Biography

Sanjay K. Dhar studies strategic marketing management, advanced marketing strategy, brand management, new product development, pricing strategy, promotion strategy, advertising strategy, product placement strategy, retail price advertising strategies, retail management best practices, consumer and retail sales promotions, trade promotions, private labels, category management, loyalty reward programs, EDLP pricing, assortment management, purchase incidence, and brand choice. His research has been selected as a finalist for the 2012 William O’Dell Award, which awards an article published in the Journal of Marketing Research in the last 5 years that has made the most significant long-term contribution to marketing theory, methodology, and/or practice, awarded the 2008 Paul Green Award which recognizes the best article published in the Journal of Marketing Research, the John D. C. Little Award in 1995 for the best paper in marketing published in an INFORMS journal and he was a runner-up for the Davidson Award in 2003 for the best paper published in the Journal of Retailing. Dhar has published articles in the Journal of Political Economy, Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Retailing, Management Science, Marketing Letters, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, and Pricing Theory and Practice.

In 2010, Veritas Prep listed Dhar as one of 6 “Must Have” professors at Chicago Booth based on student input. In 2006, the Economic Times in India identified Dhar as one of twelve "Indians who have made a global impact on marketing research and thought." He received the 2017 Faculty Excellence Teaching Award voted by Evening and Weekend MBA students, the 2012 Hillel Einhorn Teaching Award voted by executive MBA students in North America, the 2008 Hillel Einhorn Teaching Award voted by executive MBA students in Asia, the McKinsey Award for Teaching Excellence in 2000 awarded once every 2 years, was cited among the outstanding faculty in Business Week's Guide to Best Business Schools (McGraw-Hill, 1997, 1999, and 2001), and in 1994 he was awarded the Emory Williams Teaching Award by students for his outstanding teaching performance. "I stress the importance of learning fundamentals in my classes, which enables my students to address any marketing problem - no matter how complex - because they can apply the principles to dissect the problem."

Dhar received a bachelor's degree in technology (mechanical engineering) with honors from the Indian Institute of Technology of India in 1983. His MBA is from the Indian Institute of Management, India. He also worked in several management positions for Lipton India Limited, a subsidiary of Unilever. He then came to the United States, where he studied at the University of California in Los Angeles. He earned a PhD in management in 1992. He has been a Chicago Booth faculty member since 1992.

Dhar also has extensive industry based executive teaching and consulting experience and regularly advises firm on strategic marketing, pricing and new product development.

In addition to teaching and research, Dhar enjoys working with his two children and taking care of their several pets, as well as his three tropical fish aquariums.

Research Interests

Advertising strategy; brand management; consumer promotion evaluation and planning (bonus buys versus in-store coupons, package coupons, free-standing insert (FSI) coupons, cross-ruff coupons); e-commerce strategy; marketing strategy; new product development, management and strategy; product placement strategy; retail management best practices (promotion and merchandise planning and evaluation, store formats, impact of private labels, efficient consumer response (ECR) initiatives, category management, efficient assortment management, loyalty reward programs, every day low pricing (EDLP); trade promotions.

Academic Areas

  • Marketing

Selected Publications

Working Papers

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