Earned a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Marketing at the University of Florida. He began his teaching career at the University of Mississippi and then moved to Louisiana State University in 1977. He continues to teach at LSU, where he is the Director of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Education and Family Business Studies, and where he holds the Alvin C. Copeland Endowed Chair of Franchising. He has acted as a management consultant and/or expert witness for a variety of industries and has served on the board of directors of numerous organizations. He has been an officer of for a long list of academic organizations and he is a Past President and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Marketing Science. He has been a regular contributor and reviewer, and occasionally a member of the editorial board, for such publications as The Journal of Marketing Research, The Journal of Business Research, and Marketing Education Review. The list of this scholarly publications runs to a dozen pages.
