Societal Impact

Research on inclusive product design from C. T. Bauer College of Business Associate Dean for Research and Marketing Professor Vanessa Patrick and co-author Candice Hollenbeck of the University of Georgia has been recognized for its potential for societal impact.

“Designing for All: Consumer Response to Inclusive Design,” published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, was named a Finalist for a major American Marketing Association (AMA) award, the EBSCO-RRBM Award for Responsible Research in Marketing.

The work previously was named winner of the AMA Consumer Behavior Special Interest Group (CBSIG) annual Research in Practice Award.

The paper introduces the concept of inclusive design to the marketing and consumer behavior literature. It draws from diverse fields of architecture, education, product engineering and design to conceptualize inclusive design as a “mismatch” between the consumer and the design object, and introduces a framework to explain the complex cognitive appraisals and emotional consumer responses to inclusive design.

Patrick and Hollenbeck have also authored “A R.E.C.I.P.E. for Inclusion: A Six-Step Journey to Teaching Inclusive Marketing Orientation,” which includes a six-step tutorial for teaching inclusive marketing, published by the Marketing Education Review.

Patrick said “This stream of research on inclusive design is immensely gratifying because of its potential for social impact and the opportunity it affords me as a researcher to make a positive difference in the world with my research.”

Patrick is a consumer psychologist whose research interests lie in the areas of self-regulation and personal leadership, everyday consumer aesthetics and luxury brand strategy. Her research has been published in top-tier academic journals in psychology, marketing, and management, and popular accounts of her work have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Los Angeles Times, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Forbes, The Huffington Post and The Washington Post.

Patrick is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Retailing, and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. She also serves on editorial review boards for the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing.