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.

2022 ACR/Sheth Foundation Dissertation Awards

2022

Liang Shen University of Cincinnati
2022 Ghalia Shamayleh Concordia University
2022 Yeseul Kim University of South Florida
2022 Xiaohong Zhao Shanghai Jiaotong University

2021 ACR/Sheth Foundation Dissertation Awards

2021 Haiyue (Felix) Xu Penn State University
2021 Libby Chun Erasmus University Rotterdam
2021 Amanda Garrison University of Wyoming
2021 Jerry Grimes, Jr. Grenoble Ecole de Management
2021 Nurit Nobel Stockholm School of Economics

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 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

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

In 2008, I was fortunate to receive the Association for Consumer Research (ACR)/Sheth Foundation Dissertation Grant in the Cross-Cultural/Global Track. I had also been selected to represent the university where I was studying for my PhD (The University of California, Irvine), as UC Irvine’s Consortium Fellow to attend the 2008 American Marketing Association (AMA) Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium. In 2007 and 2009, I was again a recipient of the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Sheth Foundation Marketing Doctoral Student Association Travel Grants, which allowed me to attend the AMS conferences in those years. The paper I presented at the 2007 AMS conference in Coral Gables, FL was awarded the Jane K. Fenyo Best Paper Award for Student Research. I benefited not only from the financial components of the awards, which allowed me to present my research at conferences and complete my dissertation, but the recognition allowed my research to be acknowledged by my peers in academia.


To say that the Sheth Foundation has had a tremendous impact on my academic career would be an understatement. I have a tremendous respect for Madhuri and Jagdish Sheth and what the Sheth Foundation has committed to achieving in the marketing academic community. Like many other doctoral students, I have had the opportunity to interact with Jagdish Sheth and benefit from his advice and kindness to doctoral students. As an assistant professor, I am convinced that my path to successful completion of the doctoral degree in marketing, and my subsequent acceptance of an academic position, was facilitated by the indirect support of the Sheth Foundation during my years in the doctoral program. Thank you.

Samantha Cross
Samantha Cross
Assistant Professor, Marketing of Iowa State University
ACR Dissertation Award

With the early support it provided, The Sheth Foundation was instrumental in helping fund my dissertation, which took me to India to study how foreign companies adapt to the Indian market. Not only did I manage to finish an interesting dissertation which won 3 awards, I also met my wife in India so the Sheth Foundation had a real impact on my life!

Julien Cayla
Julien Cayla
Senior Lecturer in Marketing of University of New South Wales
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