Rajesh Bagchi, professor and head of the Department of Marketing in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, has been named the R.B. Pamplin Professor of Marketing by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

Established in 1994, the R.B. Pamplin Professorship in Marketing is one of several named professorships established with part of the $10 million gift presented to the college by the Robert B. Pamplin family. The professorship supports research and teaching excellence in the Pamplin College of Business.

A member of the Virginia Tech faculty since 2008, Bagchi studies the psychological processes that underlie consumer and managerial decision-making. His interests range from understanding factors that affect purchase decisions (such as planning, pricing, and ambient factors) to those that influence post-purchase disposal decisions (such as trashing versus recycling). Ultimately, Bagchi’s goal is to identify factors that not only improve consumer well-being but also help firms and society make more sustainable decisions. 

Since joining Virginia Tech, Bagchi has published prolifically. The American Marketing Association ranks him among the top 20 marketing scholars worldwide, based on publications in marketing’s top journals during the past decade. His research activities involve collaborations with doctoral students, department colleagues, and colleagues at other universities. Appointed to several academic editorial boards, he has served as associate editor at the Journal of Consumer Research and as a member of the editorial review board for the Journal of Marketing and of the Journal of Marketing Research. 

Bagchi co-chaired the 2019 Association for Consumer Research national conference and also co-chaired the 2018 Society for Consumer Psychology Pre-Conference. He has given numerous invited presentations in the United States and abroad, including at Dartmouth College, Johns Hopkins University, University of Illinois, Pennsylvania State University, University of Chicago, and the Instituto de Empresa Business School in Madrid, Spain.

In the classroom, Bagchi teaches both at the undergraduate and doctoral levels. He has served on 11 completed doctoral dissertation committees and is currently serving on eight others, four as chair or co-chair. He has mentored more than 50 undergraduate honors students, providing them with hands-on research experience in the marketing field. 

In 2015, Bagchi won the Society for Consumer Psychology's Early Career Award, which recognizes research productivity in and distinguished scientific contributions to consumer psychology by a researcher within eight years of receiving the Ph.D. In 2013, he was recognized as a Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar, an award given to remarkable marketing scholars that the institute believes will be the leaders of the next generation of marketing academics.

 At Virginia Tech, his honors include Pamplin’s Research Excellence Awards, the Richard E. Sorensen Junior Faculty Fellowship, Outstanding Faculty in Doctoral Education Award, and Teaching Excellence Award. 

Since 2019, Bagchi has served as head of the college’s Department of Marketing. He received his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay, India), a master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati, and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado.

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