Ferber Award
The Ferber Award is given to the best dissertation-based article published in the most recent volume of the Journal of Consumer Research. The award is named in honor of Robert Ferber, one of the founders and the second editor of JCR.
Selection Process
The journal’s Editorial Review Board and associate editors are provided with all eligible articles published in the most recent volume and invited to nominate up to three articles that are most deserving of the Ferber Award. The finalist articles are then evaluated by a panel of three distinguished consumer researchers representing a variety of disciplinary persuasions. The panel selects the winner(s) after judging candidate articles on interdisciplinary orientation, contribution to knowledge, organization and conciseness, and readability.
Eligibility Requirements
All articles published in JCR that are based on a doctoral dissertation are eligible for the Ferber Award if:
- The author note states that the article is based on the lead author’s dissertation
- The author note does not state that all authors contributed equally to the article
- All co-authors agree that the lead author completed most of the work on the article
- The lead author has not won the Ferber Award or received an Honorable Mention previously
- The first submission of the article to JCR occurred within three (3) years of the lead author receiving their PhD (i.e., the article is ineligible if it was submitted more than three years after the PhD was received)
Previous Winners and Honorable Mentions
| 2024 | Winner: Minkwang Jang Cross-Period Impatience: Subjective Financial Periods Explain Time-Inconsistent Choices (Volume 50) December 2023Honorable Mention: Anouk S. Bergner Judges: Josko Brakus, Daniella Kupors, and Wayne Hoyer |
| 2023 | Winner: Rodrigo S. Dias Spending and Happiness: The Role of Perceived Financial Constraints (Volume 49) October 2022Honorable Mentions:Travis Tae Oh A Liberating-Engagement Theory of Consumer Fun (Volume 49) June 2022Jackie Silverman On or Off Track: How (Broken) Streaks Affect Consumer Decisions (Volume 49) April 2023 Judges: Thomas P. Novak, Maura L. Scott, and Jaideep Sengupta |
| 2022 | Winner: Wendy De La Rosa The Impact of Payment Frequency on Consumer Spending and Subjective Wealth Perceptions (Volume 48) April 2022Honorable Mention: Yan Vieites Social Class Shapes Donation Allocation Preferences (Volume 48) February 2022Judges: Simon J. Blanchard, Lisa E. Bolton, and Oleg Urminsky |
| 2021 | Winner: Gretchen R. Ross Disorder and Downsizing (Volume 47) April 2021Honorable Mentions:Dafna Goor Status Pivoting (Volume 47) April 2021Shiri Melumad The Smartphone as a Pacifying Technology (Volume 47) August 2020Judges: Angela Lee, Stefano Puntoni, and David Wooten |
| 2020 | Winner: Johanna F. Gollnhofer Consumer Movements and Value Regimes: Fighting Food Waste in Germany by Building Alternative Object Pathways (Volume 46) October 2019Honorable Mentions:Dafna Goor The Impostor Syndrome from Luxury Consumption (Volume 46) April 2020Luxi Shen The Fun and Function of Uncertainty: Uncertain Incentives Reinforce Repetition Decisions (Volume 46) June 2019Judges: David Crockett, Thomas Novak, and Rebecca Ratner |
| 2019 | Winner: Kristen E. Duke Guilt Dynamics: Consequences of Temporally Separating Decisions and Actions (Volume 45) April 2019Honorable Mentions:Michael O’Donnell Preference Reversals in Willingness to Pay and Choice (Volume 45) April 2019Ela Veresiu Beyond Acculturation: Multiculturalism and the Institutional Shaping of an Ethnic Consumer Subject (Volume 45) October 2018Judges: Susan Broniarczyk, Deborah MacInnis, and Jaideep Sengupta |
| 2018 | Honorable Mention: Silvia Bellezza Conspicuous Consumption of Time: When Busyness and Lack of Leisure Time Become a Status Symbol (Volume 44) June 2017Judges: Rajesh Bagchi, Christina Goulding, and Chris Janiszewski |
| 2017 | Winner: Cindy Chan Experiential Gifts Foster Stronger Social Relationships Than Material Gifts (Volume 43) April 2017Honorable Mention: Chiraag Mittal Silver Spoons and Platinum Plans: How Childhood Environment Affects Adult Health Care Decisions (Volume 43) December 2016Judges: Thomas Kramer, Page Moreau, and Rebecca Ratner |
| 2016 | Winner: Daniella M. Kupor Persuasion, Interrupted: The Effect of Momentary Interruptions on Message Processing and Persuasion (Volume 42) August 2015Honorable Mention: Stephanie M. Tully Seeking Lasting Enjoyment with Limited Money: Financial Constraints Increase Preference for Material Goods over Experiences (Volume 42) June 2015Judges: Simona Botti, Paul Herr, and Leonard Lee |
| 2015 | Winner: Caleb Warren What Makes Things Cool? How Autonomy Influences Perceived Coolness (Volume 41) August 2014Honorable Mention: Paul M. Connell How Childhood Advertising Exposure Can Create Biased Product Evaluations That Persist into Adulthood (Volume 41) June 2014Judges: Valerie Folkes, Joel Huber, and Sharon Shavitt |
| 2014 | Co-Winners:
Nicole Verrochi Coleman Yangjie Gu Honorable Mention: Cait Poynor Lamberton Judges: Durairaj Maheswaran, Nathan Novemsky, and Cele Otnes |
| 2013 | Winner: B. Kyu Kim Space, Time, and Intertemporal Preferences (Volume 39) December 2012Judges: Gita Johar, Brian Sternthal, and Craig Thompson |
| 2012 | Winner: Sarah G. Moore Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid: How Word of Mouth Influences the Storyteller (Volume 38) April 2012Judges: Russell W. Belk, Dawn Iacobucci, and Rik Pieters |
| 2011 | Winner: Anat Keinan Productivity Orientation and the Consumption of Collectable Experiences (Volume 37) April 2011Honorable Mention: David Faro Changing the Future by Reshaping the Past: The Influence of Causal Beliefs on Estimates of Time to Onset (Volume 37) August 2010Judges: Jennifer Aaker, Soren Askegaard, and Hans Baumgartner |
| 2010 | Honorable Mentions:
Brent McFerran Cassie Mogilner Judges: Guliz Ger, John Gourville, and Rashmi Adaval |
| 2009 | Winner: Juliano Laran Behavioral Consistency and Inconsistency in the Resolution of Goal Conflict (Volume 35) April 2009Honorable Mentions:Rosellina Ferraro The Power of Strangers: The Effect of Incidental Consumer-Brand Encounters on Brand Choice (Volume 35) February 2009Maura Scott The Effects of Reduced Food Size and Package Size on the Consumption Behavior of Restrained and Unrestrained Eaters (Volume 35) October 2008Judges: Lauren Block, Robert Kozinets, and Suresh Ramanathan |
| 2008 | Winner: Joseph Redden Reducing Satiation: The Role of Categorization Level (Volume 34) February 2008Honorable Mention: Gustavo De Mello Threats to Hope: Effects on Reasoning about Product Information (Volume 34) August 2007Judges: Joseph Alba, Darren Dahl, and John Sherry |
| 2007 | Winner: Simona Botti When Choosing Is Not Deciding: The Effect of Perceived Responsibility on Satisfaction (Volume 33) September 2006Honorable Mentions:Davy Lerouge Why It Is So Hard to Predict Our Partner’s Product Preferences: The Effect of Target Familiarity on Prediction Accuracy (Volume 33) December 2006Leonard Lee Shopping Goals, Goal Concreteness, and Conditional Promotions (Volume 33) June 2006Judges: Aimee Drolet, Frank Kardes, and Wayne Hoyer |
| 2006 | Winner: Natalie Ross Adkins The Low Literate Consumer (Volume 32) June 2005Judges: Susan Fournier, Stephen Hoch, and Julie Edell Britton |
| 2005 | Winner: Ran Kivetz Promotion Reactance: The Role of Effort-Reward Congruity (Volume 31) March 2005Honorable Mentions:David Crockett The Role of Normative Political Ideology in Consumer Behavior (Volume 31) December 2004Andrea Morales Giving Firms an “E” for Effort: Consumer Responses to High Effort Firms (Volume 31) March 2005Americus Reed II Activating the Self-Importance of Consumer Selves: Exploring Identity Salience Effects on Judgments (Volume 31) September 2004Judges: John Deighton, Stephen Nowlis, and Joseph Priester |
| 2004 | Winner: Nicholas Lurie Decision Making in Information-Rich Environments (Volume 30) March 2004Honorable Mentions:Kristin Diehl Smart Agents: When Lower Search Costs for Quality Information Increase Price Sensitivity (Volume 30) June 2003Gal Zauberman The Intertemporal Dynamics of Consumer Lock-In (Volume 30) December 2003Judges: Robert Fisher, Zeynep Gurhan-Canli, and Ravi Dhar |
| 2003 | Winner: Christie Nordhielm The Influence of Level of Processing on Advertising Repetition Effects (Volume 29) December 2002Honorable Mention: Rebecca Hamilton Why Do People Suggest What They Do Not Want? Using Context Effects to Influence Others’ Choices (Volume 29) March 2003Judges: Joseph Alba, Eric Greenleaf, and John Sherry |
| 2002 | Winner: Rashmi Adaval Sometimes It Just Feels Right: The Differential Weighting of Affect Consistent and Affect-Inconsistent Product Information (Volume 28) June 2001Judges: Itamar Simonson, Jeff Inman, and Melanie Wallendorf |
| 2001 | Co-Winners:
Stijn van Osselaer Donnel Briley Honorable Mentions: Dan Ariely Elizabeth S. Moore Judges: Eileen Fischer, Robert Meyer, and Rao Unnava |
| 2000 | Winner: Mark Ritson The Social Uses of Advertising: An Ethnographic Study of Adolescent Advertising Audiences (Volume 26) December 1999Honorable Mention: Parthasarathy Krishnamurthy Retrospection versus Anticipation: The Role of the Ad under Retrospective and Anticipatory Self-Referencing (Volume 26) June 1999Judges: Russell Belk, Richard Lutz, and Scott MacKenzie |
| 1999 | Winner: Kathryn A. Braun Postexperience Advertising Effects on Consumer Memory (Volume 25) March 1999Honorable Mentions:Michel Tuan Pham Representativeness, Relevance, and the Use of Feelings in Decision Making (Volume 25) September 1998Nader Tavassoli Language in Multimedia: Interaction of Spoken and Written Information (Volume 25) June 1998Judges: Terry Childers, Kevin Keller, and Alice Tybout |
| 1998 | Winner: Mary Frances Luce Choosing to Avoid: Coping with Negatively Emotion-Laden Consumer Decisions (Volume 24) March 1999Honorable MentionsSusan Fournier Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research (Volume 24) March 1998L. J. Shrum The Effects of Television Consumption on Social Perceptions: The Use of Priming Procedures to Investigate Psychological Processes (Volume 24) March 1998Judges: Peter Reingen, Terry Shimp, and Peter Wright |
| 1997 | Winner: Patricia M. West Predicting Preferences: An Examination of Agent Learning (Volume 23) June 1996Judges: Dipankar Chakravarti, Michael Houston, and J. Wesley Hutchinson |
| 1996 | Winner: Ajay K. Sirsi Microcultural Analysis of Variation in Sharing of Causal Reasoning about Behavior (Volume 22) March 1995Honorable Mentions:Douglas B. Holt How Consumers Consume: A Typology of Consumption Practices (Volume 22) June 1995A.V. Muthukrishnan Decision Ambiguity and Incumbent Brand Advantage (Volume 22) June 1995Craig J. Thompson Caring Consumers: Gendered Consumption Meanings and the Juggling Lifestyle (Volume 22) March 1996Judges: Chris Allen, Valerie Folkes, and Dennis Rook |
| 1995 | Winner: Anusree Mitra Toward a Reconciliation of Market Power and Information Theories of Advertising Effects on Price Elasticity (Volume 21) March 1995Honorable Mention: Lisa Penaloza Atravesando Fronteras/Border Crossings: A Critical Ethnographic Exploration of the Consumer Acculturation of Mexican Immigrants (Volume 21) June 1994Judges: Eric Arnould, Stephen Hoch, and J. Edward Russo |
| 1994 | Winner: Cynthia Huffman Goal-Oriented Experiences and the Development of Knowledge (Volume 20) September 1993Judges: Robert Burnkrant, Ruth Ann Smith, and Deborah MacInnis |
| 1993 | (No Winner)
Judges: Bill Bearden, Peter Reingen, and Don Lehmann |
| 1992 | Winner: Robert E. Kleine III Contextual Influences on the Meanings Ascribed to Ordinary Consumption Objects (Volume 18) December 1991Honorable Mentions:David Glen Mick Levels of Subjective Comprehension in Advertising Processing and Their Relations to Ad Perceptions, Attitudes, and Memory (Volume 18) March 1992Laura A. Peracchio How Do Young Children Learn to Be Consumers? A Script-Processing Approach (Volume 18) March 1992Judges: Valerie Folkes, Mita Sujan, and Morris Holbrook |
| 1991 | Winner: Jonathan K. Frenzen Purchasing Behavior in Embedded Markets (Volume 17) June 1990Honorable Mention: Prakash Nedungadi Recall and Consumer Consideration Sets: Influencing Choice without Altering Brand Evaluations (Volume 17) December 1990Judges: Julie Edell, Marvin Goldberg, and Janet Wagner |
| 1990 | Winner: Itamar Simonson Choice Based on Reasons: The Case of Attraction and Compromise Effects Volume 16 (September 1989)Honorable Mention: Sung-Tai Hong Effects of Country-of-Origin and Product-Attribute Information on Product Evaluation: An Information Processing Perspective (Volume 16) September 1989Judges: Gerald Gorn, Brian Sternthal, and Esther Thorson |
| 1989 | Winner: Raymond R. Burke Competitive Interference and Consumer Memory for Advertising (Volume 15) June 1988Honorable Mentions:Chris Janiszewski Preconscious Processing Effects: The Independence of Attitude Formation and Conscious Thought (Volume 15) September 1988Frank R. Kardes Spontaneous Inference Processes in Advertising: The Effects of Conclusion Omission and Involvement in Persuasion (Volume 15) September 1988Judges: Terry Shimp, William Wells, and Peter Wright |
| 1988 | Winner: Jacqueline Johnson Brown Social Ties and Word-of-Mouth Referral Behavior (Volume 14) December 1987Honorable Mention: Elnora W. Stuart Classical Conditioning of Consumer Attitudes: Four Experiments in an Advertising Context (Volume 14) December 1987Judges: C. Whan Park, Joseph Newman, and Francesco Nicosia |
| 1987 | Co-Winners:
Amitava Chattopadyay Akshay Rao Judges: Richard Bagozzi, Thomas Robertson, and Alice Tybout |
| 1986 | Honorable Mentions:
Kim P. Corfman Kevin Lane Keller Judges: Bobby Calder, Ronald Frank, and Seymour Sudman |
| 1985 | Winner: Christopher P. Puto The Framing of Buying Decisions (Volume 14) December 1987Honorable Mention: Scott MacKenzie The Role of Attention in Mediating the Effect of Advertising on Attribute Importance (Volume 13) September 1986Judges: Jerry Kernan, Marilynn Brewer, and Eleanor Singer |
| 1984 | Winner: Merrie Brucks The Effects of Product Class Knowledge on Information Search Behavior (Volume 12) June 1985Honorable Mention: Mita Sujan Consumer Knowledge: Effects on Evaluation Strategies Mediating Consumer Judgments (Volume 12) June 1985Judges: Robert Zajonc, Sidney Levy, and Joel Cohen |
| 1983 | Winner: Carl Obermiller Varieties of Mere Exposure: The Effects of Processing Style and Repetition on Affective Response (Volume 12) June 1985Honorable Mention: Janet Wagner The Effectiveness of Family Life Cycle Variables in Consumer Expenditure Research (Volume 10) December 1983Judges: William McGuire, Alvin Silk, and Louis Wilde |
| 1982 | Winner: Rashi Glazer Multiattribute Perceptual Bias as Revealing of Preference Structure (Volume 11) June 1984Judges: Jim Engel, Hal Kelley, and Jerry Olson |
| 1981 | Winner: Valarie A. Zeithaml Consumer Response to In-Store Price Information Environments (Volume 8) March 1982Judges: John Howard, Herbert Krugman, and Everett Rogers |
| 1980 | (No manuscripts eligible for judging) |
| 1979 | Honorable Mention: Seymour Fine Toward a Theory of Segmentation by Objectives in Social Marketing (Volume 7) June 1980Judges: Al Madansky, John Robinson, and Geitel Winaker |
| 1978 | Winner: Leigh McAlister Choosing Multiple Items from a Product Class (Volume 6) December 1979Honorable Mention: Peter H. Webb Consumer Initial Processing in a Difficult Media Environment (Volume 6) December 1979Judges: Robert Abelson, Herbert Blalock Jr., and Richard Schmalensee |