The American Marketing Association recently awarded Collat marketing professor Simon Sheng the 2026 Eli Jones Award for the long-term impact of his research.
Sheng and co-authors Blair Kidwell, David M. Hardesty, and Brian R. Murtha were honored for their paper “Emotional Intelligence in Marketing Exchanges opens a new website.” The paper, published in the Journal of Marketing in 2011, examines how sales professionals use emotions in marketing exchanges to facilitate positive outcomes for their firms, themselves, and their customers. The research found that sales professionals with higher emotional intelligence are not only superior revenue generators but are also better at retaining customers.
John Hansen, associate dean for research, academic, and faculty affairs, said that Sheng has been one of Collat’s leading researchers for many years.
"This award is a fitting recognition of the impact of his work," Hansen said. "His research addresses issues of real importance to businesses and policymakers, and he does an excellent job of bringing those insights into the classroom, further enhancing the learning experience for our students.”
The Eli Jones Award was established in 2023 by the AMA Sales Special Interest Group (SalesSIG) and honors the long-term impact of important sales research. It was presented at the 2026 AMA Summer Academic Conference in Denver.