Faculty & Research

Arun Sreekumar

Biography

Arun Sreekumar earned his PhD in Marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA). His research is focused on how marketing can improve societal welfare. Arun works with corporations, entrepreneurs and consumer communities to examine issues such as inequality, corporate social responsibility, consumer vulnerability, and access to health services. He has conducted field research in India, Tanzania, Uganda, and USA. Arun's teaching interests include entrepreneurial marketing and product management. In addition to regular teaching activities, he has taught a wide range of corporate executives in customized education programmes. He also works closely with startups to solve their marketing-related challenges. Prior to joining academia, Arun was involved in the product development and marketing activities of hundreds of micro-entrepreneurs in India and East Africa. Arun's research has appeared in leading journals such as the Journal of Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Affairs, and the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. He serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Affairs and Subsistence Marketplaces Journal.

Area

Primary Area : Marketing

Secondary Area : Human Resources Management

Contact

Email : aruns@iima.ac.in

Phone : +91-79-7152 7427

Office : 303, Forum Tower

Secretary : Snehal Jethwa

Phone : +91-79-7152 7931

Website : Personal Website

Education

Ph.D, Marketing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Teaching

Marketing for Startups, New Product Development, Entrepreneurial Marketing

Research Area

Arun Sreekumar studies the behavior of consumers and entrepreneurs in resource-constrained contexts. He uses insights from such contexts to design and test marketing interventions that can improve the wellbeing of low-income and low-literate consumers.

Academic Experience

American Marketing Association

Association for Consumer Research

Academy of Marketing Science

Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative

Academic Services

ERB Member, Journal of Consumer Affairs

Ad-Hoc Reviewer, Journal of Business Research

Conference Co-Chair, Subsistence Marketplaces Conference

Professional Experience

Instructor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2019-2021

Area Convenor and Associate Fellow, The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi , 2012-2021

Visiting Scholar, Gund Institute of Ecological Economics, University of Vermont, USA, 2011

Articles

(with Madhubalan Viswanathan) How Global Marketing Can Be Made More Global and More Marketing: A Bottom-Up Perspective from Subsistence Marketplaces, Journal of Global Marketing, 2021

(with Madhu Viswanathan, Nita Umashankar, and Ashley Goreczny) Marketplace Literacy as a Pathway to a Better World: Evidence from Field Experiments in Low-Access Subsistence Marketplaces, Journal of Marketing, 2021

(with Madhu Viswanathan, Saravana Jaikumar, and Shantanu Dutta) Marketplace Literacy Education and Coping Behaviors among Consumer-Entrepreneurs in Subsistence Marketplaces during Demonetization in India, Journal of Consumer Affairs, 2020

(with Robert Arias and Madhu Viswanathan) Extreme Exclusion and Relative Deprivation in Subsistence Marketplaces: A Study in a Refugee Settlement in Nakivale, Uganda, Journal of Consumer Affairs, 2020

(with Madhu Viswanathan) Consumers and Technology in a Changing World: The Perspective from Subsistence Marketplaces, European Journal of Marketing, 2019

(with Cele Otnes, Cele, Linda T. Zayer, and Robert Arias) The Roles of Extraordinary Beliefs in Consumption Rituals, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2018

(with Madhu Viswanathan, Ronald Duncan, and Maria Grigortsuk) A Bottom-Up Approach to Understanding Low Income Patients: Implications for Health-related Policy, Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, 2018

(with Madhu Viswanathan) Marketing and Poverty Alleviation :Synergizing Research, Education, and Outreach Through the Subsistence Marketplaces Approach, Markets, Globalization and Development Review, 2017

(with Ernst Worrell and Ibrahim Rehman) Accelerating Access to Energy Services: The Way Forward, Advances in Climate Change Research, 2017

Read More

Chapters

Evolving and Expanding Marketing to Address Challenges and Opportunities in Subsistence Marketplaces: Looking Back and Forward,” in Bottom of the Pyramid Marketing: Making, Shaping and Developing BOP Markets, ed. Ramendra Singh, Boston: Emerald Publishing, 2019 (with Madhu Viswanathan and Roland Gau)

Awards & Honors

2021 - Stellner Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2020 - Petullo Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2020 - Haring Symposium Presenter, Indiana University

2020 - Erley Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2019 - Dissertation Travel Grant, Graduate College, University of Illinois

2019 - Avnish Chaturvedi Student Ambassador, Gies College of Business

2017-2018 - Zwisler Summer Fellowship

2016 - Jagdish N. Sheth Doctoral Fellowship

2014 - Roll of Honor, The Energy and Resources Institute

2012 - Director’s Silver Medal, Indian Institute of Forest Management

IIMA