Walfried M. Lassar

Position: Department of Marketing and Logistics
Phone: 305-348-3898
Categories: AI Applications, AI Users
Location: College of Business

Dr. Lassar is a Professor of Marketing and holds the Ryder Systems Professor chair at Florida International University. After a 13-year business career holding various marketing and management positions in the U.S. and in Europe Dr. Lassar started his academic career in marketing. Dr. Lassar earned his Ph.D. and MBA degrees from the University of Southern California. A native of Germany, he also holds a degree in Industrial Engineering (Dipl.-Ing.) with a double major in mechanical engineering and business administration from the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany.  

 

Dr. Lassar taught and researched on four continents with stops at the London Business School, the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire, and the University of Miami. In August 1998 he joined Florida International University where he served as the Associate Dean for the Alvah H. Chapman Jr. Graduate School of business, the Chair of the Marketing Department, the Director of the Ryder Center for Supply Chain Management and the Academic Director for the Executive MBA program. 

 

His research focuses on services marketing and marketing strategy in value chains as well as value issues complex business-to-business relationships and sustainability.  His research projects integrate domestic and international business dimensions with consideration of disruptive innovation aspects. His work has been published in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Venturing and the Strategic Management Journal among others.  

Projects:

  • Humanoid robots in home healthcare and their impact on perceived wellbeing
    • Brief Description: The presence of robots in the services industry is transforming the way we experience customer service. Service robots can be utilized to improve customer experience, service quality, and productivity all at once because to their integration with artificial intelligence (AI) and increasingly cost-efficient and scalable nature.  Our research aims to shed light on the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing service robots in healthcare settings by examining the effect of service robots on patients’ well-being. As a result, healthcare practitioners may be better equipped to decide whether to use service robots in their facilities. In addition, this would help comprehend how social cognition and resistance to service robots relates to the well-being of customers when it comes to service robots.
      Read more: Meet Grace, the ultra-lifelike nurse robot