Robert Kwortnik, Jr.

Biography

Rob Kwortnik is associate professor of services marketing and management at the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Kwortnik has served as the director of the Center for Hospitality Research and the director of Graduate Studies. He has been honored 10 times as a Teacher of the Year by students.

Kwortnik teaches the core business course, Marketing Management for Services, and several elective courses that he developed, including Service Experience Marketing and Management; Integrated Marketing Communications and Media; and Introduction to the Global Leisure Cruise Industry. He’s created three certificate programs for eCornell: Strategic Hospitality Marketing, Hospitality Marketing with Digital Media, and Social Media Marketing. He also teaches in executive education programs for such industry sectors as hotels and restaurants, venue management, leisure cruise, membership clubs, food service, consulting, automotive, and nonprofit.

Kwortnik’s research focuses on consumer behavior in service contexts, with special attention to consumer decision-making for experiential products, service experience management, service branding, and customer loyalty. His research has appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Management, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, among others. His co-authored article, “Surprise, Anticipation, and Sequence Effects in Service and Experience Design” (2017) won the POMS College of Service Operations Most Influential Service Operations Paper Award. His co-authored article, “The Role of Positive Emotions in Experiential Decisions” (2007) won an Emerald Management Reviews Citation of Excellence as one of 50 best articles out of 15,000 published in management that year.

Prior to his career in academics, Kwortnik held professional positions in marketing, including public relations director for a children’s charity, marketing director for a bank, and marketing manager for a Los Angeles-based film studio. He has consulted for Marriott International, the American Automobile Association, the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, Cruise Lines International Association, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and the Tourism Ministry of Zambia among others. He has served as a legal expert witness on branding and trademark infringement issues, and he is a recognized expert on the leisure cruise industry.

Kwortnik joined the Nolan School faculty in 2002 after earning his PhD in business administration from Temple University’s Fox School of Business. He also earned a BA in journalism from Temple and an MBA from California State University, Northridge.

Recent Courses

• HADM 6491 - Integrated Marketing Communications for the Hospitality Industry
• HADM 4425/HADM 6425 - Introduction to the Global Leisure Cruise Industry
• HADM 7430 - Marketing Management for Services
• HADM 9981 - Seminar in Service Management Research

Academic Degrees

• PhD Temple University, 2003
• MBA California State University, Northridge, 1994
• BA Temple University, 1987