Robert Frank “Bob” Lusch, widely recognized as an elite cross-disciplinary scholar, passed away on February 23, 2017 at Kanmar Place Hospice, Tucson, Arizona, after battling bladder cancer.
Lusch most recently served as the the James and Pamela Muzzy Chair in Entrepreneurship in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, where he had previously served as Head of the Department of Marketing. In addition to Arizona, Bob had previously served on the faculty at the University of Oklahoma and at Texas Christian University. He served as Dean at both institutions. He contributed to many areas in the Marketing discipline, publishing nearly 200 articles and authoring over a dozen books.
Born in 1949 in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Bob was raised primarily in Tucson and eventually attended University of Arizona for his undergraduate and MBA studies. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1975 and began his career at University of Oklahoma.
Many scholars recognize Lusch’s research in service-dominant logic, first published in the Journal of Marketing. SDL essentially explains that all economies are based on the exchange of service between people. The research reframed how businesses view themselves and their products.
Lusch’s service to the AMA began while he was a doctoral student and continued throughout his career. He was editor of the Journal of Marketing from 1996-99. Additionally, he served as Vice President of Education, Vice President of Finance, Vice President of Publications, Chairperson of the American Marketing Association, and trustee of the American Marketing Association Foundation. During his tenure as Vice President of Publications, he oversaw the most recent revision to the AMA’s definition of marketing and launched a series of initiatives to protect the integrity of the AMA journals in light of a series of ethical breaches across many scholarly journals in other disciplines.
A team of scholars has launched a campaign to honor Lusch and encourage groundbreaking research. Support the Robert Lusch Early Career Research Award today by giving to the AMA Foundation.
Matt Weingarden, Vice President, Communities & Journals, leads the diverse team that supports the AMA’s network of community leaders from its three broad communities and four scholarly journals.