Robert Mittelstaedt holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of South Dakota, a master’s degree in economics from the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Minnesota.  Before his appointment in 1973 as Nathan Gold Distinguished Professor of Marketing at UNL he had served on the faculties of the University of South Dakota and the University of Missouri at Columbia.  He has also been a visiting faculty member at Oregon State University and the École Supérieure de Commerce et Management in France and a visiting scholar at the University of Otago in New Zealand.  In addition to teaching a variety of marketing courses, he chaired 26 doctoral dissertations at Missouri and Nebraska. 
 
His early research career focused on consumer behavior; he was co-editor of a book with that title in 1970 and a charter member of the Association for Consumer Research.  His later work shifted to macromarketing issues, franchising and intellectual property.   Following his retirement in 2002, he has been an active volunteer with SCORE, a national organization that mentors entrepreneurs.