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Biography
OverviewProfessor G. Tomas M. Hult, PhD, is a globally recognized thought leader in international marketing, marketing strategy, customer satisfaction, supply chain management, and international business, garnering more than 170,000 citations on Google Scholar. He is among the world's top-cited business scholars and is consistently ranked in the top 10 globally in marketing by the Stanford University ranking. Clarivate's Web of Science has also named him among the top 1% of most highly cited researchers in business and economics in 2021, 2022, and 2025.
Dr. Hult is an influential voice in both academia and practice. He regularly delivers keynote addresses at major international venues such as the United Nations, World Investment Forum, and the European Commission, and contributes op-eds to high-profile outlets including The Hill, Time, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, World Economic Forum, and Dinero. He is a member of the Expert Networks of both the World Economic Forum and the United Nations/UNCTAD's World Investment Forum, and serves on the leadership team of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
He has been featured in Talks at Google, and his coauthored book A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) (SAGE), with Joe Hair, Christian Ringle, and Marko Sarstedt, is among the world's most cited methods books in business research, translated into several languages and used globally.
Dr. Hult is an elected Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB) and the 2016 Academy of Marketing Science / CUTCO-Vector Distinguished Marketing Educator, awarded for lifetime scholarly achievement. He also received the John H. Dunning AIB Service Award, the highest service honor from AIB, for his 15-year tenure as Executive Director (2004-2019) and for significantly shaping the global academic ecosystem of international business.
At Michigan State University, Dr. Hult has generated more than $40 million in funding through contracts, grants, and matching support. His most recent trade book, The Reign of the Customer (Palgrave Macmillan), coauthored with Claes Fornell, Forrest Morgeson, and David VanAmburg, draws on ACSI's vast data to promote customer-centric business strategies. He also serves as faculty advisor for the MSU Marketing Association (with Wyatt Schrock) and MSU Club Tennis (with Jorge Pena Marin).Recent Managerial Articles and Op-EdsInside Sweden's Innovation Matrix, California Management Review (2025)
Racing to ROI: Formula 1's Playbook for Winning, California Management Review (2025)
International business ecosystem drives performance, California Management Review (2025)
Boost your marketing connection among males & females, California Management Review (2025)
A blueprint for Customer Asset Management (CAM), LSE Business Review (2024)
Unlocking the persuasive power of numbers, California Management Review (2024)Cultivate a reservoir of customer goodwill, California Management Review (2024)Master international policy by navigating global crossroads, California Management Review (2024)Sweden is top in pop: Five business takeaways, California Management Review (2023)
How people feel about paying for social media, Harvard Business Review (2023)
Customers as strategic assets and managing goodwill, Forbes (2023)
Are customer expectations skyrocketing? California Management Review (2023)8 best practices for creating a compelling customer experience, Harvard Business Review (2023)How best to use a company's resources, California Management Review (2023)10 ways to boost customer satisfaction, Harvard Business Review (2023)
When CEOs engage directly with customers, Harvard Business Review (2022)As economy recovers, Republicans/Democrats play differently, The Hill (2020)Colombia and its international commercial commitment, Dinero (2020)Foreign students boost our economy in myriad ways, The Hill (2019)Government can help startups bridge the 'valley of death', The Hill (2019)Creating a sustainable strategy for sustainability efforts, The Hill (2018)US heading toward an economy with unsatisfied customers, The Hill (2018)Trump subsidies are a band-aid for farmers, not a solution, The Hill (2018)Moving from win-win to win-lose trade policy will end in lose-lose, The Hill (2018)Tariffs' bullwhip effect make its way to US farmers, The Hill (2018)Companies that do better by their customers do better in stocks, LSE Business Review (2017)We may have cinched TPP, but is US trade a lost cause?, The Conversation (2015)Why the Fed is no longer center of the financial universe, Fortune (2015)Does stock market sell-off signal the BRIC age is over?, The Conversation (2015)Why the US shouldn't worry about China's currency, World Economic Forum (2015)The U.S. shouldn't fret over cheaper Yuan, Time (2015)Recent Peer-Reviewed ResearchGoogle Scholar - 170,000+ Research Citations
Assessing Fast Fashion Overstock Through Time-To-Peak-Sales, Journal of Retailing (2025)
Sustainable International Business Innovations, Journal of International Business Studies (2025)Online Reviews and Marketing Promotions, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (2024)
Weathering Economic Crises, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (2024)
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Data in Brief (2023)
Customer Satisfaction and International Business, Journal of International Business Studies (2022)Cross-Border Marketing Ecosystem Orchestration, International Journal of Research in Marketing (2022)Information Search and Product Returns, Journal of Retailing (2022)Partisan Bias and Citizen Satisfaction, Public Management Review (2022)Predictive Ability Test for PLS: Customer Satisfaction Example, Decision Sciences (2021) (R code on GitHub)
Role of International Marketing, Journal of International Business Studies (2021)
Turning complaining customers into loyal customers, Journal of Marketing (2020) (AMA Blog)
Consumer Arrogance and Word-of-Mouth, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (2020) [MSU Today]International Business Ecosystem, Journal of International Business Studies (2020)Customer Satisfaction Online and Offline, Journal of Retailing (2019) [News]Addressing Endogeneity in PLS Research, Journal of International Marketing (2018)United Nations Sustainability Goals, Journal of Macromarketing (2018) [Blog] [Dinero] [Radio] [The Hill]Alignment of Company and Customer Needs, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (2017) [Radio]Customer Satisfaction Drives Stock Prices, Journal of Marketing (2016) [Radio] [LSE Blog]Customer Satisfaction as an Abnormal Intangible, Journal of Marketing (2016) [Radio]How to Assess Marketing and Business Performance, Journal of Marketing (2016) [Radio]Adjusting the Customers' Warm Glow Thermostat, Journal of Marketing (2016) [Radio]Selected BooksThe Reign of the Customer (Related article in Harvard Business Review)PLS Structural Equation Modeling [1st edition] [2nd edition] [3rd edition][Using R]Expert Networks and MediaHult is a member of the Expert Network of the World Economic Forum [Op-ed]Hult is a member of UNCTAD's Network of the World Investment Forum [Keynote 2018] [Blog]Hult is a member of the ACSI Expert TeamArticles on HBR.org, articles in The Hill, and articles in The ConversationRecognized with the U.S. President's "E" Award, highest government award for exportingSee more MSU and Broad College news about Dr. Hult below. -
Publications
ArticleClick on the biography on this page for links to a select set of Dr. Hult's recent (1) managerial and op-ed articles and (2) premier peer-reviewed research articles.
Dr. Hult's research articles are also listed on his CV (samples) which can be downloaded from this site. His Google Scholar page has a complete listing and citation impact of his research articles.
Per Google Scholar, Dr. Hult has a worldwide scholarly rank of #2 in marketing strategy, #1 in international business, #1 in international marketing, #1 in supply chain management, and #2 in customer satisfaction.
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Courses
- MKT 911: Marketing Strategy (PhD)
- PIM 872: International Strategies (Executive MBA)
- MKT 415: International Marketing (Bachelor)
- MKT 843: International Marketing Research (Master of Science)
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Media Mentions
- ARTICLE10 Ways to Boost Customer Satisfaction
March 15, 2023
Outlet: American Association for Physician Leadership
An online Harvard Business Review article authored by Hult and Forrest Morgeson, assistant professor of marketing and director of research emeritus at the American Customer Satisfaction Index, titled “10 Ways to Boost Customer Satisfaction,” was also published by the American Association for Physician Leadership. - ARTICLE8 Best Practices for Creating a Compelling Customer Experience
March 14, 2023
Outlet: Harvard Business Review
How can a company best create a compelling customer experience? Based on the author’s research involving thousands of companies and analyses of millions of customer data points from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), the eight areas that companies need to focus on are: Orchestrating the marketing ecosystem, aligning company and customer needs, delivering amazing customer convenience, reinforcing digital marketing, adjusting customer incentives, cultivating customer evangelists, han - ARTICLEHow Best to Use a Company’s Resources
February 26, 2023
Outlet: California Management Review
Using a company’s resources effectively and efficiently is, or at least should be, the focus of managers. For optimum resource allocation and performance, companies must be cost-sustainable, value-chain efficient, and marketplace effective. What many managers fail to understand is that an emphasis on the slack resources per se rather than their resource configuration is fraught with pitfalls. To guide managers, we report the results for 3,851 large acquisitions, and the optimum use of a co - ARTICLE10 Ways to Boost Customer Satisfaction
January 12, 2023
Outlet: Harvard Business Review
Tomas Hult, professor of marketing, and Forrest Morgeson, assistant professor of marketing and director of research emeritus at the American Customer Satisfaction Index, authored an article in Harvard Business Review discussing 10 ways to boost customer satisfaction, based on the takeaways from an analysis of millions of consumer data points from decades of ACSI research. - ARTICLEMSU researchers recognized in ‘2022 Highly Cited’ list
November 18, 2022
Outlet: MSUToday
Russell Johnson, MSU Foundation Professor of management, and Tomas Hult, professor of marketing, are among 11 Michigan State University researchers recognized in the 2022 Highly Cited Researchers List compiled by Clarivate Analytics, reported MSUToday.https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2022/MSU-researchers-recognized-in-2022-highly-cited-list
Related News:
In The News
From Harvard Business Review
Featuring Tomas Hult Forrest Morgeson
In The News
From Harvard Business Review
Featuring Tomas Hult
Two prominent marketing journals have recognized MSU as an exceptional leader in this area of expertise.
International Business Center receives the President’s “E” Award for Export Service at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Event honored a half-dozen endowed faculty members at the Broad College
MSU recently awarded a federal grant to continue to operate Center for International Business Education and Research
The warning was published recently in the Hill, an influential Washington, D.C. newspaper focused on national politics
Tomas Hult shares his insights with the Hill, an influential Washington D.C.-based publication
Tomas Hult shared his insights in his blog for the GlobalEDGE Web site
"Any given country – even the United States – cannot be a world leader in every category," writes Tomas Hult
Tomas Hult offered his insights in the Hill
Findings appear in the 2018 Market Potential Index by the International Business Center
The Real Estate Investment Management Advisory Council visits campus for its annual spring meeting
Hult has helped not only to put the college on the global map, but also shine as a leader in research and more
Former Lansing mayor collaborates on a book with Broad faculty behind the remarkable “Lansing Works! Keep GM!”.
Hult will accept the honor at the 2016 AMS Annual Conference May 19, 2016 in Orlando, Florida.
Overseeing about 200 activities each year, IBC continues to meet its mission since its creation in 1990.
Th International Business Center reaffirmed as a Center for International Business Education and Research