It’s been a big year for research in the Department of Marketing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Haslam College of Business. In 2022, six of the department’s faculty — Neeraj Bharadwaj, Jonathan Hasford, Kelly Hewett, Charles Noble, Stephanie Noble and Alex Zablah — received grants from the Haslam Summer Scholars Research Awards program to pursue high-quality research. Now, a prestigious ranking has drawn more attention to the department’s research efforts.

The University of Texas at Dallas’ Top 100 Business School Research Rankings™, released in April 2023, saw a jump in the Department of Marketing’s ranking, emphasizing the quality research the department’s faculty produce. The department climbed 18 spots to No. 37 among U.S. public institutions for publications in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science and Journal of Marketing Research. “UT Dallas is the ‘gold standard’ ranking for our discipline,” says Zablah, Gerber/Taylor Professor of Marketing and head of the department.

Zablah says his team’s recent accolades stem from a combination of quality scholarship and strong support from college leadership, including Stephen L. Mangum, dean and Stokely Foundation Leadership Chair at Haslam. “As a department, our faculty have gotten better at stringing together premier publications on a consistent basis,” Zablah says. “This is part of a long-term transformation in the college under Dean Mangum’s leadership that reflects both increased support for research and increased expectations to accompany that support.” 

Cultivating a Culture of Research Excellence

The Department of Marketing’s growing reputation for quality scholarship has been a team effort with contributions from both established and new Haslam faculty. “Moving forward, I expect the combined efforts of recent departmental additions — including Annika Abell, Daniel Chavez, Youngtak Kim, Marisabel Romero and Ruta Ruzeviciute — and faculty who have been here longer will help us continue to rise in the standings,” Zablah says.

Chad Autry, Haslam’s associate dean for research and faculty, agrees. “The culture of our marketing department is evolving because of both the new hires and the leadership of the longer standing faculty,” he says. “We certainly are proud of them, and as we have seen in recent recruiting cycles, the department is becoming a highly desirable destination for job candidates.”

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CONTACT:

Stacy Estep, writer/publicist, sestep3@utk.edu