معرفی
Thomas S. Gruca serves as the George Daly Professor in Marketing and Director of the Iowa Electronic Markets at the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business. His interdisciplinary work bridges marketing, finance, and healthcare through innovative prediction market applications.
Education
- PhD in Decision and Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- MBA in Management Information Systems, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- BS in Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Illinois-Chicago
His research centers on prediction markets for political and healthcare forecasting, with recent work analyzing geopolitical biases, anti-incumbency effects, and rural healthcare access disparities. This intersects with his expertise in marketing/finance interface phenomena like brand equity measurement and consumer behavior modeling in casino gaming.
Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals three dominant research streams: (1) Election forecasting through Iowa Electronic Markets (35% of output), (2) Rural healthcare access modeling (27%), and (3) Marketing analytics including brand equity and consumer behavior (38%). His work consistently appears in top journals like Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Forecasting, and PS: Political Science & Politics.
Scientific Awards
- 9-time recipient of MBA Marketing Professor of the Year (2006-2019)
- President & Provost Award for Teaching Excellence (2018)
- Iowa MBA Instructor of the Year - Core (2014)
Gruca has secured significant external funding including an NSF grant ($300,000) for Active Learning in Undergraduate Education Using Iowa Electronic Markets (2000-2003) and a US Department of Education grant for Enhancing Economic Literacy (1997-2000). His leadership roles include Faculty Director of the MBA Marketing Career Academy (2008-2019) and PhD Program Director for Marketing (2008-2014).
He directs the Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM), a real-money prediction market used globally for election and economic forecasting research, which serves as both a research platform and teaching tool for over 10,000 students annually.
