Gerald Zaltman is this year’s recipient of the prestigious Sheth Medal for enduring and transformational contributions to marketing scholarship and marketing practice. Jerry is the third recipient of the Sheth Medal; other prior recipients include Dr. Phil Kotler and Dr. John Little. The award will be presented at the 2015 ACR meetings, October 1-3rd, Hilton New Orleans Riverside.
“Jerry has inspired countless scholars and companies with his unique approach to intellectual issues and the world of practice,” shared Linda Price, Underwood Family Professor of Marketing, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona. Gerry summarized elements of his approach in a chapter written for a special issue of Review of Marketing Research on Marketing Legends (Zaltman 2011). The career lessons he uncovers in this chapter help capture why he is a perfect recipient for this award. In each and every interaction he engages with the perspective that “inherent in every healthy theory is a practical implication and inherent in every practical action is a theoretical idea,” (p. 321). Jerry inspires everyone around him that theory and practice “need not and in fact ought not to be separate,” (p.321).
Moreover, in exploring the world of practice, Jerry has always “lived life as a symphony,” embracing interdisciplinary perspectives and empowering students, research subjects and managers to “determine what is important to them and to explain why,” (p. 335). His development of the ZMET market research tool that is now in use around the world emerged from this desire to empower the voice of the consumer to uncover their lives and concerns in their own terms.
“Jerry has contributed broadly to theories of social change, sociology of knowledge, neuroscience and cognitive science, and the dynamics of conceptual metaphors to name a few areas. In my mind he is first and foremost an imaginative thinker and it is to this very topic, the nature of imaginative thinking that he is now turning his attention,” shared Dr. Jagdish Sheth, Founder of The Sheth Foundation.
We hope you will join us in celebrating Jerry’s receipt of this award at this year’s ACR. He will be presenting in a special session to honor his work, following the Saturday luncheon where he will receive the award. Sheth Foundation is also hosting a reception early Friday evening, October 2nd, so that you may convey your congratulations in person.
The mission of the Sheth Foundation is to support the academic scholarship, publications, education and research of tax-exempt, publicly-supported educational organizations, primarily focusing on the discipline of marketing, by providing support to grant awarding Recipient Organizations.
