767 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Research Interests: Competitive strategies in global markets, Innovation and organic growth, Marketing management, Strategy formulation processes and evaluations.
Links: CV
George S. Day is the Geoffrey T. Boisi Professor Emeritus at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He founded the Mack Institute for Innovation Management at the Wharton School, where he is presently Faculty Emeritus in Residence. He was previously the Executive Director of the Marketing Science Institute where he is currently an Academic Trustee.
He has consulted with many corporations such as General Electric, IBM, Metropolitan Life, Unilever, E.I. DuPont de Nemours, W.L. Gore and Associates, Coca-Cola, Boeing, LG Corp., Best Buy, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic. He is the past chairman of the American Marketing Association and has served on 14 Boards of Directors including, at the present, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. He is the co-chair of the Ag Sustainability Center of the Sonoma County Winegrowers.
Dr. Day has authored 23 books and 160 professional articles in the areas of marketing innovation and strategic management, including: Advanced Introduction to Marketing Strategy, 2022, Innovate to Grow: Gaining and Sustaining a Growth Advantage, 2025, Strategy from the Outside-In: Profiting from Customer Value (with Christine Moorman) 2010, Innovation Prowess: Leadership Strategies for Accelerating Growth, 2013, and See Sooner/Act Faster: How Vigilant Leaders Navigate Digital Turbulence (with Paul Schoemaker) 2019.
He has won ten best articles award and one best book award, and two of his articles were among the top 25 most influential articles in marketing science in the past 25 years. His publications have been cited more than 70,000 times, ranking him in the top one percent of published academics. He was honored with the Charles Coolidge Parlin Award in 1994, the Paul D. Converse Award in 1996, the Sheth Foundation award in 2003, and the Mahajan Award for career contributions to strategy in 2001. In 2004, he received the AMA/Irwin/McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award. In 2015 he was selected as one of eleven “Legends in Marketing,” and in 2017 he was awarded the William L. Wilkie, “Marketing for a Better World” award. In 2020 he was awarded the Sheth Medal, a bi-annual award for exceptional contributions to marketing scholarship and practice.
September 2026
George Day, David Reibstein, Jerry (Yoram) Wind (2026), Navigating the Forces Shaping the Marketing Strategy Discipline, Marketing Strategy Journal, 7 ().
George Day, David Reibstein, Jerry (Yoram) Wind (Under Review), Navigating the Headwinds and Tailwinds Shaping the Marketing Strategy Discipline.
George Day (2026), The Innovation Disciplines of Organic Growth Leaders, Strategic Management Review.
Kaihan Krippendorff, George Day, Jayshree Sheth (2025), New Research Shows How an “Idea Marketpace” Can Boost Innovation, .
George Day (2025), Becoming More Socially Profit Oriented, Journal of Marketing, 89 (2), pp. 20-22.
George Day (2024), Capturing Innovation Opportunities: Learning from Growth Leaders, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 41 (4), pp. 724-734.
George Day (2023), Diagnosing the Market-Driven Approach to Innovation: Learning from Practice, Strategic Management Review.
George Day (2023), Accelerating growth with strategic innovation: Putting market driving into context, Industrial Marketing Management.
George Day (2022), Commentary on Formulating Strategy from the Outside In, Long Range Planning.
George Day and Roger Dennis (2022), Overcoming the preparedness paradox: five initiatives to ready businesses for an uncertain future disruption, Strategy & Leadership, 50 (5), pp. 9-14.
This course views marketing as both a general management responsibility and an orientation of an organization that helps one to create, capture and sustain customer value. The focus is on the business unit and its network of channels, customer relationships, and alliances. Specifically, the course attempts to help develop knowledge and skills in the application of advanced marketing frameworks, concepts, and methods for making strategic choices at the business level.
A student contemplating an independent study project must first find a faculty member who agrees to supervise and approve the student's written proposal as an independent study (MKTG 899). If a student wishes the proposed work to be used to meet the ASP requirement, he/she should then submit the approved proposal to the MBA adviser who will determine if it is an appropriate substitute. Such substitutions will only be approved prior to the beginning of the semester.
Winner (with Christine Moorman) for Strategy from the Outside-In (McGraw-Hill 2010)
"The Path to Customer Centricity" with Denise Shah, Roland Rust, A. Parasuraman and Richard Staelin.
Award for Aligning the Organization with the Market (MSI Report 05-110).
For the best article published in the Journal of Marketing that has made a long term contribution to the field of Marketing
AMA/McGraw-Hill Irwin Distinguished Marketing Educator
Erskine Fellow, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
For career contributions to marketing strategy, awarded by the American Marketing Association
From the Wharton Graduate Association
For teaching excellence at The Wharton School, 1992, 1997, 1998
For research on interfunctional issues
For outstanding contributions to the development of the science of
marketing, awarded by the American Marketing Association.
For best working paper “The Capabilities of Market-Driven Organizations”
INFORMS Society for Marketing Science picked my article "The Capabilities of Market-Driven Organizations" which appeared in the Journal of Marketing in 1994 as one of the Top 20 articles that have most affected the practice of marketing science.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to marketing and marketing education
For most significant contribution to marketing theory and thought for the article “The Capabilities of Market-Driven Organizations.” This article was also the runner-up for the Alpha Kappa Psi Foundation Award.
For most significant contribution to marketing theory and thought, Jointly with Mary Lambkin for article on “Evolutionary Processes in Competitive Markets: Beyond the Life Cycle.”
In 1980 and 1988
For most significant contribution to marketing practice, Jointly with Robin Wensley for article on “Assessing Advantage: A Framework for Diagnosing Competitive Superiority.”
For outstanding contributions to the use of computers in the field
of business education
For ACustomer-Oriented Approaches to Identifying Product Markets,” with Allan D. Shocker and Ray Srivastava
For most significant contribution to marketing practice, 1978, for article on “Diagnosing the Product Portfolio”
With publication of Buyer Attitudes and Brand Choice Behavior in 1970 by Free Press
1964 and 1965
Banks are facing a new era of digital transformation. In this article, Wharton’s George Day and co-author Cassie Solomon explain how a traditional finance firm has embraced the evolution of fintech and thrived. …Read More
Knowledge at Wharton - 7/11/2023Let us introduce you to the new chairman of the Wharton Board of Overseers.
Wharton Magazine - 07/29/2013