In February, MSI announced winners in the 2018 Alden G. Clayton Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Competition:

Dafna Goor, Harvard University
Dissertation Proposal: “Branding in the New World: How Luxury Consumption, Social Comparison, and Brand Secrecy Impact Symbolic Consumption”
Advisor: Anat Keinan

Tesary Lin, University of Chicago
Dissertation Proposal: “Measuring Intrinsic and Instrumental Preferences for Privacy”
Advisors: Sanjog Misra and Pradeep Chintagunta

The competition, now in its 35th year, recognizes marketing doctoral students whose research focuses on questions with important marketing, societal, and policy implications. Dafna and Tesary will each receive a $5000 award and will attend the Spring Trustees Meeting in Boston.

“This competition is a singular opportunity to support promising marketing researchers early in their careers,” said Executive Director Carl Mela. “By encouraging top-notch Ph.D. students like Dafna and Tesary to apply rigorous research methods to questions that have translational business relevance, MSI is helping to create the next generation of marketing leaders.”

The 2018 competition received almost 100 submissions from doctoral students around the world, said Research Program Director Sherry Pincus. “We are delighted with their level of interest and with the high quality of their submissions, and we are deeply grateful to the many scholars who generously contributed their time to serve as reviewers.”

The competition was established in 1984 in honor of MSI president Alden G. Clayton. Many past recipients have become leading marketing academics who maintain a career-long association with MSI. The inaugural winner of the Clayton Competition was Dartmouth’s Kevin Lane Keller, MSI’s 2013-15 Executive Director.

Past winners

About the Competition