By the Red Cedar River: The development of my academic life in the field of international marketing and innovation

My decision to pursue an academic life in international marketing was unplanned. It was spring 1989 and I was an MBA student in my last semester in East Lansing. Because my MBA concentration was in finance I had applied for a number of finance PhD programs. While waiting for my applications, I was taking an elective course, international marketing, from Prof. S. Tamer Cavusgil. I was immediately hooked. His lectures were absorbing. Difficult concepts became lucid when he explained them with vivid stories. Classical theories became refreshing when he used them as a backdrop for contemporary phenomena.