Faculty & Staff Directory

Faculty/Staff Directory

David Nickell

Biography:	Dr. David Nickell is an Associate Professor of Marketing in the School of Business at Middle Georgia State University. His career blends university teaching, academic research, consulting, and international education, emphasizing the link between marketing theory and the practical decisions managers and organizations face. Dr. Nickell earned his Ph.D. in Marketing from Georgia State University, an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, and a BBA in Marketing from the University of Kentucky. Before joining Middle Georgia State University, he was a faculty member at Southeastern Louisiana University and the University of West Georgia, where he achieved the rank of Professor of Marketing. He has also taught internationally, including doctoral-level courses in Finland and Poland. Throughout his academic career, Dr. Nickell has been recognized for excellence in teaching, research, and service. He has received the Nissi Foundation International Fellow Grant and was honored as a Highly Commended Paper winner by the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing in 2014. In 2020, his research was nominated for the American Marketing Association’s Paper of the Year in Sport Marketing. At Southeastern Louisiana University, he was awarded the Edgar R. Smith III Endowed Professorship in Business. His accolades include three Annual Faculty Teaching Awards (2013, 2016, and 2018), the Richards College of Business Annual Faculty Research Award (2014), the Research Influence and Interdisciplinary Research Award (2020), the College and Campus Service Award (2020), the Faculty Service Award (2012), and the Research Scholar Award (2011). Dr. Nickell has consulted with various organizations on marketing strategy, customer engagement, research, and sponsorship effectiveness. Notable clients include the Atlanta Falcons, Chick-fil-A, the Peach Bowl, Kimberly-Clark, and several entrepreneurial ventures. He also has a keen interest in international and experiential education, having
Teaching and Research Interests:	Dr. David Nickell’s teaching interests center on marketing strategy, marketing research and analytics, and marketing management. Across these areas, he emphasizes applying marketing concepts to real managerial problems and decisions. His courses frequently incorporate cases, simulations, applied research projects, data analysis, and experiential learning. He is particularly interested in helping students develop the ability to translate data and customer insights into sound marketing strategy. His approach emphasizes critical thinking, effective communication, and integrating marketing with other functional areas of business. Dr. Nickell also has a strong interest in international and experiential education. He has taught internationally and has developed and led study-abroad experiences in London that allow students to examine global marketing, consumer behavior, branding, retailing, and international business in their cultural and competitive contexts. Dr. Nickell’s research focuses broadly on marketing strategy and the ways organizations create, communicate, and measure value. His primary research stream examines sponsorship-linked marketing, including the effectiveness and return on investment of sports sponsorships and the role of social media in strengthening relationships among brands, properties, and consumers. His research has also explored business-to-business marketing and selling, including solution selling and the processes through which firms create customer value in complex organizational markets. Additional research interests include internal marketing and employee engagement, particularly how organizational practices influence employees, customers, and business performance. Other scholarly interests have included market knowledge and organizational learning, reverse logistics, digital and social media marketing, customer engagement, and marketing performance measurement. Across these research streams, Dr. Nickell is especially interested in work that bridges academic theory and managerial practice and gives organizations actionable insights to improve marketing effectiveness.
Education: (All institutions attended and degrees or credentials earned)	Dr. David Nickell earned his Ph.D. in Marketing from Georgia State University, where his doctoral work focused on marketing strategy and sponsorship effectiveness. His dissertation examined the return on investment associated with sponsorship-linked marketing, an area that has continued to influence his research and professional interests. He earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and his Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Marketing from the University of Kentucky. His education combines rigorous marketing training with a strong foundation in business strategy and management, forming the basis for his teaching, research, and consulting work.
CV:	David Nickell, Ph.D. 3270 Jett Ferry Ct. Atlanta, GA 30350 davidnickell@alum.emory.edu +1 (404) 664-0431 (Cell) EDUCATION Ph.D. in Marketing, January 2010 – Georgia State University. Dissertation: The Drivers of a Successful Corporate Sponsorship and the Quantified Financial Impact: Applying the Attitudinal Triad of Cognition, Affect, and Conation and Customer Lifetime Value to Corporate Sponsorships. Wesley Johnston, Ph.D., Chair MBA – Goizueta Business School, Emory University BBA in Marketing – University of Kentucky APPOINTMENTS • Edgar R. Smith III Endowed Professorship in Business, Associate Professor: Southeastern Louisiana University, Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, August 2024 to Present • Professor: University of West Georgia, Department of Marketing, July 2021 to July 2024 • Associate Professor: University of West Georgia, Department of Marketing, July 2015 to June 2021 • Assistant Professor: University of West Georgia, Department of Marketing, January 2010 to June 2015 PUBLICATIONS Peer-reviewed Journals Nickell, D., & Sethna, B.N. (2026). An Integrated Statistical Methodology Approach to Enrollment Management. Higher Education Quarterly, 80(3): e70138. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.70138. Rudawska, E., & Nickell, D. (2024). Internal marketing activities in creating employee engagement in B2B marketing: The moderating role of cultural differences based on a comparative analysis of Polish and US markets. Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, 19(4), 1449-488. Julkunen, S., Koponen, J. & Nickell, D. (2022). Understanding Value Creation through Digital and In-Person Communication in Solution Selling Process. Nordic Journal of Business, 71(1), 5-25. Nickell, D., Chwialkowska, A., Rollins, M., & Brown, C. O. M. (2021). Investing in reverse logistics: an explorative multi-industry study. International Journal of Export Marketing, 4(1), 4-18. Bhatti, W. A., Chwialkowska, A., Nickell, D., & Rollins, M. (2021). Market knowledge learning in emerging markets: an empirical study. International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 20(4), 376-391. Nickell, D. & Chwialkowska, A. (2020). Social Media Use and Sponsorship: An Examination of an NFL Franchise. International Journal of Sales, Retailing and Marketing, 9(2), 7-15. Nickell, D., Pridmore, J., Prince, B., Udombon, H. & Boldt, D. (2020). Using Conjoint Analysis to Understand a Regional MBA Market. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 20
Professional Experience:	Before entering academia, Dr. David Nickell built a substantial career in business and marketing with several major corporations, including EarthLink, BellSouth, UPS, Honeywell, and Nabisco. His industry experience provided a strong foundation in marketing strategy, customer and market analysis, business development, and the practical challenges organizations face in creating and sustaining customer value. In addition to his corporate experience, Dr. Nickell has consulted with a variety of organizations on issues involving marketing strategy, market research, sponsorship effectiveness, customer engagement, digital marketing, branding, and business growth. His consulting work has included projects involving Kimberly-Clark, the Atlanta Falcons, Chick-fil-A, and the Peach Bowl. Across these engagements, his work has often focused on using customer and market data to improve decision-making, evaluate marketing effectiveness, identify growth opportunities, and connect marketing investments to measurable business outcomes. This combination of corporate and consulting experience gives Dr. Nickell a practitioner-oriented perspective on marketing and a particular interest in the intersection of strategy, analytics, customer value, and marketing performance.
Publications and Scholarships: (Last 5 Years)	Dr. David Nickell’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of marketing strategy, customer value, organizational performance, and measurable marketing effectiveness. His research has appeared in peer-reviewed academic journals and has addressed topics including sponsorship-linked marketing, business-to-business marketing, solution selling, internal marketing and employee engagement, market knowledge and organizational learning, reverse logistics, social media, and marketing performance. A significant stream of his research examines sports sponsorship and sponsorship return on investment, including how organizations can evaluate the financial and strategic effectiveness of sponsorship activities and how social media influences relationships among sponsors, properties, and consumers. His doctoral dissertation at Georgia State University focused on sponsorship-linked marketing and helped establish this continuing research interest. His scholarship also includes work on solution selling and customer value creation in business-to-business markets, internal marketing and employee engagement in international settings, and how organizations acquire and use market knowledge to improve decision-making and performance. Dr. Nickell’s research has received professional recognition, including a Highly Commended Paper Award from the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing and a 2020 nomination for the American Marketing Association’s Paper of the Year in Sport Marketing. Across his scholarly work, he emphasizes academic research that provides useful insights for managers and organizations.
Awards and Honors:	Edgar R. Smith III Endowed Professorship in Business (2025) Nominated: Paper of the Year in Sport Marketing - American Marketing Association (2020) Richards College of Business Research Scholar Grant (2020) College and Campus Service Award (2020) Research Influence and Interdisciplinary Research Award (2020) Stone Research Grant (2018) RCOB Development Award (2018) Annual Faculty Teaching Award (2018) Annual Faculty Teaching Award (2016) Highly Commended Paper winner for the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing (2014) RCOB Development Award (2015) Recipient of the Nissi Foundation International Fellow grant (2014) Richards College of Business Annual Faculty Research Award (2014) Annual Faculty Teaching Award (2013) Faculty Service Award (2012) Research Scholar Award (2011)

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