Vikas Mittal

Dr. Mittal is the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Marketing at Rice Business with prior positions at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School and University of Pittsburgh’s School of Business and School of Medicine (UPMC). He is the founding faculty director of the Center for Customer-Based Execution and Strategy (C-CUBES) at Rice and has served as the co-editor of Journal of Marketing and Journal of Marketing Research, two of the most prestigious marketing journals.

Dr. Mittal has co-authored more than 100 articles in premiere outlets: Harvard Business Review, MIT-Sloan Management Review, Management Science, Marketing Science, Organization Science, Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Marketing. His research has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Times, Forbes, The Hill, Houston Business Journal, World Oil, Houston Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News. He has co-authored several books: FOCUS: How to Plan Strategy and Improve Execution to Achieve Growth (2021), Market-Based Management, (7th edition) (2023), Strategic Decision Making: Learnings & Reflections (2024), and Handbook of Customer Value (2025).

In 2022, Dr. Mittal received the Financial Times award for societal impact and the Davidson Award for best paper in Journal of Retailing. He won Sage Publishing’s 10-year impact award in 2021 and the American Marketing Association’s Mahajan Award for lifetime contribution to strategy in 2020, as well as the 2000 FedEx Research Award. In 2006, he was awarded the prestigious Weitz-Winer-O’Dell Award for the most significant, long-term contribution to marketing. The American Marketing Association has included Dr. Mittal in its top-10 contributors list for several years running. Rice Business has awarded him the Research Excellence award multiple times, most recently in 2024, 2023 and 2022.

A highly sought-after strategy advisor, Dr. Mittal has enabled CEOs to create value for customers, employees and shareholders through science-based strategies. He engages with CEOs in sectors such as energy, technology, distribution and manufacturing, including Fortune 500 companies. Prominent agencies such as NIH, NIA, Heinz Endowments, SBIR and AHRQ have funded his research that generated startup companies and continuing-education programs.

Dr. Mittal leads the Executive MBA seminar on Science-Driven Strategy^TM at Rice Business. He has won the teaching excellence award at Rice Business and at Katz Business multiple times and has been recognized by Poets&Quants for teaching excellence.

Dr. Mittal holds a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Ph.D. from Temple University, Philadelphia.

Teaching Interests

• Marketing research
• Customer-focused strategy
• Advanced marketing research

Research Interests

• Customer satisfaction
• Customer insights
• Public education strategy

HEAR FROM DR. MITTAL ON OWL HAVE YOU KNOW

Finding and Perfecting Your Customer-Focused Strategy

Dr. Mittal shares the difference between truly serving customers and simply appeasing them, why legacy strategy is holding companies back, and an inside look at his sought-after Executive Education course, Strategic Growth Through Customer Focus.