Andrea Dixon

Professional Summary

Dr. Andrea Dixon provides academic leadership for Baylor University’s Center for Professional Selling. Since 2009, Dixon has built Baylor’s sales center into one of the top programs in the country, commemorated its 25th Anniversary in 2010 (the oldest sales center in the U.S.), and edited the 30th Anniversary issue of the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management (JPSSM). In 2025, Baylor ProSales celebrated its 40th Anniversary by hosting scholars from 11 countries at a research symposium that will result in another special issue of the JPSSM.

In 17 years, Dixon grew the annual impact of the program from eight students (avg. GPA: 2.7) to 234 students (avg. GPA: 3.69) and expanded the corporate partnership program from $15,000/year to $440,000+/year while contributing over $2.5M to endowment funds. The curricular/co-curricular competency-based model she built is based on 12 B2B research-based competencies and 49 skills and allows ProSales to provide a 100% guaranteed placement for graduating Seniors and Junior-level internships.

Dixon has published in the Journal of Marketing, Harvard Business Review, Organizational Science, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Leadership Quarterly, European Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Marketing Education, and other journals. Dixon’s research in the Journal of Marketing was the 2002 award-winner. She co-authored Strategic Sales Leadership and Sales Management (Third Edition) and her work on customer selection appears in The Oxford Handbook of Sales Management and Sales Strategy. Dr. Dixon previously served as the Regional Editor for the European Journal of Marketing and currently serves on the Editorial Review Boards for the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, and Journal of Marketing Education.

In 2024, the American Marketing Association’s Sales Special Interest Group named Dixon the Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Recognizing a scholar whose career has made a significant impact on sales scholarship, the Lifetime Achievement Award winner has had a personal impact on the field and other scholars, provided an enduring legacy through permanent contributions, shaped the field through a publication record, and developed internal (to their institution) and external (to the wider field) programs. In 2020, she was named the Cornelia Marschall Smith Award winner, presented annually to a Baylor faculty member who makes a superlative contribution to the learning environment at Baylor, including teaching, which is judged to be of the highest order of intellectual acumen and pedagogical effectiveness; research, which is recognized as outstanding by the national and/or international as well as local community of scholars; and service, which is regarded as exemplary in building the character of intellectual community at Baylor. In 2023, she was selected as a Piper Professor Award Winner, naming her one of the 10 top university professors in the state of Texas. Having completed her Ph.D. at Indiana University-Bloomington, Dixon has received numerous teaching awards: MBA Teaching Award (U.C.), Irwin Publishing’s national teaching award, Distinguished Professorship (I.U. MBA students), University-wide award (I.U.) and the Ronald J. Dornoff Teaching Fellow (U.C.). Dixon was named the International Academy of Marketing Science's Marketing Teacher Award winner in 2008. In 2014, she received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Marketing Association Sales SIG as well as the Hankamer School of Business Teaching Excellence award.

In addition to teaching PhD, master- and undergraduate-level students, she shares her research through both keynote addresses and executive trainings. As a member of Duke University’s Global Learning Resource Network for Executive Education, Dr. Dixon has addressed executives in London, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Mexico City, Dubai, Hyderabad, Paris, and throughout the United States. As a member of the academy, Dixon co-chaired several conferences: 2007 Winter AMA Educators, 2012 and 2017 Global Sales Science Institute (GSSI), and 2012 and 2016 3M Frontline Sales Conferences. She served on the boards of the AMA Academic Council, the National Conference on Sales Management, and the Global Sales Science Institute. She served as President of the AMA Sales SIG. She has served on several global, national, and regional non-profit boards. From 2019-2021, Dixon fulfilled the Presidency of the University Sales Center Alliance. At Baylor University, she served as the Chair of the President’s Task Force on Alternative Revenue, Vice-Chair of Baylor’s Presidential Search Committee, and as a Faculty Regent on the Baylor University Board of Regents. She currently serves on the international Board of Directors for the American Marketing Association and World Impact.

Education

• PhD, Marketing, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
• MS-Marketing, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
• MBA, Boston University, Boston, MA
• BBA, Marketing, Kent State University, Kent, OH
• BBA, Management, Kent State University, Kent, OH
• BVA, Theatre, Kent State University, Kent, OH

Courses

• MKT 4328 – Sales Management
• MKT 4331 – Key/Global Account Management

Research Interests

• Sales management
• Salesperson performance
• Internal selling

Selected Publications

• McFarland, R. and A. Dixon (2021), “The Impact of Salesperson Interpersonal Mentalizing Skills on Coping and Burnout: The Critical Role of Coping Oscillation,” Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.
• Sleep, S., A. Dixon, T. DeCarlo, and S. Lam (2020), “The Business-to-Business Inside Sales Force: Roles, Configurations, & Research Agenda,” European Journal of Marketing.
• Cummins, S., J.W. Peltier, and A. Dixon (2016), “Omni-Channel Research Framework in the Context of Personal Selling and Sales Management: A Review and Research Extensions,” Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing.
  • Best paper of the year award from ERB.
• Dixon, A. and J.K. Tanner (2012), “Transforming Selling: Why It Is Time to Think Differently About Sales Research,” Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.
• Mehra, A., B. Smith, A. Dixon, and B. Robertson (2006), “Distributed Leadership in Teams: The Network of Leadership Perceptions and Team Performance,” Leadership Quarterly.
• Mehra, A., A. Dixon, D. Brass, and B. Robertson (2006), “The Social Network Ties of Group Leaders: Implications for Group Performance and Leader Reputation,” Organization Science.
• Jones, E. A. Dixon, L. Chonko, and J. Cannon (2005), “Key Accounts and Team Selling: Review, Framework and Research Agenda,” Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.
• Stengel, J., A. Dixon and C. Allen (2003). “Listening Begins at Home,” Harvard Business Review.
• Dixon, A., R. Spiro, and L. Forbes (2003), “Attributions and Behavioral Intentions of Inexperienced Salespersons to Failure,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
• Dixon, A., R. Spiro, and M. Jamil (2001), “Successful and Unsuccessful Sales Calls: Measuring Salesperson Attributions and Behavioral Intentions,” Journal of Marketing.
  • Best paper of the year award from American Marketing Association Sales SIG