Dr. Marko Grünhagen is the Lumpkin Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship, Professor of Marketing and Coordinator of the campus-wide Entrepreneurship Minor. His research interest lies in the broader area of small business marketing and retailing in an international context, and has focused most recently on motivations of franchise owner, their satisfaction with the franchisor, and the effectiveness of franchise support services.

Dr. Grünhagen is a past Chair of the International Society of Franchising (ISoF) and a past Chair of the Office Depot Small Business Research Forum. He is also a recipient of the Arthur S. Karp Award for the "Best Applied Research Paper on Franchising" from the Educational Foundation of the International Franchise Association (IFA), as well as the "Best Paper Award" from the International Society of Franchising (ISoF). He serves as Associate Editor for the "Franchising and Small Business Marketing" area of the Journal of Small Business Management, and was Co-Editor of a recent Special Issue on Franchising of the Journal of Retailing.

Dr. Grünhagen's research has been published or accepted by numerous academic journals such as the Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Economic Psychology and the Journal of Marketing Channels. He has been quoted as an expert on franchising by global news outlets such as Entrepreneur Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The China Business Journal and National Public Radio (NPR), and he has been invited to present his research across four continents in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.