The assistant professor of marketing’s research was recognized at the Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators Federation of Business Disciplines Conference.
By Johnny Sadler '20
Prachi Gala, assistant professor of marketing in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, delivered a presentation on her research titled, “CEO Integrity and Entrepreneurial Orientation: Role Played by Marketing Power and Compensation,” during the Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators (ACME) annual conference. She also received an award for best paper in the marketing strategy track.
Gala’s paper highlights the issues arising in organizations with a CEO with high integrity. Although this may seem like a positive attribute, her paper looks to explore how high integrity correlates to low risk-taking and low creativity, eventually leading to lower entrepreneurial orientation in the firm.
After collecting data from a set of more than 500 CEOs over a span of two years, Gala proposes two solutions both related to internal corporate governance: the compensation given to the CEO and the composition of marketing in the firm. First, increasing the long-term compensation ratio of CEOs may result in CEOs considering risky investments due to their nature of long term returns. Secondly, giving CEOs high marketing power in the firm means they share the responsibility of strategizing and investing in outcomes. These two solutions can help overcome the issues associated with integrity without compromising the CEO’s own integrity.
“ACME was a great platform for me to showcase my research and teaching skills and learn from other outstanding professors,” Gala said. “Conferences like these make me realize that there is so much to learn. As Albert Einstein has quoted: ‘The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.’”
An associate of the Federation of Business Disciplines, ACME is a professional marketing organization founded to encourage the practices of superior marketing development through academic and practitioner perspectives.
Gala teaches marketing, and operations and supply chain management courses. She earned a doctorate in business administration with a concentration in marketing from the University of Mississippi. Her primary research interests include the impact of corporate governance of upper echelons on marketing strategy.