Akshay Rao

Akshay Rao is a Professor of Marketing holding the General Mills Chair in Marketing at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. He has served in various leadership roles including founding Director of the Institute for Research in Marketing (2005-2010), Director of the Doctoral Program (1997-2000), and Chairman of the Marketing & Logistics Management Department (2003-2006). He has also been a Visiting Professor at MIT and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

His educational background includes:

• BA in Economics (Honors), Madras University (1978)
• MBA in Marketing, XLRI - Xavier School of Management (1980)
• PhD in Marketing, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1986)

Professor Rao's research spans multiple domains of consumer behavior and marketing strategy. His work focuses on branding, pricing strategies, judgment and decision making, and cultural issues in marketing. He has made significant contributions to understanding how consumers process price information, make brand choices, and respond to political messaging. His recent research examines vaccine hesitancy, the impact of political ideology on consumer behavior, and misinformation ("fake news"). His interdisciplinary approach combines insights from psychology, neuroscience, and economics to develop a deeper understanding of consumer decision processes.

His extensive publication record shows a clear evolution from foundational work on price perception toward contemporary issues involving political polarization, health behavior, and cognitive neuroscience applications in marketing. A notable theme across his work is the examination of how contextual factors influence consumer judgments and decisions, with increasing attention to real-world applications in public health and political markets.

His scientific achievements have been recognized with several prestigious awards:

• Robert Ferber Award for interdisciplinary research on Consumer Behavior (1987)
• Maynard Award for contribution to Marketing theory (2000)
• Distinguished Teaching Award (1992, 1993)
• Distinguished Alumnus by XLRI (2011)
• Curtis Cup Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Executive MBA program (2012)

Professor Rao has been actively involved in doctoral education, having served as Director of the Doctoral Program and as faculty for the American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium multiple times. He has consulted for numerous organizations including 3M, Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, and others. His expertise is sought for solving complex problems in Corporate Strategy, Pricing, Brand Management, and Sales Management, as well as for executive education programs and legal expert testimony. He has testified before the Federal Trade Commission on Slotting Allowances.

He founded and directed the Institute for Research in Marketing, an academic-industry think tank established with the corporate partnership of seventeen multi-national firms. His current research projects include vaccine hesitancy, communicating quality to uninformed consumers, the role of political ideology on consumer behavior, and misinformation ("fake news").