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Chekitan S. Dev

Chekitan S. Dev

  • Singapore Tourism Distinguished Professor

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Faculty Area

Interdisciplinary Theme

Faculty Expertise

  • Marketing
  • Branding
  • Ecommerce
  • Strategy
  • Hotels
  • Hospitality
  • Online Travel Agents (OTAs)
  • Tourism

Contact

Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration

607.592.5183

chekitan.dev@cornell.edu

Cornell Directory Entry

Website

Biography

Chekitan Dev is an internationally renowned scholar and thought leader on marketing and branding in the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries. As an expert witness, he has testified in deposition, trial, and at arbitration in numerous hospitality-related matters, in the United States and internationally, including multiple cases involving hotel owner–brand relationships and the online travel industry.

Professor Dev has consulted on marketing and branding to major corporations. He has more than forty years of experience analyzing an array of issues involving hotels, travel, and tourism. His recent research has focused on how branding and rebranding affect both public perception and profitability in the hospitality industry. In particular, he has assessed key drivers of profitability and customer loyalty, including branding, digital marketing, and consumer service. Professor Dev has also evaluated brand portfolio strategy in the context of hotel mergers.

An award-winning author, Professor Dev wrote Hospitality Branding (Cornell University Press), as well as over one hundred articles in leading academic and practitioner journals, including the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, and Harvard Business Review. He has coauthored multiple case studies for Harvard Business School, and in 2019 received the overall winner award for best case study from the Case Centre at the Cranfield School of Management (UK). The American Marketing Association recognized Professor Dev and his coauthors as finalists for the Best Service Research Paper of the Year Award for their article “Return on Service Amenities” (Journal of Marketing Research, 2017).

Professor Dev is a sought-after commentator on hospitality trends. He has been interviewed numerous times in the mainstream media, and his research featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Economist, and the International Herald Tribune, among others. The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has selected Professor Dev as one of the “Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality, Travel and Tourism Sales and Marketing.”

At Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, Professor Dev teaches courses on brand and marketing management.

Selected Publications

Awards and Honors

  • Dean's Academic Excellence Award (2016) School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University
  • CHR Industry Relevance Award (2016) Cornell University, School of Hotel Administration
  • Highly Commended Paper Award (2015) IJCM Editors - Emerald Publishing
  • Hospitality Research in Practice Award, Honorable Mention (2010) Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (CCHR)
  • Cornell Hospitality Quarterly Best Article Award, Runner Up (2010) Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (CCHR)

Recent Courses

  • HADM 7430 - Marketing Management for Services

Academic Degrees

  • PhD Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1988
  • Master Ecole Superieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciale (ESSEC Business School), 1985
  • Post-Graduate Diploma Oberoi School of Hotel Management, 1981
  • BA University of Delhi, 1979

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