The American Marketing Association Foundation awarded the 2014 William L. Wilkie “Marketing for a Better World” Award to Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing. A major academic recognition for thought leadership in marketing, the Wilkie Award recognized Sheth as a “Renaissance thinker” with a broad, foundational approach to marketing and its potential to improve not only the operations of firms and governments but also the daily lives of people.
Sheth notes that this particular honor is “unique in the sense that it focuses on marketing’s contribution to society and not just to any one company.” Sheth’s many contributions exemplifying this broader scope include a conference he and a colleague organized in 2004 for top scholars that “advocated that marketing should be purpose-driven above and beyond customer satisfaction and profit making.” Prior and subsequent research explored “mindful consumption,” which revealed that much advertising was either wasteful or did not benefit those consumers it targeted. Finally, Sheth’s groundbreaking 2007 book Firms of Endearment, coauthored with Rajendra Sisodia and David Wolfe, revolutionized thinking in the field of marketing by arguing that doing good is the central—if not the only—path to long-term competitive advantage.
Dr. Sheth Wilkie Award Recipient 2014
