The first year paper allows students to develop their own research interest and to demonstrate their research potential. Students develop an original research question and provide initial tests of their predictions. A faculty mentor and other marketing faculty form the first year research paper committee that guides the student’s process.

Following the spring semester of their second year, students will take part in a qualifying exam that leads to the assessment of whether the student is ready for ascension to candidacy. The topics pursued in the qualifying exam often evolve into a substantial portion of the student’s dissertation. A faculty mentor and other faculty members from marketing and from outside the department form the qualifying exam committee that guides the student’s process.

After passing the qualifying exam, students are admitted to PhD candidacy and pursue their research, culminating in their dissertation.

Students work with different research mentors over the course of the program. In the first two years, students work with different faculty member each semester, in order to expose students to different researchers and research approaches. By the end of year two, students should have identified a primary research mentor who will guide them until completion of the dissertation, i.e., their faculty advisor.

Year 1: In year 1, the research mentor aims to advise the student with their courses, studies, and overall strategies in the program. Students may assist with a faculty research project if it offers a good learning experience and does not interfere with classes and other program requirements. In some cases, the relationship may involve the student working on their own research project, in which case the research mentor serves as an advisor. Further, the research mentor may be involved in guiding the development of the first-year paper.

Year 2: In year 2, the student should gain further research skills by assisting the faculty mentor with a research project that offers a good learning experience. Activities may include data collection, data cleaning, data organizing, coding, and estimation for empirical projects, and checking models and proofs for theoretical projects. In some cases, the relationship may involve the student working on their own research project, in which case the research mentor serves as an advisor. Further, the research mentor advises the student in developing the second-year paper.

Year 3: In year 3, the student will continue to gain research skills by working on research projects from previous years that should involve different faculty. If not yet done, the student will start developing their own research projects and agenda. The research mentor will primarily serve as an advisor.

Year 4: In year 4, the student will continue to improve their research skills, advancing research projects from previous years, and start new ones. The research mentor will continue to serve as an advisor.

Year 5: In year 5, the research mentor serves to advise the student on completion of the dissertation. In most cases, the advisor will serve as the student’s dissertation chair.

From the very beginning of the program, students collaborate with faculty on research projects with the goal of producing research that will be published in the top journals. Below, please find a selection of recent articles that resulted from these collaborations.
* denote current or former PhD students.

Carney, Steve*, Ignacio Riveros*, & Stephanie M. Tully (2026), "Made with AI: Consumer engagement with social media containing AI disclosures," Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming.

Ceylan, Gizem* and Kristin Diehl (2026), “Redundancy in Visual-Verbal Word of Mouth: How Photos Increase Visual Language Use,” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research Volume 11, Issue 2, 183-198

Diehl, Kristin, Alixandra Barasch, Minjeong Ko*, and Gal Zauberman (2026), “Captured Memories: The Impact of First-Person vs. Third-Person Viewpoint Photographs on Remembering Personal Experiences”, Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition 15(1), 98–107.

Mengxia Zhang, Brian Han, Tianshu Sun, Lan Luo, and Joseph M. Golden (2026), “Participation Governance in Consumer and AI Co-creation: Whether to Intervene and How to Design It,” Production and Operations Management, conditionally accepted.

Mengxia Zhang* and Lan Luo (2026), “Effects of Peer Voting and Followers on User Contribution to Online Knowledge Sharing: Evidence from a Field Experiment,” Production and Operations Management, forthcoming.

Dalmia, Maansi* and Kristin Diehl (2025), “Privacy is Important, but When is it Thought About?”, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, Volume 10, Issue 3, 226-239.

Ceylan, Gizem*, Kristin Diehl, and Wendy Wood (2024), “From Mentally Doing to Actually Doing: A Meta-Analysis of Induced Positive Consumption Simulations,” Journal of Marketing, Vol 88 (2), 21-39.

Ceylan, Gizem*, Kristin Diehl, and Davide Proserpio (2024), “Words Meet Photos: When and Why Photos Increase Review Helpfulness,” Journal of Marketing Research, 61(1), 5-26.

Isamar Troncoso* and Lan Luo (2023), “Look the Part? The Role of Profile Pictures in Online Labor Marketplace,” Marketing Science, 42(6), 1080-1100.

Zhang*, Mengxia and Lan Luo (2023), “Can Consumer Posted Photos Serve as a Leading Indicator of Restaurant Survival? Evidence from Yelp,” Management Science, Vol. 69, No. 1, 25–50

Gerard J. Tellis, Ashish Sood, Nitish Sood, Sajeev Nair* (2023), “Lockdown Without Loss? A Natural Experiment of Net Payoffs from to Covid COVID-19,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing.

Xu*, Zibin, Yi Zhu and Shantanu Dutta (2023), “Adverse inclusion of asymmetric advertisers in position auctions”, International Journal of Research in Marketing

Valsesia*, Francesca and Kristin Diehl (2022), “Let Me Show You What I Did Versus What I Have: Sharing Experiential Versus Material Purchases Alters Authenticity and Liking of Social Media Users,” Journal of Consumer Research¸Volume 49, October, p. 430-449.

Chandrasekaran*, Deepa, Gerard J. Tellis and Gareth James (2022), “Leapfrogging, Cannibalization, and Survival during Disruptive Technological Change: The Critical Role of Rate of Disengagement,” Journal of Marketing.

Hong*, Jihoon, Max Wei and Gerard J. Tellis (2022), “Machine Learning for Creativity: How Similarity Networks Can Identify Successful Projects in Crowdfunding,” Journal of Marketing.

Xu*, Zibin, and Anthony Dukes, (2022), "Personalization from customer data aggregation using list price." Management Science 68.2 (2022): 960-980.

Valsesia*, Francesca, Joseph C. Nunes, and Andrea Ordanini (2021), “I Am Not Talking to You: Partitioning an Audience in an Attempt to Solve the Self-Promotion Dilemma,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 165, 76-89.

Proserpio, Davide, Isamar Troncoso*, and Francesca Valsesia* (2021) "Does gender matter? The effect of management responses on reviewing behavior." Marketing Science, Forthcoming.

Pei*, Amy, and Dina Mayzlin (2021), "Influencing the Influencers." Marketing Science, forthcoming.

Donovan*, Leigh Anne and Priester, Joseph (2020). Exploring the psychological processes that underlie interpersonal forgiveness: Replication and extension of the model of motivated interpersonal forgiveness. Frontiers in Psychology.

Valsesia*, Francesca, Davide Proserpio, and Joseph C. Nunes (2020), "The Positive Effect of Not Following Others on Social Media." Journal of Marketing Research, 0022243720915467.

D’Angelo*, Jennifer K., Kristin Diehl, and Lisa A. Cavanaugh (2019), "Lead by Example? Custom-Made Examples Created by Close Others Lead Consumers to Make Dissimilar Choices." Journal of Consumer Research 46, no. 4, 750-773.

Dukes, Anthony and Yi Zhu* (2019) “Why Customer Service Frustrates Consumers: Exploiting Hassel Costs by a Tiered Customer Service Organization,” Marketing Science, 38(3): 500-515.

Tellis, Gerard J., Deborah J. MacInnis, Seshadri Tirunillai*, and Yanwei Zhang*. "What drives virality (sharing) of online digital content? The critical role of information, emotion, and brand prominence." Journal of Marketing 83, no. 4 (2019): 1-20.

The research of our faculty has been recognized repeatedly as innovative and highly impactful. Faculty members have been named fellows in the field’s leading professional organizations.

• American Marketing Association IO Lifetime Achievement Award
• Vijay Mahajan Lifetime Contribution to Marketing Strategy Award
• Alpha Kappa Psi Award
• Harold H. Maynard Award
• William F. O’Dell Award
• Donald R. Lehmann Award
• John D.C. Little Award
• INFORMS Society for Marketing Science Long-term Impact Award
• Fellow of INFORMS Society for Marketing Science
• Fellow of American Marketing Association
• Fellow of Association of Consumer Research
• Fellow of Society of Consumer Psychology

Our faculty have a substantial role in shaping the discipline through their positions as editors, associate editors and editorial board members of:

• Journal of Marketing
• Journal of Marketing Research
• Journal of Consumer Research
• Journal of Consumer Psychology
• Marketing Science
• Management Science

Our faculty also include former presidents of major professional organizations, such as the Association for Consumer Research, the Association for Consumer Psychology, and INFORMS Society of Marketing Science (ISMS).