Akshay Rao

Akshay R. Rao, Professor of Marketing, holds the General Mills Chair in Marketing at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. He has an undergraduate honors degree in Economics from Madras University and a Master in Business Administration from XLRI - Xavier School of Management, both in India, and he earned a PhD in Marketing from Virginia Tech. In 2011, he was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus by XLRI. At Minnesota Carlson, he has also served as the founding Director of the Institute for Research in Marketing, an academic-industry think tank established with the corporate partnership of seventeen multi-national firms, from 2005-2010. In 1997-2000, he served as the Director of the Doctoral Program and in 2003-2006 he served as Chairman of the Marketing & Logistics Management Department. He has served as a Visiting Professor at MIT and at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. At Minnesota Carlson he has received several awards for teaching excellence including the Curtis Cup Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Executive MBA program in 2012, and was recognized as an Outstanding Faculty member in the 4th and 5th editions of Business Week's Guide to the Best Business Schools.

Rao's teaching, research, and consulting have focused on industries ranging from food and airlines to apparel and financial services, and the problems of Consumer Behavior, Pricing Strategy, Channels of Distribution, Product/Brand Management, and Sales Force Management. A winner of the 1987 Robert Ferber Award for interdisciplinary research on Consumer Behavior, and a winner of the 2000 Maynard award for contribution to Marketing theory, his research has appeared in various journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review, the Journal of Business, the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Sloan Management Review.  He has served as President of the policy board of the Journal of Consumer Research, as Associate Editor for the Journal of Marketing Research, and is on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the Journal of Consumer Research, and the Journal of Marketing.

Rao has served as a consultant to numerous organizations including 3M, Abbott Laboratories (Germany), Ambrosetti (Italy), Boston Scientific, the Carlson Companies, Jostens, McQuay International, Medtronic, The NutraSweet Company, Osservatorio Asia (Italy), and Qwest. His expertise is sought in three forms: (1) to assist managers solve complex problems in the areas of Corporate Strategy, Pricing, Brand Management, and Sales Management, (2) for executive education programs in Pricing and Branding strategy, and (3) to serve as an expert witness in legal matters that relate to Consumer Behavior, Pricing, Branding and Marketing Strategy. His views are regularly solicited by local and national media in print, radio and television. His opinions and research have been featured in several outlets including The Atlantic, Business Week, The Economist, the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, TIME.com, the Wall Street Journal, the News Hour on PBS, NPR, and CNN.

Currently, Rao is working on several research and consulting projects including (a) vaccine hesitancy, (b) communicating quality to uninformed consumers, (c) the role of political ideology on consumer behavior, and (d) misinformation (“fake news”). He has testified before the Federal Trade Commission on Slotting Allowances. He was Co-Chair of the American Marketing Association’s Doctoral Consortium (2003) and the Association for Consumer Research Conference (2004).