V. Kumar

Class of 2016-17

Georgia State University
Don Lehmann Awards (4), American Marketing Association
Paul H. Root Awards (3), Marketing Science Institute

An acknowledged expert on marketing research methods, V. Kumar is considered a leading scholar in customer relations management, a field critical to every for-profit or nonprofit organization.

Kumar’s areas of interest include measuring customer lifetime value, modeling diffusion of wireless services, analyzing scanner data, developing new models and methods to forecast sales and market share, and identifying market segments. He conducts research in e-commerce, direct marketing, sales management, customer satisfaction, the Internet of things, engagement, and international marketing.

Kumar has provided thought leadership consulting on marketing research projects for companies including IBM, Comcast, HSBC, P&G, ING, Prudential, Wells Fargo, ICICI, Pitney Bowes, Chick-fil-A, BP/AMOCO, AOL, MGM Mirage, Polo Ralph Lauren, Allstate, Home Depot, Equifax, PeopleSoft, Sigma Genosys, Houston Cellular, AT&T, Southwestern Bell, Exxon, American Airlines, Coca-Cola Foods, DuPont, First Interstate Bank, and Houston Lighting and Power. In addition, he has directed marketing research projects for clients including Coca-Cola Foods, Compaq Computers, Baker–Hughes, Houston Northwest Medical Center, Arch Chemicals, IKON, and Bristol Myers Squibb.

He is known for developing sophisticated statistical models and creative marketing strategies. After implementing Kumar’s models, P&G Asia-Pacific reported a profit increase of $40 million, whereas IBM reported a gain of $20 million. The Prudential reported a gain of more than $450 million after implementing the Emotion Retirement Quotient Tool, which Kumar co-developed.

Kumar received a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in industrial management, both from the Indian Institute of Technology, and a doctoral degree in marketing from The University of Texas at Austin.

In 1985, Kumar joined the faculty of the University of Iowa as an assistant professor and joined the University of Houston in 1987, where he became an associate professor in 1992. He moved to the University of Connecticut in 2001 as the ING Chair Professor and executive director of the ING Center for Financial Services.

In 2008, he joined the faculty at Georgia State University, where he is a Regents Professor and the Richard and Susan Lenny Distinguished Chair Professor of Marketing. He also serves as the executive director for the Center for Excellence in Brand and Customer Management.

He is a member of the International Institute of Forecasters and the Academy of Marketing Science and a fellow and member of the American Marketing Association.

Kumar has received the Routledge–Taylor & Francis/Society for Marketing Advances Distinguished Scholar Award, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology’s Chang Jian Scholar, four Donald R. Lehmann Awards for Best Paper published in the Journal of Marketing/Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of International Marketing’s S. Tamer Cavusgil Award, and the Academy of Marketing Science’s Cuto/Vector Distinguished Marketing Educator Award.

He has published more than 250 articles in leading academic journals and has been recognized with fourteen lifetime achievement awards. In 2012, SAGE Publications Inc. collected his scholarly contributions, with commentaries from scholars worldwide, in ten volumes as part of its Legends in Marketing series. Kumar became the editor in chief of the Journal of Marketing in 2014. 

As a Faculty Fellow in the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study, Kumar will collaborate with faculty–researchers in the Mays Business School. 

For more updated information: Dr V Kumar – Professor | Thought Leader