Michael Baker

A celebration of the life, legacy and accomplishments of Strathclyde marketing pioneer Professor Michael J. Baker (1935-2021) took place at the 2022 Academy of Marketing Annual Conference on July 5.

Professor Anne Marie Doherty welcomed over 300 delegates at a reception, sponsored by Strathclyde’s Department of Marketing, to mark Professor Baker’s legacy.

Professor Baker was an outstanding marketing academic, leader and mentor. His achievements are remarkable and in recognition of these he is acknowledged by many as the father of academic Marketing in the UK. Throughout his career Professor Baker’s publication output was prodigious, authoring or editing over 50 books, including both research outputs and teaching texts, and founding several academic journals including the Journal of Marketing Management. He published over 150 papers and won the Institute of Marketing’s gold medal for his paper on Export Myopia. He supervised no less than 53 successful PhDs, of whom more than 20 are now Chaired professors. His academic achievements were recognised in several awards including honorary doctorates, fellowships, and 29 visiting professorships he held around the world.

Professor Baker was the Founding Professor of Marketing at Strathclyde, establishing the UK’s first Department of Marketing in 1971. The establishment of the Marketing Education Group (1973), which later became the Academy of Marketing (1996) was another of Professor Baker’s key achievements and he attended almost every conference in the Academy’s more than 50 year history.

At the July 5 event Professor Doherty launched the Professor Michael J. Baker Annual Doctoral Thesis Awards, which will be jointly sponsored by the Department of Marketing at Strathclyde and the Academy of Marketing. These awards will honour the legacy of Strathclyde’s greatest marketing pioneer.