Knowledge Creation

Sheth Foundation Dissertation Award

PARTNER ORGANIZATION: Association for Consumer Research

The ACR-Sheth Foundation Dissertation awards are intended for dissertations in the areas of public purpose or cross-cultural research. ACR’s Sheth Foundation liaison manages the process of soliciting nominations, reviewing the submissions, and determining the winners. Each winner receives a plaque and a financial award.

2020 ACR/Sheth Foundation Dissertation Awards

The ACR Public-Purpose Dissertation Award – Winners:

  • Yu Ding (Advisor: Gita Johar, Columbia University) “Increasing Trust in Science”
  • Jay Zenkić (Advisors: Kobe Millet, VU Amsterdam, and Nicole Mead, York University) “When Cash Costs You: The Pain of Holding”
  • Vivian (Jieru) Xie (Advisor: Rajesh Bagchi, Virginia Tech) “The Effect of Ownership on Consumers’ Disposition Decisions: Research on Food Wastage and Recycling Behaviors”

The ACR Public-Purpose Dissertation Award – Honorable Mentions:

  • Amy Errmann (Advisor: Yuri Seo, University of Auckland Business School) “Mindful Consumption: Exploring Operational Mechanisms from an Evolutionary Lens”
  • Helen van der Sluis (Advisor: Adriana Samper and Andrea Morales, Arizona State University) “Responses to Gender-Based Price Variation: Differences or Discrimination?”
  • Dallas Novakowski (Advisor: Mehdi Mourali, University of Calgary) “Examining the Determinants of Security Consumption”
  • Burcak Bas (Advisor: Joachim Vosgerau, Bocconi University) “Are People Averse to Experiments? Reconciliation of Opposing Findings”

The ACR Cross-Cultural Dissertation Award – Winners:

  • Xiaodong [Elva] Nie (Advisors: Narayanan Janakiraman, The University of Texas at Arlington, and Zhiyong Yang, University of North Carolina at Greensboro) ”How Global-Local Identity Affects Consumer Preference between Sharing and Purchase: The Role of Traveler-Settler Mindset”

The ACR Cross-Cultural Dissertation Award – Honorable Mention:

  • Hyeyoon Jung (Advisor: Peter Magnusson, University of Alabama) “Coping With Negative Emotions in Intercultural Service Encounters”

2018 Public-Purpose Track
Yunqing Chen, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, “The Identified Donor Effect,” (Advisor – Leilei Gao)

2018 Public-Purpose Track
Jessica Gamlin, Northwestern University, “Self-Sabotaging in Consumer Goal Pursuit,” (Advisor – Aparna Labroo)

2018 Cross-Cultural Track
Tanvi Gupta, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, “Tightness for Control or Looseness for Autonomy? Using the Interplay of Cultural Values and Conceptual Metaphors in Logo Design,” (Advisor – Avinash Mulky)

ACR Dissertation Award

The Sheth foundation supported my doctoral dissertation, which was a costly project. I am grateful for the financial support I received. The foundation also provided helpful comments on my work, which contributed positively to the quality of the dissertation. The foundation values and rewards work that is relevant not only to practitioners or academics, but also has implications for public policy. I am very thankful for their involvement in and continued support of the ACR doctoral dissertation awards.

Brent McFerran
Brent McFerran
Assistant Professor of Marketing of University of British Columbia
ACR Dissertation Award

The Sheth Foundation ACR cross-cultural dissertation award has greatly benefited my research career. This award not only provided the funding that helped me to complete my dissertation on time, but also inspired me to continue with my research agenda on cross-cultural consumer behavior. This is particularly important given the multi-disciplinary nature of this field, which introduces additional challenges for researchers in the area.

Carlos Torelli
Carlos Torelli
Assistant Professor of University of Minnesota
ACR Dissertation Award

The SHETH Dissertation award in consumer psychology, for which I was a runner-up, is noteworthy to me in several respects. First, as part of the application process, the reviewers provided useful feedback on my proposal, which influenced my thinking and the subsequent experiments I ultimately carried out. Second, as a runner-up I was given funding to present at the Society for Consumer Psychology, which served as an excellent way to share and receive feedback on my dissertation as a graduate student. These were influential in my career as they culminated in successfully publishing my research in the society’s journal, the Journal of Consumer Psychology. Thus, to me, the award, and the activities attached to it, provided a remarkable means for cultivating and stimulating the thinking and ideas early in my career. I valued the experience so much that I urge Ph.D. students to apply for the award.

Derek Rucker
Derek Rucker
Associate Professor of Marketing of Northwestern University
ACR Dissertation Award

Being a winner of the Sheth Foundation Dissertation Award (2006) has always been a great honor to me, and has a profound… impact on me throughout these years. It always inspires me to work hard, pursue excellence and excel in academic performance. Also it always reminds me of the spirit of “abundant life: to live a prosperous life through contributing to the marketing area. Generous financial support from the Sheth Foundation helps fulfill many doctoral students’ dreams and enrich their life experience through engaging in marketing activities. I always feel grateful to the Foundation for the wonderful memories and experience I had at the consortium, as well as the financial support at the critical stage of my doctoral study!!

Liangyan Wang
Wang Liangyan
Assistant Professor of Antai Management School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
ACR Dissertation Award

I am extremely grateful to the Sheth Foundation for their financial support of my research area–low literate consumers. I was blessed to receive multiple dissertation grants sponsored in part by the Sheth Foundation. These grants helped me collect depth interviews with adults who possess limited literacy skills. Because the Sheth Foundation believed in the potential value of my work, I gained confidence and committed myself to working in a previously unexplored area. The dissertation resulted in a Robert Ferber Award-winning article published in the Journal of Consumer Research…a huge accomplishment that would not have materialized without the support (both financial and conceptual feedback) of the Sheth Foundation and its partners. Thank you from the bottom of my heart….

Natalie Adkins
Natalie Adkins, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Marketing of Drake University