The New Yorker Β· September 2022
Harbert Magazine Β· This Generation Can Make Sustainability Pay Off
50+
Publications in leading
business journals
15+
Op-eds published in
media outlets
Professor | Writer | Thinker
"Go forth and set the world on fire." β St. Ignatius Loyola
50+
Publications in leading
business journals
15+
Op-eds published in
media outlets
I'm a marketing professor at Auburn University's Harbert College of Business, where my passion for teaching and research intersects with real-world impact. Whether I'm helping students navigate their transition from college to career or exploring how organizations manage competing stakeholder demands, my work is driven by a simple question: How can we make business better for everyone?
In a college full of amazing educators, it was a true honor to receive the Harbert College of Business Teaching Award. My goal is simple: help students get jobs and start their careers. I start each semester by asking, "Who does not have a job lined up after graduation?" and follow it up with, "We have four months together to make it happen."
In September 2022, The New Yorker published my letter in response to Sam Taggart's story about door-to-door selling. A career in professional sales comes with challenges and opportunities, and I'm proud to be part of the conversation about overcoming negative stereotypes.
In February 2026, The Washington Post published my opinion piece on Gen Z's growing communication gap. Drawing on my experience teaching Advanced Personal Selling, I offered strategies for helping young people rediscover the lost art of conversation in an age of screen-first interaction.
With 50+ publications in leading business journals, my research focuses on sustainable business strategy, stakeholder management, and how firms navigate competing demands from multiple stakeholders.
"Ancora impara." β Michelangelo (Still, I am learning)
My research examines how organizations manage multiple stakeholders, especially when stakeholder values are misaligned and how firms and policy-makers respond to these competing goals. I focus on sustainable business strategy, sales and service expectations, retail pricing strategy, consumer psychology, and supply chain resiliency.
How do frontline employees navigate complex stakeholder demands? This research stream explores the challenges and opportunities facing those at the customer interface, examining how organizational strategy translates to frontline execution and how employees balance competing pressures from customers, management, and their own values.
What drives consumer decision-making, particularly around sustainable products and ethical consumption? This work investigates consumer psychology, cultural differences in eco-activism, and the factors that influence purchase behavior in an increasingly conscious marketplace.
How do supply chains become more resilient, transparent, and sustainable? This research addresses disaster response, public-private collaboration, supply chain transparency, and the integration of environmental ethics throughout the value chain.
2024: Marketing Department Excellence in Research Award, Auburn University
2019: Research Mentor Award
2017: Sustainability Research & Advocacy Award
2015: Faculty Excellence in Intellectual Contribution Award
"We cannot teach people anything. We can only help them discover it within themselves." β Galileo Galilei
Teaching is what brought me to academia and it continues to both challenge and enlighten. My passion is evident in the classroom, where I am excited to teach Advanced Personal Selling at Auburn University. My goal in the classroom is simple: help students get jobs and start their careers. This involves making the classroom interactive, individual, and always striving to improve.
Because I could not find a job after college to save my life, helping students navigate this transition has become my overarching goal as an educator. Students become invested in their classmates, actively checking in on each other throughout the semester. I've never witnessed anything like it. Auburn University is a pretty special place and I'm proud to be here.
My passion course at Auburn University. Teaching students the art and science of professional sales while helping them launch their careers. These are mostly seniors looking for that first job after college, and we work together to make it happen.
Taught in the Business Minor Abroad Program in Madrid, Spain. Bringing marketing fundamentals to life through international perspectives and real-world applications with 90 non-business majors from diverse fields.
Full-Time MBA Program course exploring global business strategy, cross-cultural management, and the complexities of operating in international markets.
Before Auburn, I earned my teaching stripes at Ohio University (2013-2022) and the University of Alabama (2009-2013).
From Madrid to Milan, Japan to Ghana, I've had the privilege of taking students around the world β watching them step outside their comfort zones and grow in ways that only international immersion can produce. With 44 countries, 6 continents, and years of leading study abroad programs, global education is one of the most rewarding parts of my career.
Explore My International Experience βEssays exploring the intersection of psychology, politics, business, and societyβbringing academic insights to real-world issues. Posts from 2020-present.
As a marketing professor and researcher, I believe academic insights should inform public conversations. My commentary explores the intersection of business strategy, social justice, consumer behavior, and public policyβbringing evidence-based perspectives to pressing societal challenges.
"Those who use their connections are more likely to succeed than those who sit and wait." β Madeleine M. Kunin
Colin B. Gabler
Lowder Hall 244
Harbert College of Business
Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
π§ [email protected]