TIMS President, 1978-79
Frank Bass was the 25th President of TIMS. He was a leading academic in marketing research and is considered to be among the founders of Marketing Science. He was the Eugene C. McDermott University of Texas System Professor of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas and director of its PhD Program (1982- 2006). Before Texas-Dallas his academic appointments included Illinois, Texas-Austin, and Purdue (1961-1982) where he was Loeb Distinguished Professor.
Frank Bass’s most famous work was the Bass diffusion model that describes the adoption of new products and technologies by first-time buyers (1969). This model continues to be employed, in such field as modeling the diffusion and substitution of successive generations of computer chips. In 1987 he coauthored a paper that won the on how new technologies continually replace older ones that was selected as best paper for the John D.C. Little Award of the INFORMS College of Marketing. His research career extended over 52 years. In his work he used models and advanced statistical techniques often adapted from economics and the social sciences, He made fundamental contributions to way marketing is taught in universities and applied in business. He was principal advisor to 60 Doctoral students and wrote over 100 papers. In a career that extended over 52 years, he was a leading voice in the marketing science movement
In 1959, he was among forty management school faculty members chosen by the Ford Foundation to help bring credibility and direction to American business education. They were sent to Harvard University for a year of study that focused on mathematics.
Studies at the time reported the sad state of business school education. Students in business schools were ranked second from the bottom in terms of quality, and the faculties had about the same status.
Frank Bass founded the Journal of Marketing Science with Prof. Little and he served as the editor of the Journal of Marketing Research. He was successful in having the National Science Foundation recognize marketing as an area for support. He was principal advisor to 60 Doctoral students and wrote over 100 papers.
His honors also include the Paul. D. Converse award (1982), the American Marketing Association Distinguished Marketing Educator Award (1990) and best paper awards by the Journal of Marketing and by Marketing Science. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Management Science, at the University of Australia was named in his honor,
Professor Bass died in 2006.
BBA, 1945, Southwestern University, MBA, 1950, Texas at Austin, PhD (Business Administration), 1954, Illinois. PhD (hon.), 2005, University of South Australia