Karen Page Winterich, Gergana Y. Nenkov, and Gabriel E. Gonzales’ article, “Knowing What It Makes: How Product Transformation Salience Increases Recycling,” has been named winner of the annual AMA/Marketing Science Institute/H. Paul Root Award. The article appeared in the July 2019 issue of Journal of Marketing.
This annual award honors past AMA Board Chair H. Paul Root. In addition to being an active member of the AMA, Root served as President of MSI from 1990 to 1998. The award is given to a paper that has made a significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of marketing in a calendar year and is selected by a committee that this year included, Harald van Heerde (chairperson), John G. Lynch, and Scott A. Neslin.
In announcing their decision, committee members explained, “The MSI-Root Award recognizes the 2019 Journal of Marketing article judged to make the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of marketing. The winning paper by Karen Winterich (Penn State University), Gergana Nenkov (Boston College), and Gabriel Gonzales (SUNY-New Paltz) shows that if consumers know what becomes of recyclables (e.g., a plastic bottle is turned into sportswear), they are much more inspired to recycle and act accordingly.
The paper uses exceptionally well-designed and creative lab and field studies. The studies show that consumers significantly increase their recycling behavior when they are told what new products can be made of the recycled The paper’s important, real-world findings have already generated substantial interest by practitioners and policymakers. Based on these findings, the organizations Keep America Beautiful, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, and the California State Department (CalRecycle) are redesigning their recycling campaigns, which underlines the strong practical relevance of this paper.”
In addition to the winning paper, the three other excellent finalists for the award were as follows:
- “Creating Effective Online Customer Experiences,” Alexander Bleier, Colleen M. Harmeling, and Robert W. Palmatier
- “Paywalls: Monetizing Online Content,” Adithya Pattabhiramaiah, S. Sriram, and Puneet Manchanda
- “What Drives Virality (Sharing) of Online Digital Content? The Critical Role of Information, Emotion, and Brand Prominence,” Gerard J. Tellis, Deborah J. MacInnis, Seshadri Tirunillai, and Yanwei Zhang
The award is presented at the Summer Academic Conference to be held August 21-23, 2020 in San Francisco, CA.