Purdue University | Indiana CCA

Proceedings 2006



Indiana Certified Crop Adviser Conference

CD-AY-7

Precision Marketing: Segments, Selling, and Success

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AkridgeJay  Akridge
Director of the Center for Food and Agricultural Business Center
Purdue University
akridge@purdue.edu

Dr. Akridge is Director of the Center for Food and Agricultural Business (Center) at Purdue University. He is the James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue and was named a University Faculty Scholar in 2000. His primary responsibilities include leading the Center and the MS-MBA dual degree program in food and agribusiness management, a partnership with the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University; working with food and agribusiness managers in the Center's professional development programs; conducting research on agribusiness management and marketing issues, and teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in strategic management for food and agribusiness firms. An award winning teacher, in 1996 he received the Charles B. Murphy Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching -- Purdue’s highest teaching award, and in 2001 he received the Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award (More than 10 Years’ Experience) from the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA), AAEA’s highest teaching award. Dr. Akridge's research has examined the buying behavior of commercial agricultural producers, adoption of precision agricultural technologies, and the role of e-commerce in the agribusiness industries. He has co-authored two books, Commercial Producers: Making Choices, Driving Change (2000) and Agribusiness Management (2001), and more than 400 research papers, reports, case studies, and trade articles. Dr. Akridge has worked with agribusiness managers in the areas of strategy, finance and marketing in some 20 countries including Lithuania, Hungary, Peru, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Kenya, Cameroon, and most recently, China. Dr. Akridge received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics in 1986 from Purdue University specializing in marketing and finance. His M.S. degree (1983) in Agricultural Economics with an emphasis in agribusiness management is also from Purdue. Dr. Akridge's B.S. degree a double major in agriculture and business administration is from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky (1982). In addition to his Purdue responsibilities, Jay maintains an active role in his family’s third generation retail farm supply business located in Fredonia, Kentucky. He and his wife, Michelle, have two children, Sean, age 17, and Samantha, age 14.