Sridhar Balasubramanian
Professor of Marketing and Roy and Alice H. Richards Bicentennial Distinguished Scholar
Contact
McColl 4518, CB 3490 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3490
919-962-3194
Sridhar Balasubramanian’s teaching and research interests are in marketing strategy and technology strategy, innovation and growth strategy, customer-focus, services design and marketing, e-business, customer relationship management, game theory and the management of competition. He specializes in bringing the tools and concepts of market-focus and customer-focus into other functional areas, including the management of the human resource function.
He served as associate dean of both the Full-Time MBA Program and MBA@UNC , and later as senior associate dean for all MBA programs at UNC Kenan-Flagler. He is a member of the UNC Faculty Council, which serves in an advisory role to the UNC Provost and Chancellor.
Dr. Balasubramanian has been recognized for his pioneering research on how the internet and other technology-intensive channels are reshaping business and marketing. His research has won awards from organizations such as INFORMS and the National Science Foundation, including the John D.C. Little Award from INFORMS for the best marketing paper in Marketing Science and Management Science.
He pursues a broad and interdisciplinary research agenda, and has worked with researchers across functional areas including operations, IT, management and strategy. His research has been cited more 12,500 times on the Google Scholar Citation Index.
His research appears in Marketing Science, Management Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Manufacturing & Services Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Retailing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Decision Support Systems and Sloan Management Review.
He served as guest editor of the Journal of Retailing centennial issue, a reviewer for numerous journals and on the editorial board of Marketing Science and the Journal of Interactive Marketing.
Poets & Quants named Dr. Balasubramanian “one of the Top 50 Business Professors in the World.” UNC Kenan-Flagler designated him as a MBA Master Teacher at UNC and he received the Weatherspoon Award for Teaching Excellence in the PhD Program, the UNC Executive Development Above and Beyond Award and the best teacher award eight times from UNC Executive MBA Programs. He also received the Roy W. Holsten Award for Outstanding Service and Dedication to UNC Kenan-Flagler, the School’s highest such recognition.
Dr. Balasubramanian is a coauthor, with the legendary Philip Kotler and UNC Emeritus Professor Gary Armstrong, of the sister textbooks “Principles of Marketing” and “Marketing: An Introduction,” both published by Pearson. These are among the world’s largest selling marketing textbooks and are published globally in 13 languages and in 20 customized editions.
Dr. Balasubramanian works actively with the corporate world. He has conducted executive development programs for and/or consulted with numerous organizations in the U.S., Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. They include the Adani Group, AEROTEK, Asahi Glass Company, Bank of America, Babcock & Wilcox, BASF, Boeing, Canara Bank, Caterpillar Inc., CenturyLink, CommScope, Daimler-Benz, Dentsply, Duke Energy, the U.S. EPA, Ferguson Enterprises Inc., FedEx, Genworth, Glen Raven, Grant Thornton, IHRSA, Indian Railways, Ingersoll-Rand, John Deere, KPMG, The Kroger Company, Lowe’s, Manipal Hospitals, Marathon Petroleum, Owens Corning, Performance Food Group, Qualcomm, Rane Group, Red Hat, Skanska, SHRM, Southern Wines and Spirits, State Bank of Hyderabad, Sunbelt Rentals, TATA Group, Telkom S.A., Textron, Union Bank of India, U.S. Army (including its Special Forces Command), U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Vulcan Materials, Xchanging and Xerox.
Before he began his academic career, he was area sales manager for India’s leading food manufacturing and marketing company. He has advised start-ups and existing firms on issues related to becoming customer focused, the design and implementation of marketing strategy, building creative thinking and innovation skills, and the pursuit of profitable innovation and growth.
He received his PhD and MA from Yale University, his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM Bangalore-India) and his B.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Kharagpur-India).
