Meloy to assume role of Penn State Smeal Marketing Department chair

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Meg Meloy, professor of marketing and the Calvin E. and Pamala T. Zimmerman Fellow, will assume the role of chair of the Marketing Department in the Penn State Smeal College of Business, effective July 1.

She will succeed Smeal Professor of Marketing Hans Baumgartner, who has led the department since 2013.

“I’m excited about the opportunities ahead and feel a bit daunted by the very big shoes I have to fill,” Meloy said. “Hans Baumgartner has done a fabulous job for the last six years. I am grateful to my colleagues and the administration for the faith they have placed in me.”

Meloy has been a member of the Smeal faculty since 2002. She teaches consumer behavior to undergraduates and MBA students. She’s also the director of Smeal’s Behavioral Lab.

Her research examines consumer and managerial decision-making biases and heuristics, with a special emphasis on how moods influence consumer information processing, preference construction, and choice behavior.

Meloy’s has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Operations Management, Management Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Production and Operations Management, and Psychological Science.

She currently serves on the editorial review boards for Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Consumer Psychology. In 2010, she co-chaired the Society for Consumer Psychology conference. She was the treasurer of the Association for Consumer Research (2013-2014) and was elected president of the Society for Consumer Psychology in 2018.

Meloy holds a doctorate in marketing (consumer decision making), a master’s degree in applied economics and management (food marketing) from Cornell University, and a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics and rural sociology, with a minor in economics, from Penn State.

She said it’s an exciting time to be connected to her chosen discipline.

“The field of marketing has been undergoing significant shifts in recent years. For example, we’ve seen huge growth in marketing analytics. Our ability to track consumers and identify where marketing efforts are most effective has improved with the availability of vast amounts of ‘big data,’” Meloy said.

“The introduction of new technologies (e.g., augmented reality, virtual reality, mobile banking) is also changing how consumers shop, make decisions, and pay for their purchases. And consumers’ attitudes about the marketplace and the future of our planet are contributing to the sharing economy and changing how consumers are disposing of products. It’s an exciting time of change for our field.”