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Marketing

Emeritus Professor of Marketing

Portrait of Anne Coughlan, Faculty at the Kellogg School of Management

Anne Coughlan is an Emeritus Professor of Marketing, at the Kellogg School of Management. She joined the faculty in 1985. Dr. Coughlan's main research interests are in the areas of distribution channels, sales force management and compensation, and pricing. Current research projects include optimal management of multi-level marketing distribution channels; sales force diversification and optimal group incentive payments; drivers and management of sales force turnover; measuring compliance, monitoring, and enforcement of MAP policies; and wardrobing and optimal open-box retail sales.  Her work on "Direct Selling Distributors: Why Do They Stay or Leave?" won the best doctoral-student paper award at the 2017 Global Sales Science Institute conference; it is joint research with Prof. Manfred Krafft of University of Muenster and Julian Allendorf, a Ph.D. student at University of Muenster.

Dr. Coughlan is a co-author of the book, A Field Guide to Channel Strategy: Building Routes to Market (with Sandy Jap), and was the lead author of Marketing Channels (a Prentice-Hall textbook) through its seventh edition.  She serves on the Senior Advisory Board of the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and is Editor in Chief of the SSRN Marketing Research Network and of its Quantitative Marketing e-Journal and the Marketing Science e-Journal.  She is a Research Fellow of the Direct Selling Educational Foundation and an Institute of Marketing Research Fellow of the University of Muenster, Germany.  She has served as an Associate Editor and editorial board member of the journal Marketing Science, and on the editorial boards of Journal of Marketing and Journal of Retailing.

For her excellence in teaching, Dr. Coughlan was the recipient of the school's Executive Master's Program Teacher of the Year Award for the best elective course in 1996 and again in 2003, as well as receiving the Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award in 2000-01. She teaches classes on distribution channel strategies at the MBA and executive MBA levels, and on quantitative models in marketing at the doctoral level.

Coughlan received her Ph.D. in Economics at Stanford University. Prior to her appointment at Kellogg, she was a professor at the business school of the University of Rochester; she was a Visiting Professor of Marketing at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France in 1997-98.

About Anne
Research interests
  • Channels of distribution
  • distribution channel governance
  • channel pricing strategies
  • sales force management and compensation
  • direct selling
  • competitive strategy
  • international applications of research in these areas
Teaching interests
  • Channels of distribution
  • pricing through the distribution channel
  • sales force management and compensation
  • competitive strategy
  • pricing strategies
  • PhD, 1982, Economics, Stanford University
    BA, 1977, Economics, Stanford University, Honors and Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa
  • Polk Bros. Chair in Retailing, and Professor of Marketing, Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2014-present
    John L. & Helen Kellogg Professor of Marketing, Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2009-2014
    Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2007-present
    Visiting Professor, INSEAD, 1997-1998
    Tenured Associate Professor of Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1990-2007
    Associate Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1988-1990
    Assistant Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1985-1988
    Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Management, University of Rochester, 1981-1985
  • Best Doctoral Student Paper Award, Global Sales Science Institute, 2017
    Institute of Marketing Research Fellow, University of Muenster, Germany, 2016 - present
    Research Grant, Direct Selling Educational Foundation, Direct Selling Educational Foundation, 2015-2017
    Research Fellow, Direct Selling Educational Foundation, 2017 onward
    Co-Chair, Conference on Best Practices in Teaching and Research in Channel Strategy and Sales Management, 2017
    Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
    Co-Chair, annual Doctoral Consortium, American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium
    Quantitative Marketing & Economics Conference Academic Committee, Quantitative Marketing and Economics journal
    Outside Evaluator, Marketing Department, NYU-Stern School of Business, NYU Stern School of Business
    Academic Member, Incentive Compensation Advisory Board, Sales Management Association, 2010
    Selling and Sales Management Special Interest Group's Excellence in Research Award, AMA, 2010
    Executive Masters' Program Teacher of the Year Award, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, 2003
    Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Kellogg School of Management, 2002, 1996
    Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management, 2000-2001
    Executive Masters' Program Teacher of the Year Award, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, 1996
  • Editorial Board, Journal of Marketing, 2018-2020
    Editor in Chief, SSRN Quantitative Marketing eJournal, 2016
    Editor in Chief, SSRN Marketing Science eJournal, 2016
    Senior Advisory Board, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 2015
    Editor in Chief, SSRN Marketing Research Network, 2013
    Advisory Board, The Sales Management Association, 2010-present
    Associate Editor, Marketing Science, 2007-2016
    Guest Editor, Journal of Retailing, 1995
    Co-Editor, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 1998-2005
    Editorial Board, Journal of Marketing, 1996-2002
    Editorial Board, Journal of Marketing Research, 1991-1993
    Associate Editor, (Associate Book Review Editor) Journal of Marketing Research, 1991-1994
    Editorial Board, Journal of Retailing, 1992-2001
    Editorial Board, Marketing Science, 1984-2016
    Editorial Review Board, (Member of Editorial Selection Committee) Marketing Science, 1987-1988
    Editorial Board, Review of Marketing Science (ROMS)
    Editor, OPER Marketing Science eJournal
    Co-Editor, Quantitative Marketing Research Network