Sebastian Forkmann

Focus and Current Research

Industrial Services and Service Infusion, Strategic Customer Relationship Management, Strategic Supply Chain Management

Honors Achievements & Affiliations

Dr. Sebastian Forkmann's research primarily focuses on business relationships, in particular with business customers or suppliers, and how firms can leverage these relationships in order to stay competitive in fast-changing business environments. A main strand of his research focuses on industrial services and solutions in the context of innovative business models of traditionally manufacturing-oriented firms. He is currently collaborating with several industry partners on those topics.

In 2019 Dr. Forkmann hosted the first Thought Leadership Forum on Services and Solution at the Culverhouse College of Business. The Forum, which presented a day’s worth of discussion about the competitiveness and future challenges of the manufacturing sector, included industry leaders and academics from across the world and from within the state of Alabama.

Dr. Forkmann's research has been published in leading international journals such as the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Long Range Planning, Industrial Marketing Management, and International Journal of Operations and Production Management. For his research on the Dark Side of Business Relationships presented at the Academy of Management Meeting in 2017, he and his co-authors have received a best paper award and were finalists for the Chan Hahn best paper. For his research on Sustainable Supply Chain Management presented at the Academy of Management Meeting in 2018, he and his co-authors were finalists for the Institute of Supply Management best paper award. Dr. Forkmann serves on the editorial review board of Industrial Marketing Management for which he also co-edited a special issue on Capabilities in Business Relationships and Networks. In 2015 Dr. Forkmann co-hosted the 7th bi-annual international conference on Business Market Management (BMM) at Queen Mary University of London, UK.

Dr. Forkmann teaches undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive courses in Marketing. For his teaching on the Manderson MBA program (Culverhouse College of Business), he received the Faculty Excellence Award in 2018, 2019, and 2020. In 2020 he was awarded the James D. Nabors Instructional Excellence Award of the Culverhouse College of Business and in 2021 he became the James I. Harrison Family Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellow.

Prior to joining the faculty at Culverhouse College of Business, he was an Assistant Professor in Marketing and Supply Chain Management at Queen Mary University of London, UK.