UA Marketing Professor Receives Distinguished Scholar Award from Society for Marketing Advances

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Sharon Beatty, professor of marketing in The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, has received the prestigious Distinguished Scholar Award presented by the Society for Marketing Advances.

The award commends Beatty for “substantive and sustained scholarly contributions to marketing thought and practice.”

Beatty was presented the award earlier this month at the society’s meeting in New Orleans, where she also made a special presentation and was recognized during a dinner, luncheon and reception.

“This recognition is very much deserved,” said Dr. J. Barry Mason, dean of the College. “Dr. Beatty is one of those special faculty members who approaches each facet of teaching and research with enthusiasm and verve. It is gratifying to see that the Society for Marketing Advances acknowledges her scholarly accomplishments with this award.”

Beatty received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida, her M.B.A. from the University of Colorado, and she holds a doctorate from the University of Oregon. Her research interests focus on two areas: First, she studies the nature of relationships between customers and retail salespeople/service providers. This also includes an interest in customer service issues and service recovery issues. Second, she is interested in shopping behaviors and family influences. This focus includes studies on search behavior, hedonic shopping, impulse buying, adolescent influence in the family decision-making process, and on-line shopping.

Beatty has been at The University of Alabama 15 years and has been doctoral coordinator for the past 14 years. She works closely with many doctoral students and has chaired twelve Ph.D. dissertations and been on an equal number of Ph. D. dissertation committees. She has published almost 40 articles in refereed journals, such as Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Retailing, and Journal of Advertising. She has presented another 35 papers at national and international conferences and made about 25 invited presentations around the world.

Beatty is on the editorial boards of six journals, including the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Education, Psychology and Marketing, and Qualitative Marketing Research and is an active ad hoc reviewer for about 10 others. She is a past member of the Board of Governors for the Academy of Marketing Science.

In 1998 she was named a Distinguished Fellow by the Academy of Marketing Science. In 1999 she was named Outstanding Reviewer of the Year for Journal of Business Research. In 2000 she was a keynote/plenary speaker at the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference and invited speaker at the ANZMAC Doctoral Colloquium and at the Society for Marketing Advances Doctoral Consortium. In 2001 she was an invited speaker at the American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium.

The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration was founded in 1919. It is currently ranked among the top 50 of more than 1,300 business schools in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. Its Manderson Graduate School of Business has received repeated positive recognition in the 1990s from such publications as Business Week, The Princeton Review and The Gourman Report.