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Faculty Insights

WSB’s Jan Heide Named American Marketing Association Fellow

By Wisconsin School of Business

February 21, 2022

Jan Heide (MBA ’82, PhD ‘87), the Michael E. Lehman Distinguished Chair in Business and a professor of marketing at the Wisconsin School of Business, has been designated a 2022 American Marketing Association Fellow by the American Marketing Association (AMA).

Headshot of Jan Heide
WSB’s Jan Heide

Fellows are AMA members who have made “significant contributions to the research, theory, and practice of marketing, and/or to the service and activities of the AMA over a prolonged period of time.”

A nomination letter signed by 19 AMA members, including Louis W. Stern, John D. Gray Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Marketing, Northwestern University, detailed Heide’s exceptional impact on the field of marketing.

“Professor Heide’s tremendous influence spans three decades during which he has pushed the boundaries of marketing thought with innovative work that has defined and sustained research on B2B and interorganizational marketing relationships. The undersigned marvel at Professor Heide’s theoretical savvy and his uncanny ability to identify, conceptualize, and deliver creative and path-breaking insights on important interfirm topics in marketing.”

The letter named Heide as “one of the most influential marketing theorists and is the most important theorist in the domain of interorganizational relationships and governance over the past 30 years. We consider Professor Heide the intellectual successor to Louis W. Stern (2015 AMA Fellow) in terms of thought leadership on numerous important interorganizational topics. Professor Heide’s key contributions include theory development, continuous innovation, impact, and relevance.”

Heide’s research avenues include interfirm relationships, marketing channels, B2B marketing, and marketing organization. His work crosses disciplines such as management, organization theory, operations research, and economics. The nomination committee stated that “as a scholar, Professor Heide continually pushes the boundaries of interorganizational relationship thought by integrating emerging trends and challenging deep-rooted assumptions and beliefs.”

A 2003 AMA study ranked Heide as the third most influential marketing scholar based on citations. Heide’s work has been cited by Nobel Laureate Oliver E. Williamson and has earned more than 26,000 Google Scholar citations, with his highly impactful papers garnering him an h-index of 33, a metric that calculates productivity and impact.

“To be named an AMA Fellow is the highest achievement recognition an academic can receive in the discipline of marketing,” says WSB’s Jack Nevin, professor emeritus and chair of the School’s Department of Marketing. “Jan is being recognized as the most important theorist in the domain of interorganizational relationships and governance over the past 30 years. The marketing department has been blessed to have him as a faculty member and mentor for both faculty and students over this entire time period.”

Heide is the recipient of numerous awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the AMA’s Interorganizational Special Interest Group, three Louis W. Stern Awards for outstanding and significant contributions to the literature on marketing channels and distribution, and the Harold H. Maynard Award for significant contributions to marketing theory and thought. He has also received WSB’s Erwin A. Gaumnitz Excellence in Research Award, the Erwin A. Gaumnitz Excellence in Teaching Award, and the Erwin A. Gaumnitz Distinguished Faculty Award, as well as the University of Wisconsin’s system-wide Underkofler Excellence in Teaching Award.

Heide was inducted during the AMA’s February conference.

Founded in 1937, the AMA publishes the academic journals Journal of Marketing, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of International Marketing.


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