Indian American Professor Roy Honored for AI Sales Research

The paper, titled “Beyond the Polanyi Paradox in B2B Marketing: Leveraging AI to Extract Tacit User Knowledge in Product-Led Growth,” was presented at the association’s 2026 Summer Academic Conference. Roy’s work focuses on how AI systems analyze unstructured workplace actions to uncover unarticulated customer preferences, helping business-to-business firms refine their market outreach and value delivery.

Roy said the research has direct implications for business education. As routine marketing tasks such as drafting sequences and list building become automated, entry-level marketing jobs increasingly require analytical reasoning, question design, and ethical judgment. “The graduates who thrive in the AI age will be the ones who can direct AI rather than compete with it,” he said, adding that integrating current research into coursework helps prepare students for emerging workforce demands.

Roy completed his undergraduate education in India, earning a Master of Science degree from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in 1980. He later received a postgraduate diploma in rural management from the Institute of Rural Management Anand in 1982 and a doctorate in marketing from the University of Western Sydney in Australia in 2002.

Before entering academia, Roy worked in India’s commercial sector from 1982 to 1995 as head of marketing and sales for HPCL, a joint venture between Sweden’s Tetra Pak and India’s National Dairy Development Board. He was part of the leadership team that introduced aseptic packaging to the Indian market through products such as Amul and Frooti.

Roy has been at the University of New Haven since 2001, serving as chair of the Department of Accounting, Finance, and Marketing and as co-editor of the American Business Review. He has also been a visiting lecturer at Texas Christian University and a visiting scholar at the Yale School of Management. His research has appeared in journals including the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Marketing Science, and Industrial Marketing Management.