Colin B. Gabler

About

I'm a marketing professor at Auburn University's Harbert College of Business, where my passion for teaching and research intersects with real-world impact. Whether I'm helping students navigate their transition from college to career or exploring how organizations manage competing stakeholder demands, my work is driven by a simple question: How can we make business better for everyone?

🏆 2024 Excellence in Teaching Award

In a college full of amazing educators, it was a true honor to receive the Harbert College of Business Teaching Award. My goal is simple: help students get jobs and start their careers. I start each semester by asking, "Who does not have a job lined up after graduation?" and follow it up with, "We have four months together to make it happen."

📰 Published in The New Yorker

In September 2022, The New Yorker published my letter in response to Sam Taggart's story about door-to-door selling. A career in professional sales comes with challenges and opportunities, and I'm proud to be part of the conversation about overcoming negative stereotypes.

🔬 Research & Impact

With 45+ publications in leading business journals, my research focuses on sustainable business strategy, stakeholder management, and how firms navigate competing demands from multiple stakeholders.

Research

"Ancora impara." — Michelangelo (Still, I am learning)

My research examines how organizations manage multiple stakeholders, especially when stakeholder values are misaligned and how firms and policy-makers respond to these competing goals. I focus on sustainable business strategy, sales and service expectations, retail pricing strategy, consumer psychology, and supply chain resiliency.

Research Streams

Frontline Strategy

How do frontline employees navigate complex stakeholder demands? This research stream explores the challenges and opportunities facing those at the customer interface, examining how organizational strategy translates to frontline execution and how employees balance competing pressures from customers, management, and their own values.

Consumer Strategy

What drives consumer decision-making, particularly around sustainable products and ethical consumption? This work investigates consumer psychology, cultural differences in eco-activism, and the factors that influence purchase behavior in an increasingly conscious marketplace.

Marketing & Supply Chain Strategy

How do supply chains become more resilient, transparent, and sustainable? This research addresses disaster response, public-private collaboration, supply chain transparency, and the integration of environmental ethics throughout the value chain.

Current Research Questions

How do firms and FLEs juggle misaligned stakeholder demands?
Why should private firms and public organizations collaborate after natural disasters?
How does corporate environmental ethics translate to the frontline?

What makes consumers buy sustainable products?
What cultural differences influence eco-activism?
What are the benefits of supply chain transparency?

Awards & Recognition

2024: Marketing Department Excellence in Research Award, Auburn University

2019: Research Mentor Award

2017: Sustainability Research & Advocacy Award

2015: Faculty Excellence in Intellectual Contribution Award

View complete list of 45+ publications →

Teaching

"We cannot teach people anything. We can only help them discover it within themselves." — Galileo Galilei

Teaching Philosophy: Job-Ready Students

Teaching is what brought me to academia and it continues to both challenge and enlighten. My passion is evident in the classroom, where I am excited to teach Advanced Personal Selling at Auburn University. My goal in the classroom is simple: help students get jobs and start their careers. This involves making the classroom interactive, individual, and always striving to improve.

Because I could not find a job after college to save my life, helping students navigate this transition has become my overarching goal as an educator. Students become invested in their classmates, actively checking in on each other throughout the semester. I've never witnessed anything like it. Auburn University is a pretty special place and I'm proud to be here.

Current Courses at Auburn

Advanced Personal Selling

My passion course at Auburn University. Teaching students the art and science of professional sales while helping them launch their careers. These are mostly seniors looking for that first job after college, and we work together to make it happen.

Marketing Principles

Taught in the Business Minor Abroad Program in Madrid, Spain. Bringing marketing fundamentals to life through international perspectives and real-world applications with 90 non-business majors from diverse fields.

International Business

Full-Time MBA Program course exploring global business strategy, cross-cultural management, and the complexities of operating in international markets.

In the Classroom

Before Auburn, I earned my teaching stripes at Ohio University (2013-2022) and the University of Alabama (2009-2013).

International Experience

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." — St. Augustine

I'm a traveler at heart. I've visited all 50 U.S. states, 6 continents (Antarctica withstanding), and 42 countries, both for business and pleasure. The best part of my travel now is the excitement of taking a group of college students to a foreign country. There's something humbling and exciting about being part of an engaging and transformative learning experience that can only come from immersion in a new culture.

Current: Auburn Study Abroad

In 2023 and 2024, I taught in Madrid, Spain, as part of the Business Minor Study Abroad Program. Students spend 6 weeks in Milan taking accounting and finance, then head to Madrid for marketing and management. These 90 non-business majors are future engineers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, and more—making it incredibly fun to teach.

[Madrid 2023-2024 photos]

Ohio Global Consulting Program

As Director of the Global Consulting Program (2016-2022), I led transformative international experiences where students worked on real-world business consulting projects in partnership with local universities and companies. Programs included Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Greece.

[GCP program photos]

Center for International Business

At Ohio University, I served as Director of the Center for International Business, managing all international programs including the Ohio International Consulting Program, International Business Major, and International Business Certificate.

View full international experience with photos →

Recent Writing

December 13, 2025

When One Story Becomes a Verdict

From single data point to sweeping stereotype. Exploring the outgroup homogeneity effect and ultimate attribution error in political discourse.

October 3, 2025

"Thanks for Dinner, It was Gross"

Free speech in the age of AI. Who's accountable when machines participate in our conversations?

August 25, 2025

Sustainability as the Lens, Not a Lane

Lessons from the CARISCA conference on why sustainability should be embedded in everything we do.

View all blog posts →

Public Commentary

Beyond the classroom and academic journals, I contribute to public discourse on critical social and business issues. My op-eds and commentary have appeared in The New Yorker, Al.com, The Columbus Dispatch, and Harbert publications, addressing topics from AI and workplace dynamics to civil rights and public policy.

Featured Commentary

The New Yorker • September 2022

Sales Pitch

Published letter addressing professional sales stereotypes and the challenges of a career in door-to-door selling.

Harbert News • January 2026

Soft Skills Become Hard Currency in the Age of AI

Exploring how emotional intelligence and human connection are becoming critical differentiators as AI transforms the workplace.

The Columbus Dispatch • November 2024

How Trump's Emotionally Charged Messages Overpowered Logic

Examining the hot-cold empathy gap and how emotional triggers shaped the 2024 election.

View all op-eds & commentary →