SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Say you're a hotel manager trying to decide whether to build a pool: Will the additional reservations you bring in from that amenity offset the cost of construction and maintenance? Or say you offer free bottled water to all guests. If you stopped doing so, would you save money in the long run?

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Most studies of the interactions between companies and consumers look at one piece of the puzzle: Advertising or social media or news coverage or "consumer sentiment" as measured in surveys. An ambitious new study from the Robert H.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Conventional wisdom in strategy holds that companies need to choose between cost-cutting or revenue growth. Pursuing both strategies at the same time can result in incoherence — or getting stuck in the middle, some argue.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- By now you’ve likely heard how the Environmental Protection Agency caught Volkswagen cheating its way to clean emissions test

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- United’s and Delta’s shift to reward customers based on spending instead of miles could set up the airlines to milk big corporate accounts. But University of Maryland Robert H.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Voyeurism charges can never be good for a company's reputation, but can Rams Head Group come back from allegations that its president secretly recorded women in the restroom? To assess the damage, marketing experts at the University of Maryland's Robert H.

Roland Rust, active with research and academic institutions in England and the Netherlands, is one of two people this year to be elected a Fellow of the European Marketing Academy (EMAC).

The American Marketing Association has selected Professor Roland Rust at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business as an inaugural AMA Fellow in a new program that honors top marketing academics. The AMA, the largest marketing association in North America, selected Rust because of his contributions in teaching, research, practice, service and leadership. 

Last week (June 26-29, 2014), academic experts and business leaders from countries around the world gathered in Miami, Florida, for the 23rd Annual Frontiers in Service Conference, hosted by the School of Business Administration at the University of Miami. 

Roland Rust, executive director of the Center for Excellence in Service, has just published The Handbook of Service Marketing Research. This volume brings together an all-star team of leading researchers in service marketing to explore many of the hottest topics in service marketing today. Cutting-edge topics include: customer relationships and loyalty, customer-centered metrics, managing customer contacts, product and pricing, digital service marketing, rethinking the marketing function, and service for society.