Gary Knight
Dr. Gary Knight believes that marketing can lead to greater good.
His latest research delves into how marketing – and business in general – can be used to reduce poverty in so-called “bottom-of-pyramid” countries. This phrase is used to describe the world’s 4 billion people who live on a few dollars a day.
“The reality is when done properly, marketing serves as an important function in the world’s economy in creating products and services for people wanting to improve their lives,” said Knight, an associate professor of marketing who teaches master’s classes.
Typically it’s the public sector such as the United Nations that works on poverty reduction. Knight said the role of business in the poverty fight has largely been ignored. His research confirms that companies are gradually recognizing there’s a huge market out there that will reap profit as well as social good. Business is beginning to pay better attention to the emerging, fast-growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, coined the BRIC countries.
Consider CEMEX, which Knight said shifted its business model – distribution, product delivery, pricing, financing, product adaptation – to serve poor countries. The cement company saw the transformation as a way to gain more customers as increased competition filled up their traditional markets. Now, CEMEX has found a new way to make money, while in turn making home building possible in the most impoverished nations.
More and more firms, Knight said, are becoming “born global firms” that adopt internationalization early on. He continues to research their success.
Knight recently ranked as the world’s 26th most prolific author in international business based on publications in the field’s top six journals from 1996 to 2006. “Furthermore, based on Gary’s efforts, FSU ranked No. 29 in the world and No. 14 in the U.S. as the most prolific institution in international business research,” said Caryn L. Beck-Dudley, dean of the College of Business.
Knight spent his early career working as an export manager at a medium-sized Seattle company that sold prefabricated houses all over the world. He has studied in Japan and France and is fluent in Japanese and French. He has taught English in Japan and frequently teaches in FSU’s International Programs.
He decided to pursue an MBA and a Ph.D. after reading “What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers.” The best-seller by Richard Nelson Bolles has been updated almost annually since 1970.
“I realized I wanted to do something more important,” Knight said. “I wanted to make a larger contribution.”
