Dr. Abbie Griffin, the Royal L. Garff Presidential Chair in Marketing at the David Eccles School of Business, will be honored this spring as one of the top 45 ranking researchers in the technology innovation management field. The award comes on behalf of the International Association for Management of Technology, and will be presented at a May ceremony in Washington, D.C.
“It is gratifying to have the national spotlight shine so prominently on one of our most outstanding faculty members,” wrote University of Utah President David W. Pershing in a letter to Griffin penned after he heard the news from the assocation. “Please know how much your University values your contributions as a teacher and researcher. We are fortunate, indeed, to have you on our campus.”
Griffin’s skills as a researcher and professor are no mystery to members of the business school community. She consistently brings her latest research into the classroom, giving her students studying marketing the most current information available as they learn. She’s a past recipient of the David Eccles School of Business Masters Teaching Excellence Award, penned one of the Top 20 Marketing Science articles published in the past 25 years–a paper called “Voice of the Customer” that was voted the No. 7 most important article in the field of Marketing Science in the past quarter-century–and recently published a new book, Serial Innovators.
“The only way for companies to grow organically is through innovation and new product development,” Griffin said, reflecting on the honor and her passion for research. “Without ongoing innnovation, firms die. By focusing on these topics in my research, I’ve been able to not only create new knowledge for academic publication, but also to actually impact firms’ ability to successfully innovate and help them stay in business in the long run.”
Griffin began her career with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University. After working as a plant engineer for Polaroid Corporation for two years, she earned an MBA from Harvard University. She worked in product and technology commercialization for Corning Glass Works in their biotechnology division and technology consulting for Booz, Allen and Hamilton prior to receiving a Ph.D. in Management of Technology and Marketing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
When she’s not doing research or in a classroom, Griffin is an avid quilter, skier, hiker, swimmer and scuba diver.