Rajan Mishra

Rajan Mishra

Visiting Professor, JKU


  • Assistant Professor, California State University, USA
  • Ph.D. (Marketing) Purdue University, USA
  • Area of Expertise: Digital Marketing, AI, Economics, Business Analytics, Retail Management, Data Science, Business Management

I am currently an Assistant Professor of Marketing at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), where I teach courses such as Social Media Marketing and have built a research program at the intersection of artificial intelligence, digital platforms, consumer choice, and marketing strategy. My academic formation at Purdue University, where I completed a Ph.D. in Marketing and an M.S. in Economics, gave me rigorous training in quantitative marketing, consumer behavior, and econometric analysis. That foundation has enabled me to pursue research on timely and consequential problems, including AI recommendations on travel platforms, transparency in AI influencer marketing, political bias in online reviews, search engine and AI platform design, and reputation systems such as Airbnb’s Superhost program.

My work spans both substantive managerial questions and methodologically rigorous empirical inquiry, with papers under review at journals such as Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Consumer Marketing, as well as a peer-reviewed publication in Ecological Economics. What distinguishes my academic profile, however, is not only doctoral rigor but also the way my industry background and teaching record have shaped the quality of my scholarship. Before academia, I worked as a Business Manager at Times Group and as a Product Marketing Manager at IndiaMART, experiences that gave me direct exposure to platform strategy, digital business models, and managerial decision-making in fast-moving markets. Those years in industry continue to influence the questions I ask as a researcher: I am drawn to problems that are theoretically important, empirically identifiable, and managerially meaningful. My teaching has reinforced that same orientation. At CSUN, my Social Media Marketing courses have earned consistently strong evaluations across multiple sections, and earlier at Purdue I received the Krannert Distinguished Teaching Award twice, in 2019 and 2024. Together, these experiences have shaped my approach to academia at the highest level: I aim to produce research that is analytically rigorous and relevant to contemporary markets, while bringing to the classroom a style of teaching that is demanding, current, and deeply connected to real strategic problems.

Publications
Chakravarty, S., & Mishra, R. (2019). “Using Social Norms to Reduce Paper Waste: Results From a Field Experiment in the Indian Information Technology Sector.” Ecological Economics, 164, 106356.

Papers under review

  1. “When Evaluation isn’t Enough: Rethinking Response in the AI Innovation Ecosystem” — Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Business Research.

  2. “AI or Nay: Investigating the Role of AI Recommendations on Travel Platforms” — Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Consumer Marketing.

  3. “Designing Transparency in AI Influencer Marketing: A Consumer–Agency Architecture” — Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Consumer Marketing.

  4. “Red vs. Blue: The Influence of Political Complexion on Business Reviews” — Reject & Resubmit, Journal of Marketing.

  5. “Impact of Arousal and Misspelled Words on Reviews Helpfulness and Compliments: Evidence from Yelp Reviews” — Submitted to Journal of Consumer Marketing.

  6. “Search Engines and AI Platforms: Traffic Quality, Pricing, and Market Design” — Submitted to Marketing Science.

  7. “How Does AI Literacy Translate to Students’ Actual AI Usage? Investigating the Motivational and Cognitive Pathways” — Submitted to Marketing Education Review.

  8. “Ethical Emphasis in Corporate Code of Conduct and Its Governance Implications” — Submitted to Journal of Business Ethics.

  9. “Strategic Disclosure under Economic Policy Uncertainty: The Roles of Firm Complexity and Managerial Risk-Taking Incentives” — Submitted to Journal of Corporate Finance.

Research in progress

  1. “The Value of Reputation Badges for Sellers in the Age of Ratings and Review: An Empirical Study of Airbnb’s Superhost Program” — Target journal: Journal of Marketing Research.

  2. “Review Writing: The Social Influence of ‘Exemplar’ Reviews” — Target journal: Marketing Science.

  3. “Retail Shelf Display and the Brand Loyalty – Understanding the Effect of Retail Shelf Layouts on Consumer Brand Loyalty, Manufacturer Market Power, and Store Brand Performance.”

  4. “Local Crises, Global Consequences: A Systematic Review of Brand Management and Resilience Strategies.”

Honors and awards
• Krannert Distinguished Teaching Award, Purdue University (2024)
• KDSA Research Symposium Award for Paper Presentation, Purdue University (2023)
• Krannert Distinguished Teaching Award, Purdue University (2019)
• Krannert Marketing Scholar Award for Doctoral Study, Purdue University (2018)

Grants and fellowships
• DSB Doctoral Student Research Funds, Purdue University (2024)
• AMA-Sheth Doctoral Consortium Fellow, University of Texas at Austin (2022)
• ISMS Doctoral Consortium Fellow, Yale School of Management (2022)
• Krannert Doctoral Research Award Fund, Purdue University (2021)
• Krannert Graduate Fellowship, Purdue University (2018)

Selected conference presentations
• AI in Marketing Conference (2026)
• AMA Winter Conference (2025)
• INFORMS Annual Meeting (2024)
• AMA Marketing and Public Conference (2024)
• ISMS Marketing Science Conference (2023)
• Haring Symposium (2023)

Invited talks
• XLRI Jamshedpur, India (2025) — Quantitative Marketing and Structural Econometrics Workshop
• Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, India (2024) — Social Media Marketing

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