Johannes Habel

Associate Professor - Michael J. Cemo Associate Professorship of Marketing

Marketing & Entrepreneurship 

Johannes Habel

Bio

Johannes Habel is an award-winning scientist, educator, and keynote speaker specializing in Agentic AI and its application to sales organizations. He is affiliated with the University of Houston's Sales Excellence Institute, where his research and teaching focus on helping organizations leverage artificial intelligence and other digital technologies to improve sales performance.

Johannes has been recognized as one of the most prominent researchers on AI in sales and as one of the most productive sales scholars by ScholarGPS. His seminal article, "AI Agents, Agentic AI, and the Future of Sales," was the first to introduce the concept of Agentic AI to the academic sales literature.

A sought-after keynote speaker and executive educator, Johannes helps organizations demystify Agentic AI and accelerate their AI transformation. He has designed executive education programs for dozens of organizations and has taught executives at leading business schools, including the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Yale School of Management, Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management, the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, and ESMT Berlin.

Johannes serves on the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and the Journal of Retailing. He is also an Associate Editor of the Journal of Service Research and was previously a Senior Editor of the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.

Before joining the University of Houston, Johannes was a Professor at Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom and an Associate Professor at ESMT Berlin in Germany. He earned a doctorate in marketing from Ruhr University Bochum and a degree in management from the University of Mannheim. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a management consultant at Booz & Company (now strategy&) and as a radio news anchor.

Areas of Expertise

  • Agentic AI
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Analytics
  • Sales force effectiveness
  • Sales psychology
  • Personal selling
  • Sales management

Selected Publications

  • Gonzalez, Gabriel R., Johannes Habel, and Gary K. Hunter (2026): "AI agents, agentic AI, and the future of sales," Journal of Business Research, 202, 115799.
  • Kanuri, Vamsi, Johannes Habel, Nawar N. Chaker, Deva Rangarajan, and Paolo Guenzi: "B2B online sales pushes: Whether, when, and why they enhance sales performance," Production and Operations Management, forthcoming.
  • Kassemeier, Roland, Sascha Alavi, and Johannes Habel: "Implementing e-commerce channels in business-to-business selling," International Journal of Research in Marketing, forthcoming.
  • Mullins, Ryan, Sascha Alavi, Johannes Habel, and Bianca Richter: "Challenging the Customer," Journal of Retailing, forthcoming.
  • Hartmann, Nathaniel N., Heiko Wieland, Nawar N. Chaker, Johannes Habel, and Frederick J. Tyler (2026): "Sales content platforms and opportunity conversion," Production and Operations Management, 35 (7), 2756-2774.
  • Beeler, Lisa, Ryan Mullins, and Johannes Habel (2026): "Using Latent Profile Analysis to advance Job Demands-Resources Theory: An empirical demonstration in the sales context," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 54, 753-777.
  • Habel, Johannes, Nathaniel N. Hartmann, Phillip Wiseman, Michael J. Ahearne, and Shashank Vaid (2025): "Sales Pipeline Technology: Automated Lead Nurturing," Journal of Marketing, 89 (5), 66-87.
  • Wiseman, Phillip, Sascha Alavi, Johannes Habel, and Pia Ehlig (2025): "Customer-Centric Contract Changes," Journal of Marketing Research, 62 (3) 504-525.
  • Ahearne, Molly, Mohsen Pourmasoudi, and Johannes Habel (2025): "Inside sales structures and firm performance," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 53, 1356-1378.
  • Habel, Johannes, Sascha Alavi, and Nicolas Heinitz (2024): "Effective Implementation of Predictive Sales Analytics," Journal of Marketing Research, 61 (4), 718-741.
  • Habel, Johannes, Selma Kadić-Maglajlić, Nathaniel N. Hartmann, Ad de Jong, Nicolas A. Zacharias, and Fabian Kosse (2024): "Neuroticism and the Sales Profession," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 184, 104353.
  • Hartmann, Nathaniel N., Heiko Wieland, Brandon Gustafson, and Johannes Habel (2024): "Sales and ethics: State of the literature and research agenda," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 52, 653-671.
  • Hartmann, Nathaniel N., Nawar N. Chaker, Bruno Lussier, Denis Larocque, and Johannes Habel (2024): "A theory of sales system shocks," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 52, 261-283.
  • Chaker, Nawar N., Johannes Habel, Nathaniel N. Hartmann, Felix Johannsen, and Heinrich Rusche (2024): "Quiet Sellers: How Introversion Drives Salesperson Performance," Journal of Retailing, 100 (3), 456-474.
  • Habel, Johannes, Sascha Alavi, and Nicolas Heinitz (2023): "A theory of predictive sales analytics adoption," AMS Review, 13, 34-54.
  • Roelen-Blasberg, Tobias, Johannes Habel, and Martin Klarmann (2023): "Automated Inference of Product Attributes and Their Importance from User-Generated Content: Can We Replace Traditional Market Research?" International Journal of Research in Marketing, 40 (1), 164-188.
  • Kassemeier, Roland, Sascha Alavi, Johannes Habel, and Christian Schmitz (2022): "Customer-oriented Salespeople's Value Creation and Claiming in Price Negotiations," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 50, 689-712.
  • Habel, Johannes, Sascha Alavi, and Kim Linsenmayer (2021): "Variable Compensation and Salesperson Health," Journal of Marketing, 85 (3), 130-149.
  • Cron, William, Sascha Alavi, Johannes Habel, Jan Wieseke, and Hanaa Ryari (2021): "No Conversion, No Conversation: Consequences of Retail Salespeople Disengaging from Unpromising Prospects," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49 (3), 502-520.
  • Guenzi, Paolo and Johannes Habel (2020): "Mastering the Digital Transformation of Sales," California Management Review, 62 (4), 57-85.
  • Schmitz, Christian, Max Friess, Sascha Alavi, and Johannes Habel (2020): "Understanding the Impact of Relationship Disruptions," Journal of Marketing, 84 (1), 66-87.
  • Alavi, Sascha, Johannes Habel, Marco Schwenke, and Christian Schmitz (2020): "Price Negotiating for Services: Elucidating the Ambivalent Effects on Customers' Negotiation Aspirations," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48 (2), 165-185.
  • Alavi, Sascha, Johannes Habel, Paolo Guenzi, and Jan Wieseke (2018): "The Role of Leadership in Salespeople's Price Negotiation Behavior," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 46 (4), 703-724.
  • Habel, Johannes, Sascha Alavi, and Doreen Pick (2017): "When Serving Customers Includes Restricting Them: Understanding the Effects of Employees' Enforcement of Service Rules," International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34 (4), 919-941.
  • Habel, Johannes, Laura Marie Schons, Sascha Alavi, and Jan Wieseke (2016): "Warm Glow or Extra Charge? The Ambivalent Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Customers' Perceived Price Fairness," Journal of Marketing, 80 (1), 84-105.
  • Habel, Johannes and Martin Klarmann (2015): "Customer Reactions to Downsizing: When is Satisfaction Affected?" Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43 (6), 768-789.
  • Wieseke, Jan, Sascha Alavi, and Johannes Habel (2014): "Willing to Pay More, Eager to Pay Less: The Role of Customer Loyalty in Price Negotiations," Journal of Marketing, 78 (6), 17-37.

Books

    Plötner, Olaf, Johannes Habel, and Bianca Schmitz (2023): Solid Growth: Strategies of Industrial Champions in Global Markets, World Scientific, Singapore.

Academic Associations & Editorial Boards

  • Journal of Marketing (Editorial Review Board Member)
  • Journal of Marketing Research (Editorial Review Board Member)
  • Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (Editorial Review Board Member)
  • Journal of Retailing (Editorial Review Board Member)

Contact Info

Phone:
 Please use email 
Email:
  jhabel@bauer.uh.edu
Room:
 MH 375G
Website:
  Visit Web Site

Courses

  • Digital Selling
  • Sales Analytics
  • Doctoral courses on academic research methods

Education

University of Mannheim
University of Bochum