Jagdish Sheth

Jagdish N. Sheth (born 1938) is the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University.^[1] He was a prominent member of the core team during the initial years of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, the first Indian Institute of Management.^[2] Professor Sheth was awarded by the Padma Bhushan award in 2020 for his work in literature and education in the United States.^[3]

Early life

Sheth was born in Burma (now Myanmar) to a Jain family. His father had migrated from Western India to Burma to set up a business as a rice merchant. In 1941, the family emigrated to India as refugees in the wake of the Japanese invasion of Burma. He received most of his schooling in Madras (now Chennai). It was here that he met his future wife, Madhuri Shah, at a local literacy society for high school students that he had founded.^{[citation needed]}

Academic career

Sheth came to the United States to further his academic career and received his MBA at the University of Pittsburgh in 1962.^[4] He was fascinated by the psychological theories being advanced at that time and pursued a career in academia. During the mid-1960s he studied and researched at MIT, Columbia and the University of Pittsburgh, where he received his PhD in 1966 from its Katz Graduate School of Business. It was during this period and whilst he was based at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,^[5] that he started developing his "Theory of Buyer Behavior". A book which he co-authored with his mentor Professor John Howard ^[which?] provided the foundation for the future of research in the field of consumer psychology and marketing.

In 2017, he was named a fellow of the Association for Consumer Research.^[6]

Writings and activities

Sheth has published more than 200 articles in journals and has written a number of books. He published an article entitled A Model of Industrial Buyer Behavior in 1973, which drew from a large volume of empirical study of buyer behavior and emphasised how the "psychological world of the decision-makers" impacted on the processes and outcomes of purchasing decision-making.^[5] His books include Tectonic Shift: The Geoeconomic Realignment of Globalizing Markets with Rajendra S. Sisodia,^[7] The Rule of Three: Surviving and Thriving in Competitive Markets, Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Develop Breakthrough Relationships, and Handbook of Relationship Marketing. In 2007, he published The Self-Destructive Habits of Good Companies. In 2008, he published Chindia Rising. In 2014, he published The Accidental Scholar.^[8]

The "Sheth Family Foundation" has established Sheth International Awards at the University of Pittsburgh's University Center for International Studies.^[4]

In 2003, Sheth founded the "India, China & America Institute" (ICA Institute), a non-profit group that published newsletters and held seminars related to emerging markets, commercial growth, and alignment of policies between those three nations.^[9]

He was also founding chairman of the Academic Council of the Mumbai Business School, a business school located in Mumbai, India, but which closed after attracting just 15 students.^[10]