Chekitan S. Dev

Biography

Dr. Chekitan S. Dev is an award-winning teacher and internationally renowned 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.

Professor Dev has consulted to major corporations all over the world for more than thirty years on an array of issues involving hospitality, travel, and tourism. An award-winning scholar, 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 and tourism 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 Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Professor Dev teaches courses on services marketing and brand management.

Selected Publications

• Dev, Chekitan. Hospitality Branding. Cornell University Press. (2012): 179 pages
• Tsai, Yi-Lin; Dev, Chekitan; Chintagunta, Pradeep. "What’s in a Brand Name? Assessing the Impact of Rebranding in the Hospitality Industry"Journal of Marketing Research. 52.6 (2015): 865-878
• Hamilton, Rebecca; Rust, Roland; Wedel, Michel; Dev, Chekitan. "Return on Service Amenities"Journal of Marketing Research. 54.1 (2017): 96-110
• Avery, Jill; Dev, Chekitan; Stroock, Laure. "The Marriott-Starwood Merger: Navigating Brand Portfolio Strategy and Brand Architecture"Harvard Business School Case 518-081. (2018)
• Dev, Chekitan. "Prune the Brand Portfolio?"Harvard Business Review. 96.2 (2018): 167-171

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

In the News

• May 19, 2022 Hotels and Airlines Cause Stress. Now They're Trying to Relieve It.