Lois Bitner Olson

Lois Olson specializes in teaching Global Marketing and Consumer Marketing Strategy for San Diego State University. She also teaches internationally in Venezuela, Taiwan, The People’s Republic of China, and Germany. Dr. Olson was a principal researcher on a grant funded jointly by the US-Israel Science and Technology Foundation to develop markets and partnerships for Israeli technologies in the United States and globally.

Since 1992, Lois has been visiting China at least twice annually to teach and conduct research on consumer markets in several cities and provinces across the People’s Republic of China. She spent 1999-2000 as a Fulbright Scholar teaching at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and living as a Chinese consumer. This experience led to a research stream in analyzing Chinese consumers and appropriate marketing strategies, especially understanding the impact of the “Little Emperors” on the buying behavior of Chinese families. Additionally, her work involves the application of cross-cultural analytic tools to understanding the similarities and differences between the Western and the Chinese market.

Since 9/11/2001, Lois has conducted extensive research on several projects to adapt commercial technologies for Homeland Security through CCAT, the Center for the Commercialization of Advanced Technology, funded by the Department of Defense. A book, The Chinese Consumer; Past, Present, and Future, is soon to be published.