Ashraf Attia earns Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities

Outstanding service and research on the international level while stimulating expertise in SUNY Oswego’s School of Business have earned Ashraf Attia, professor and chair of marketing and management, a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities.

“Dr. Attia has published 22 peer-reviewed journal articles in high-quality journals,” wrote nominator Barry Friedman, a fellow marketing and management professor. “Most notably, he was the lead author in 16 of these 22 scholarly articles.”

Friedman emphasized that these journals include the most prestigious outlets for research on sales management and social media marketing, two of Attia’s international research areas. 

“In addition, Dr. Attia published 32 peer-reviewed conference proceeding papers over the same period,” Friedman added. “His research productivity will certainly continue as he concurrently has 10 articles either under review or in progress.”

“Professor Attia is a reputed scholar in the field of marketing and has continually developed his research interest and skill set that he uses to support his long-standing teaching interests in the area of business-to-business marketing and sales,” wrote Prabakar Kothandaraman, dean of Oswego’s School of Business. “His work furthers the School of Business strategic plan of being the best industry-connected school with an agile curriculum.”

Joining the SUNY Oswego family in 1998, Attia has published more than 10 articles in sales training for journals with very high impact and influence factor, Kothandaram noted, while also being on the editorial boards for such journals as Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence, and Global Review of Business and Economic Research. He also serves as associate editor of the International Journal of Islamic Branding and Marketing.

Attia won the 2005 Marvin Jolson Best Sales Practitioner Article for the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, “the most prestigious refereed journal in sales management,” Friedman said. 

Kothandaram added: “He also received the best paper award in the National Conference in Sales Management, the most specialized conference in sales. His thematic contribution is invaluable as it immensely supports his teaching of sales management, as sales training is an important component of sales management.” 

Attia’s other honors the Best Paper in the Middle East and North Africa Track at the 2002 Multicultural Marketing Conference and a Best Doctoral Paper honor at the 1997 regional Academy of International Business Conference.

In 2016, Attia earned the President’s Award for Scholarly and Creative Activity at SUNY Oswego.

International recognition

“Dr. Attia has been recognized repeatedly and internationally for producing impactful academic research,” Friedman wrote. “Dr. Attia’s intellectual contributions are significant globally. He is a well-recognized expert in sales training effectiveness, especially with respect to the Middle East.”

Attia is an invited speaker at many conferences, Friedman wrote, with expertise widely sought out in industrial and organizational settings, including consulting with corporations looking to improve the effectiveness of their sales forces.

His research and expertise have evolved to keep up with emerging topics, such as the use of social media in social change and revolution. He has discussed this both far –- as the keynote speaker for the June 2022 International Conference on Management Studies in Turkey and the 2017 Global Islamic Marketing Conference, also in Turkey –- and near, as the keynoter for the college’s 2013 Quest symposium. Attia also has served on program committees and as track chair, session chair, panelist and presenter at several international marketing conferences.

Attia recently earned promotion to the chair of the marketing and management department in the SUNY Oswego School of Business, where he coordinates the marketing major, which has the second-largest enrollment in the business school.

In addition to Attia’s scholarship and publications of international importance, he “developed innumerable courses in his field of expertise” for undergraduate and graduate programs in the School of Business, Kothandaram explained, providing both valuable content and credibility for the school’s offerings.

Collaborative success

Richard Skolnik, retired from his role as dean of the School of Business but still teaching in the school, applauded Attia’s collaboration with other business faculty at Oswego, visiting scholars and faculty at other institutions. 

“He has published on topics such as sales training, ethics and social media use during the Arab Spring uprisings and subsequent social movements,” Skolnik noted. “Dr. Attia integrates his professional experience with his academic research. He has conducted numerous international sales and service training workshops in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.”

“For the Department of Marketing and Management, his scholarly habits have positively impacted not only the quality of his own teaching but also supported our efforts to develop innovative marketing curriculum,” wrote Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Management Sarfraz Mian, a colleague and Attia’s immediate predecessor in chairing the department.

Mian called Attia “a dedicated researcher” leading the way forward for the college’s evolving marketing and sales offerings. 

“His scholarly work has been transferred into the classroom in the form of new curriculum in areas such as cross-cultural marketing, marketing ethics, integrating the web into marketing curriculum and developing e-commerce undergraduate and graduate online course offerings,” Mian wrote. “Dr. Attia epitomizes everything that a proven teacher-scholar should have and is a source of inspiration to his younger faculty colleagues.”

Additional letters of recommendation came from colleagues from such institutions as George Washington, Elon, Edinboro, Westminster International, American International and Northern Kentucky universities.

Attia earned his Ph.D. in marketing and master’s in economics from Old Dominion University, a master of business administration from the American University in Cairo in Egypt and a bachelor’s in business administration from Cairo University.