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Chair of Marketing & Sales
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Chair of
Marketing & Sales

At the Chair of Marketing & Sales, we study how firms win customers, grow customer value, and build stronger sales organizations. Our research focuses on the drivers of sales performance and on how AI can improve innovation and managerial decision-making. The goal is rigorous research with clear practical relevance. This also shapes our teaching, which is closely connected to real managerial challenges and designed to prepare students for sales positions in a dynamic business environment. At the same time, we examine how market-oriented thinking can be used to address broader societal challenges.

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Teaching

Teaching
In which programmes does this Chair offer courses?

Bachelor in
Management (BSc)

  • Digital Marketing
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Master in
Management(MIM)

  • Selling & Sales
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MSc in
International Sales Management

  • Sales
  • Consumer Behavior & Digital Marketing
  • Organizational Buying
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Research

Research

At the Chair of Marketing & Sales, my research explores how firms can sell more effectively, improve innovation through AI, and use market-oriented strategies to address important societal challenges. My work focuses on how sales organizations can win customers, grow customer value, and translate strategy into innovative products and superior sales performance.

Selling to Customers

This research area explores how firms can create and capture value through personal selling, incentive design, and customer referral mechanisms. A first project is on personal selling, especially the effectiveness of sales visits under different economic conditions. A second project analyzes incentive systems for sales employees, with a particular interest in how incentives shape effort, behavior, and performance to different types of customers. A third project investigates customer referral programs and asks when and why referrals attract more valuable, more loyal, or better-matching customers than selling through salespeople. Together, these projects explore how firms can sell more efficiently and effectively.

AI in Innovation

This research area explores how firms can use artificial intelligence to improve innovation processes and decision-making. I study how new ideas emerge, how they are evaluated, and how organizations can strengthen the fuzzy front end of innovation. A particular focus lies on the role of large language models and other AI systems in idea generation, idea screening, and opportunity identification. My research asks when AI can enhance human creativity, when it may distort judgment, and how firms can combine human expertise and machine intelligence effectively. Overall, this work examines how organizations can use AI not only to become more efficient, but also to innovate more intelligently and successfully.

Better Marketing for a Better World

This research area explores how marketing can help address major societal challenges and improve individual well-being. Rather than viewing marketing only as a tool for commercial success, I study how it can generate positive outcomes for people and society. One project examines the factors that foster the successful integration of refugees into the labor market. Another investigates how the behavior of customer service employees in public service contexts, such as unemployment registration, can shape important life outcomes of employees like the duration of unemployment. More broadly, this research asks how marketing and service interactions can be designed to create social value.

Publications

Publications
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Team & Contact

Team and contact

Prof. Dr. Christian Pescher - Full Professor of Marketing and Sales

Prof. Dr. Christian Pescher

Professor of Marketing & Sales
cpescher@escp.eu
Academ ID
1549765
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