Princeton Economics Group, Inc.

Paul W. Farris is Landmark Communications Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. He received his B.S. cum laude in business economics from the University of Missouri in 1970, his MBA from the University of Washington in 1971, and his DBA from the Harvard Business School in 1976. He has taught on the faculty at Darden since 1980. He teaches marketing and e-business courses in the school's MBA, doctoral, and executive programs and conducts research on marketing productivity and budgeting. His current research focus is on building coherent systems for evaluating business and marketing metrics.

Professor Farris' areas of expertise include marketing, advertising, and promotional practices. He has served as an expert witness in cases relating to shelf space allocation, channel allowances, private label competition, and distribution compensation/incentives. Through this work he has applied share and distribution statistics to improve sales forecasts, evaluated the use of an exclusive distribution allowance for non-prescription reading glasses in supermarkets, estimated the long-term effects of allowing a consumer appliance product that was infringing on a trademark to remain on store shelves, and explained the role of distribution compensation and incentives on distributor effort and manufacturer marketing success. Professor Farris taught at the Harvard Business School before his appointment at Darden in 1980. He previously worked in marketing management for Unilever, Germany and in account management for the Lintas advertising agency.

Professor Farris' work has been published in six books and more than 50 articles. He has also created paper-based and multimedia case materials and Web-based simulations and presentations. He serves as a board member for retailers, manufacturers, and companies focused on using the Internet to reinvent distribution channels.