Ed Rigdon
Professor & Chair
Department of Marketing, J. Mack Robinson, Georgia State University

Edward E. Rigdon is Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Department of Marketing in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University (GSU). Since joining the GSU faculty in 1989, Dr. Rigdon has taught courses in research methodology, interactive marketing, services marketing, and marketing management at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. As department head, Dr. Rigdon's priorities have included reshaping the marketing curriculum to make sure that students develop a firmer foundation in marketing metrics, and building a stronger role for direct marketing.

After completing undergraduate work at the University of Alabama which included a minor in a computer honors program, Dr. Rigdon entered the MBA program at the University of Chicago. As part of his MBA program, he studied marketing and international business at the Catholic University of Leuven, in Belgium. Returning to the University of Alabama, Dr. Rigdon completed a Ph.D. program in marketing that was supplemented with coursework in econometrics and mathematical statistics. Dr. Rigdon's doctoral research examined methodological issues in the area of structural equation modeling (SEM), a statistical approach that generalizes regression and factor analysis.

Dr. Rigdon's methodology research has been published in Journal of Marketing Research, Multivariate Behavioral Research, Structural Equation Modeling, and elsewhere. Dr. Rigdon's doctoral seminar in structural equation modeling attracts students, faculty and practitioners from GSU, Emory University, Georgia Tech, and beyond. Dr. Rigdon co-founded SEMNET, an Internet-based discussion list focusing on SEM. Today, this "electronic conference" has more than 2,600 subscribers on six continents. For his work with SEMNET, Dr. Rigdon won GSU's Exceptional Service Award, one of the university's highest honors.

Dr. Rigdon's research on interactive marketing has been published in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Retailing, Industrial Marketing Management, and elsewhere. Dr. Rigdon's interest in this area grew out of his own experiences in building SEMNET, from his work as Technology Coordinator for the Marketing Department, and from his efforts in shaping the graduate curriculum in e-commerce at GSU.

Dr. Rigdon and his wife, Mary, live on Decimal Place Farm, approximately 18 acres located near Atlanta. Mary, who has a degree in animal science from the University of Georgia, raises award-winning dairy goats and makes award-winning fresh goat cheeses.