journal of Retailing editorial board.

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz was named to the Journal of Retailing editorial board.

Prof. Michael Ahearne and doctoral alums Jeffrey Boichuk, Zachary Hall, Son Lam, and Ryan Mullins won the 2016 AMA Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award.

Doctoral alum Alina Sorescu was a finalist for the 2015 Paul Green award, which honors the Journal of Marketing Research article published in the previous year that demonstrates the most potential to contribute significantly to the practice of marketing research.

Doctoral alum Alina Sorescu was named to the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science editorial board. Alina also serves on the Journal of Marketing editorial board.

Marketing Department News
Son Lam

Doctoral alum Son Lam was named to the editorial board for Journal of Marketing. Son also serves on editorial boards for Journal of Retailing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Business to Business Marketing, and Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.

Doctoral alum Son Lam was named to the editorial board for Journal of Retailing.

Doctoral alum Son Lam was named to the editorial board for International Journal of Research in Marketing.

Former doctoral research fellow Adam Rapp was named Ralph and Luci Schey Professor of Sales and Executive Director of the Schey Sales Centre at Ohio University.

Prof. Michael Ahearne co-chaired the American Marketing Association Summer Educators'' Conference.

Doctoral alum Raj Echambadi was named Senior Associate Dean for MBA Programs & Strategic Innovation at the University of Illinois College of Business. Raj previously served as Associate Dean of Outreach and Engagement.

Marketing Department News
Matt Avery, Neil Gustafson and R. Jason Griffin

MBA students R. Jason Griffin, Aigul Aubakirova, Neil Gustafson, and Matt Avery, coached by Prof. Steve Koch, won 3rd place in the social impact category of the Google Online Marketing Challenge for their work with River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. Undergraduates Herbert Murcia, Brittany Young, Dylan Senter, and Jordan Kunze finished as a Top 10 Finalist in the social impact category for their work with the Pujols Family Foundation, created by professional baseball player Albert Pujols to help children with Down Syndrome and impoverished residents of his native Dominican Republic. This is the 4th year in a row that Bauer teams have won podium places in this international competition, and we have never failed to make at least the semi-finals.

Our Sales Excellence Institute received a major naming gift to become the Stephen Stagner Sales Excellence Institute.

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship was ranked as the #3 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. Princeton Review has ranked WCE as one of the top three programs in the nation every year since 2007.

Professor Bette Stead (emerita) was honored at a gala held by The Women's Home. Bette has chaired three major task forces to raise funds for TWH and its affordable housing projects. The gala recognition notes that TWH "has more than doubled in size and revenues since she began her volunteer work" and "Bette plays perhaps one of the most influential and pivotal roles for this accomplishment."

Marketing Department News
Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai won the 2015 Lehmann Award for best dissertation based article in Journal of Marketing Research. Sesh previously won the 2012 John Howard Award for best doctoral dissertation in the field of marketing, and another paper from his dissertation that was published in Marketing Science was a finalist for the 2014 Frank Bass Award for best marketing paper derived from a doctoral thesis and published in an INFORMS journal in the past two years.

Doctoral alum Jeff Boichuk won the 2015 AMA Sales SIG Doctoral Dissertation Award for his dissertation titled, "Developing and Retaining New Hires During the Sales Force Socialization Process."

Prof. Michael Ahearne and doctoral alums Ryan Mullins, Son Lam, Zach Hall, and Jeff Boichuk won the 2015 AMA Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award which recognizes a journal article published during the previous year that has made a significant contribution to the sales discipline.

Marketing Department News
Sonja Prokopec

Doctoral alum Sonja Prokopec was named by the Poets & Quants website as one of its "Best 40 Under 40" business school professors. Sonja is the LVMH Chaired Professor of Luxury Marketing at ESSEC Business School in Paris, France.

Doctoral alum Rob Straughan was named Crawford Family Dean of the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics at Washington & Lee University.

Doctoral alum Son Lam was named to the editorial board for Journal of Business to Business Marketing. Son also serves on the editorial board for Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.

Doctoral alum Doug Walker received the 2015 College of Business Junior Faculty Teaching Award at Iowa State University.

Prof. Vanessa Patrick was named Associate Editor at Journal of Retailing. Vanessa also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Marketing Department News
Prof. Michael Ahearne

Prof. Michael Ahearne was named a Senior Editor for International Journal of Research in Marketing. Mike also is an Area Editor for Journal of Marketing, editorial board member for Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and Journal of Retailing, and a member of the Senior Advisory Board for Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Prof. Rex Du was named Chair for the 2016 AMA Advanced Research Techniques Forum (ARTF). ARTF is AMA's premier event for market research practitioners who use advanced methods in their jobs.

Doctoral student Yashar Atefi received the UH Teaching Excellence Award for 2015. Yashar is one of only two graduate students campus wide to receive this award.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board gave a Recognition of Excellence to the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship for best practices in entrepreneurial education.

Doctoral alum Raj Venkatesan was named Area Editor at Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Raj is also Area Editor at Journal of Marketing.

Undergraduate WCE students Jared Beale, Nick Brannon, Chris Holly, and Torri Olanski – Team Zeolytic – won 2nd place and $15,000 at the Baylor New Venture Competition.

The AMA Doctoral Student Special Interest Group (AMA DOCSIG) released a tabulation of publications in top marketing journals over the past five years which showed our Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship tied for 32nd in the world (25th in US) for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS, and 14th in the world (12th in US) for publications in JM and JMR. At an individual level, Prof. Michael Ahearne was 11th in the world for publications in JM, JMR, JCR and MKS and 1st in the world for publications in JM and JMR.

2014

Doctoral alum Khaled Aboulnasr was named Department Chair for Marketing in the Lutgert College of Business at Florida Gulf Coast University.

The Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship received major gifts from the Wolff and Lindler families to endow scholarships for WCE students.

Our Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship was ranked as the #2 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. Princeton Review has ranked WCE as one of the top three programs in the nation every year since 2007.

Doctoral student Jeff Boichuk won second place in the 2014 GRaSP competition for scholarly publications by UH graduate students. This is a campus-wide award.

Marketing Department News
Varuniya Pushparajan, Randall Miller, Charles Shelton and Saket Maheshwari

Bauer teams won 2nd and 3rd place in the social impact category of the Google Online Marketing Challenge. The second place team was MBA students Sarah Burge, Neha Kejriwal, Benjamin Smith and Shu Su, and the third place team was MBA students Saket Maheshwari, Randall Miller, Varuniya Pushparajan and Charles Shelton. Both teams were coached by Prof. Steve Koch. GOMC is a global competition in which teams of students conduct Adwords marketing campaigns for real clients. More than 30,000 students around the world compete each year. As part of the prize, Google will donate $10,000 to Houston Grand Opera and $5,000 to Space Center Houston, the teams’ clients.

Prof. Steve Brown was named Co-Editor for the Journal of Retailing. Steve previously has served as Associate Editor for Journal of Marketing and on the editorial boards of JM, JR, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), Journal of Service Research (JSR), and Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management (JPSSM).

Prof. Rex Du, Prof. Ye Hu, and doctoral student Sina Damangir won the Best Paper Award at the 2014 AMA Advanced Research Techniques Forum (ARTF). Rex previously won this award in 2011.

Doctoral student Jeff Boichuk won the 2014 Matthew Joseph Emerging Scholar Award. This award, given by AMA's Doctoral Student Special Interest Group (DOCSig), honors a doctoral student scholar who displays exemplary scholarship and a bright future in the marketing discipline as selected by a panel of faculty judges.

Marketing Department News
(from left) Cassandra Hoang, DOE official, Casey McNeil, Susan Tran

WCE undergraduate students Cassandra Hoang, Bobby Jacobs, Casey McNeil, and Susan Tran (Team REEcycle) swept the U.S. Department of Energy National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition in Washington, DC. REEcyle won all three awards given: the Audience Investor Choice Award based on votes from attendees, the People's Choice Award based on online voting, and the Grand Prize Winner selected by the competition judges. Also present as semi-finalists were WCE students Valeria Bernadac, Eric Beydoun, Julia Lonnegren, Sergey Petrov, and Ivette Rubio (Team Wavve), the first time one school has had two semi-finalists at this competition.

Doctoral student Raghu Bommaraju won a Sales Education Foundation Research Grant for his proposal "Self-selection of Incentive Plans by the Sales Force."

Doctoral student Weixing Ma Ford was named as a finalist in the uSamp Outstanding Teacher-Scholar Doctoral Student Competition conducted by the Marketing Management Association. Weixing previously was a finalist for the UH Teaching Excellence Award.

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was named as a finalist for the 2014 Frank Bass Award given by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) for the best marketing paper derived from a doctoral thesis and published in an INFORMS journal during the past two years. Sesh's dissertation previously won the 2012 AMA John Howard award for best dissertation in the field of marketing.

Prof. Joel LeBon won the Best Paper Award at the 2014 Global Sales Science Institute Conference.

Prof. Ye Hu was cited for Excellence in Reviewing by the Journal of Interactive Marketing.

Doctoral alum Zachary Hall won the 2014 AMA Sales SIG Dissertation Award for best doctoral dissertation in the area of selling and sales management.

Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai was named as one of the winners in the Marketing Science Institute research competition on "Social Interactions and Social Media Marketing". As a winner of the competition, Sesh and his co-authors will receive an MSI grant to support their research into the effects of governance structures on the vibrancy of social media networks.

Prof. Sam Hui and co-authors Jeff Inman, Yanliu Huang, and Jacob Suher won the 2013 MSI/H. Paul Root Award for their article "The Effect of In-Store Travel Distance on Unplanned Spending: Applications to Mobile Promotion Strategies." The Paul Root award is co-sponsored by the American Marketing Association and Marketing Science Institute, and is given each year to a Journal of Marketing article chosen for its significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of marketing as voted by members of the JM Editorial Board.

Marketing Department News
(from left) Ivette Rubio, Sergey Petrov, Eric Beydoun, Valeria Bernadac and Julia Lonnegren

WCE students Valeria Bernadac, Eric Beydoun, Julia Lonnegren, Sergey Petrov, and Ivette Rubio (Team Wavve) took third place in the California Dreamin' business plan competition. First and second went to teams from the University of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon. In addition to $30,000 in monetary prizes, Wavve won guaranteed screenings with three of the competition's venture capital firm partners, which include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, March Capital, Menlo Ventures, Miramar Ventures, Pritzker Group, Ricon Venture Partners, and True Ventures.

Doctoral alum Scot Burton was named Tyson Chair in Food and Consumer Products Retailing at the University of Arkansas. Scot previously was Wal-Mart Chair in Marketing at Arkansas, and before that Ourso Professor of Marketing at LSU.

Doctoral alum Doug Hughes was named as Associate Editor (and Editor-Elect) for Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.

WCE undergraduate students Cassandra Hoang, Bobby Jacobs, Casey McNeil, and Susan Tran (Team REEcycle) won first place and a prize of $100,000 in the FLOW business plan competition at Cal Tech.

WCE students Valeria Bernadac, Eric Beydoun, Julia Lonnegren, Sergey Petrov, and Ivette Rubio (Team Wavve) made the semi-finals and won the $15,000 Clean Technology Innovation Prize at the Rice University business plan competition.

WCE undergraduate students Jonathan Brown, Jonathan Cohen-Kurzrock, Rowbin Hickman, Brenda Rojo, and Noy Shemer (Team Energetik) took 3rd place and the Energy Independence Award at the TCU Values & Ventures business plan competition.

Marketing Department News
(from left) Team alternates TJ Brown and Andrew Diano join Saskya Gagneux and Andrew Bearden holding trophies that recognize our history of success at NCSC.

Program for Excellence in Selling students Andrew Bearden and Saskya Gagneux placed 7th at the 2014 National Collegiate Sales Competition. Our PES teams have finished in the Top 10 at NCSC in 9 of the past 10 years with first place finishes in 2004, 2011, and 2012, an unrivalled record of success.

Prof. Hesam Panahi, founder of the RED Labs accelerator for student technology businesses, received the UH Teaching Excellence Award for 2014.

WCE undergraduate students Valeria Bernadac, Eric Beydoun, Julia Lonnegren, Sergey Petrov, and Ivette Rubio (Team Wavve) won first place in the Global Student Business Plan Competition at Nassau, Bahamas.

WCE undergraduate students Jonathan Brown, Jonathan Cohen-Kurzrock, Rowbin Hickman, Brenda Rojo, and Noy Shemer (Team Energetik) won first place in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln UNL New Venture Competition.

Marketing Department News
(from left) Corbin, Alicia, Karey, Rashmi, Jake, Tim, Paula, Ariana, Chris, and Aliki flash their Cougar paws.

WCE undergraduate teams took 1st and 3rd in the Giants Entrepreneurship Challenge at the University of North Dakota. First place went to Rashmi Bhat, Corbin Bradford, Karey Gallagher, Jacob Hines, and Alicia Ramirez (Team CARA). Third place went to Tim Arnaez, Paula Musa, Aliki Thanos, Ariana Thrasher, and Chris Wick (Team Oxiginne).

WCE undergraduate students Cassandra Hoang, Bobby Jacobs, Casey McNeil, and Susan Tran (Team REEcycle) won first place and $25,000 in the Baylor New Venture competition.

Prof. Michael Ahearne was named Area Editor at Journal of Marketing.

Doctoral alum Raj Venkatesan was named Area Editor at Journal of Marketing.

Doctoral alum Werner Reinartz was named Area Editor at Journal of Marketing.

Doctoral alum Abhijit (Abe) Biswas was named to the editorial board for Journal of Marketing. Abe also serves on editorial boards for Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Consumer Marketing.

Doctoral alum Abhijit (Abe) Biswas was named to the editorial board for Journal of Consumer Marketing.

Doctoral alum Kiran Kirande was named Associate Dean in the College of Business and Public Administration at Old Dominion University.

Doctoral alum Mary Gilly serves as 2014-15 Chair of the Academic Senate for the University of California system and Faculty Representative to the Board of Regents. Mary served as 2012-2013 Chair of the UC-Irvine branch of the UC Academic Senate.