June 19, 2009 - (ATLANTA) - From June 11-14, an elite group of 104 marketing doctoral students and 110 of the world's most distinguished marketing faculty gathered at Georgia State University's Robinson College of Business for the premier international gathering of marketing scholars—the 44th Annual American Marketing Association Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium.
The four-day event, which was co-chaired by Ken Bernhardt, Naveen Donthu and V. Kumar of Robinson's Department of Marketing, offered presentations, workshops and networking events that encouraged interaction and dialogue between renowned faculty and student fellows.
Academicians from around the world led and participated in plenary and breakout sessions on marketing topics ranging from sales to services, retail to customer relationship marketing, business-to-business to customer behavior, and brand strategy to marketing models.
V. Kumar (known as VK), director of Robinson's Center for Excellence in Brand and Customer Management and a fellow at the 1984 consortium, was honored as one of four scholars who have made the greatest impact in the field of marketing in the subsequent 25 years. Known for his pioneering work on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), VK attributed his success to the faculty who mentored him and the doctoral students with whom he has worked over the years.
The 44th Annual American Marketing Association Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium was sponsored by Robinson's Center for Excellence in Brand and Customer Management, the American Marketing Association, the American Marketing Association Foundation, the Madhuri and Jagdish N. Sheth Foundation, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Marketing Science Institute, The Coca-Cola Company, the Atlanta Braves and Google.
The largest business school in the South and part of a major research institution, the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University is located in Atlanta, an epicenter of business and a gateway to the world. With programs on four continents and students from 150 countries, the college is both worldwide and world class. Its part-time MBA program is ranked number seven in the nation and has been in the top 10 for 14 consecutive years. The college has 200 faculty, 7,400 students and 65,000 alumni. Noted for an emphasis on educating leaders, the Robinson College of Business and Georgia State University have produced more of Georgia's top executives with graduate degrees than any other school in the nation.
