Forecasting Consumer Spending

In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Roland Rust talks about his new research that can forecast consumer spending better than other econometric models currently used.

Rust is Distinguished University Professor and David Bruce Smith Chair in Marketing, and he is one of the foremost experts in the world on customer satisfaction. He is founder and executive director of two research centers at the Smith School: the Center for Excellence in Service and the Center for Complexity in Business.

He has numerous lifetime achievement honors and prestigious recognitions include the American Marketing Association’s Gilbert A. Churchill Award for Lifetime Achievement in Marketing Research, the Distinguished Marketing Educator Award from the Academy of Marketing Science, the Outstanding Contributions to Research in Advertising award from the American Academy of Advertising, and the AMA’s Career Contributions to the Services Discipline Award. He is the founder and chair of the AMA’s annual Frontiers in Service Conference, and was founding Editor of the Journal of Service Research.