Dr. Sebastian Forkmann is Associate Professor of Marketing and the James I. Harrison Family Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellow. Dr. 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.

Dr. Forkmann hosted the first Thought Leadership Forum on Services and Solutions 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. Watch a video featuring research recently published in the Journal of Supply Chain Management: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoSH6z640Aw

For his research on the Dark Side of Business Relationships presented at the Academy of Management Meeting, he and his co-authors received a best paper designation and were finalists for the Chan Hahn best paper. For his research on Sustainable Supply Chain Management presented at the Academy of Management Meeting, 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 the Journal of Business Research and Industrial Marketing Management for which he also co-edited a special issue on Capabilities in Business Relationships and Networks. Dr. Forkmann co-hosted the 7th bi-annual international conference on Business Market Management (BMM) at Queen Mary University of London, UK.

The doctoral dissertation by Jonathan Webb co-chaired by Dr. Forkmann was awarded “Best business-to-business marketing management Ph.D. thesis” by Industrial Marketing Management.

Dr. Forkmann teaches undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral, and executive courses in Marketing. In recognition of his teaching accomplishments, he has been awarded the Faculty Excellence Award by the Manderson MBA program in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2023. Moreover, in 2020 he was awarded the James D. Nabors Instructional Excellence Award and in 2022 the Untenured Tenure-Track Instructional Excellence Award. In 2021 he was named 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.