• Consumer culture theory, retail transactions, marketplaces and communities, sales and distribution, manufacturer-retailer collaboration, emerging markets, qualitative research methods.

• Visiting faculty in Marketing for the Design Management 1 course for Post Graduate students at National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad (Duration – 5 days) - 2016
• Visiting faculty in Marketing for Brand Management for MBA students at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar (Duration – 1 session) - 2014
• Visiting faculty in Marketing for the Marketing Management course for experienced professionals (Post Graduate Diploma in Management) at Amrut Mody school of Management, Ahmedabad University (Duration – 16 sessions) – 2014

Business consultant for the consumer goods division. Led and executed consulting projects in sales and marketing for consumer goods companies in North America, Europe and India.

• Led a team of business consultants to conceptualize a subscription-driven business-analytics based service offering to monitor trade spends for consumer goods manufacturers. Service offering chosen as one of five business initiatives to be funded by the Cognizant leadership.
• Worked closely with the European leadership at Mattel to re-organize Mattel‟s European marketing and supply chain organizations into a hub-and-spoke structure. The new structure led to greater synergies across countries, reduced work duplication and drove process efficiencies.
• Conducted a due diligence and functionality assessment exercise of the wireless handheld systems and operations used by the Frito Lays sales force at PepsiCo North America.

Business consultant in the consumer goods division. Executed multiple consulting projects in the retail and consumer goods domains in North America and India.

• Worked as the functional lead to re-engineer a product offering related to retailer defined product hierarchies at Nielsen in North America.
• Led the requirements gathering and design efforts as the lead business analyst for the Consumer Spending Breakthrough project for Procter & Gamble in North America and India.
• Led the solution design for the „Smart Store‟, an in-house capability showcase which brought together a host of retail technologies in a real store environment.

Co-founder of the start-up providing educational services for students in the 8th to 12th grades. The services provided were an adjunct to the school curriculum with the guiding philosophy of „Why you learn what you learn‟.

• Created multi-media content and learning material to improve conceptual understanding.
• Conducted daily class room sessions for students using multimedia aids across science and mathematics subjects.

Product manager for a $ 40 mn (at the time) flagship brand – Dabur Chyawanprash. Responsible for all brand related activities including advertising, brand budgeting, trade and consumer promotions and implementation, media planning and buying, demand planning and forecasting.

• Conceptualized and developed a brand marketing campaign to grow the brand by increasing consumption occasions beyond the traditional winter months.
• Planned and executed a revised media buying plan which led to increased cost efficiencies and greater coverage in target markets.

International

• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh, Piyush Sinha, and Abhishek (2016), “Price Fairness in a Socially Embedded Market,” Selected for presentation in the competitive paper section at The 23rd International conference on Recent Advances in Retailing and Consumer Services Science at Edinburgh, Scotland
• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh, and Kapil Khandeparkar (2015), “Lifestyle values of global age cohorts: A means of market segmentation?” Presented in the competitive paper section at Marketing and Communication Conference. La Londe, France, 2015
• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh, and Kapil Khandeparkar (2015), “Lifestyle values of global age cohorts: A means of market segmentation?” Presented in the poster session at 44th EMAC Annual Conference at Leuven, Belgium.
• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh, Piyush Sinha, and Rohit Varman (2014), “Instrumentality and emotional attachment: A study of nomadic consumers' relationships with their possessions” Presented in the competitive paper section at Association for Consumer Research Conference 2014, held at Baltimore, USA
• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh, and Ankur Sarin (2014), “Consumer well-being: Does inter-generational occupational mobility matter?” Selected for presentation in the competitive paper section at 2014 Marketing & Public Policy Conference, at Boston, USA

Domestic

• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh, and Ankur Sarin (2014), “Consumer well-being: Does inter-generational occupational mobility matter?” Presented in the competitive paper section at 2nd Pan IIM World Management Conference, at IIM Kozhikode
• Sharma, Supriya, Rajesh Nanarpuzha, and Pinaki Roy (2013), “mygola.com: Planning its itinerary into the future” Presented in the competitive paper section at 3rd South Asian Management Research and Case Conference, 2013, held at IIM Bangalore
• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh, and Dheeraj Sharma (2013), “Ethnography in consumer research: Acceptance and relevance” Presented in the competitive paper section at 3rd biennial conference of the Indian Academy of Management (IAM), at IIM Ahmedabad
• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh (2013), “Improvement in economic well-being: Does inter-generational occupational mobility matter?” Presented in the competitive paper section at 3rd biennial conference of the Indian Academy of Management (IAM), at IIM Ahmedabad

Journal Publications

• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh, and Ernesto Noronha (2016), "Seeking attention: An investigation of salesperson influence strategies used while selling to small retailers," Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 36 (2), 144-159
• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh, Piyush Sinha, and Rohit Varman (2014), "Instrumentality and Emotional Attachment: A Study of Nomadic Consumers' Relationships with their Possessions," Advances in Consumer Research, 42, 621-621.
• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh (2014), "Marketing semiotics: Signs, strategies, and brand value," European Journal of Marketing, 48 (5/6), 1180-1182 – Book review
• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh, and Abhishek (2016) "Modelling situational factors in variety seeking behaviour: A conceptual approach", International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 13 (3), 378-393.

Case Study

• Sharma, Supriya, Rajesh Nanarpuzha, and Pinaki Roy (2015). "mygola.com: Deciding its place in the online travel market". Case study published by Harvard Business Publishing (available at https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/W15511-PDF-ENG), Harvard Business Review (available at https://hbr.org/product/mygola-com-deciding-its-place-in-the-online-travel-market/W15511-PDF-ENG), and Richard Ivey Publishing (Available at https://www.iveycases.com/ProductView.aspx?id=72158)

Working paper

• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh (2013), "Modeling situational factors in variety seeking behaviour: An extension of the lightning bolt model," W.P. No. 2013-12-04, IIMA Working paper series.

Publications under review

• Nanarpuzha, Rajesh, Dheeraj Sharma, and Russell Belk, "Ethnography in marketing research: An inquiry into its relevance," Australasian Marketing Journal

Current projects

• Lifestyle values of global age cohorts: A means of market segmentation? (with Kapil Khandeparkar).
• Consumer well-being: Does inter-generational occupational mobility matter? (With Ankur Sarin).
• A lifecycle view of nomadic possessions.
• Setting prices for singular commodities – Contrasting Bourdieau‟s taste (from thesis).
• Religion as stigma in a socially embedded marketplace (from thesis).
• Construction and disintegration of virtual communities (with Supriya Sharma) – Project to begin.

Academic

• Winner of the „Best Case study in the Entrepreneurship category‟ (with Supriya Sharma & Pinaki Roy) at the ISB-Ivey Global Case competition, 2014 for „mygola.com: Planning its itinerary into the future‟
• Winner of the „Best paper award‟ (with Supriya Sharma and Pinaki Roy) at the 3rd South Asian Management Research and Case Conference, 2013, held at IIM Bangalore for „mygola.com: Planning its itinerary into the future‟
• Consortium Fellow at the 2nd AIM-AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium, 2013.

Professional

• Chosen as the „Business Consultant of the Year‟ in 2009, at Cognizant Technology Solutions, from among 130 business consultants in the retail and consumer goods consulting divisions.