Wiener and Kovacheva Receive Drescher Award

Assistant Professors Aleksandra Kovacheva and Hillary Wiener

Two marketing faculty, Assistant Professor Hillary Wiener and Assistant Professor Aleksandra Kovacheva will be spending more time on research this spring thanks to the Drescher Leave Program.

Kovacheva said, “The Drescher Leave offers relief from teaching and service, allowing me to focus on research. This spring I will focus on three projects that are close to resubmission to a journal and will continue working on four more projects at different stages of the review process.”

Kovacheva will be completing the “The Value of the Unknown: A Framework of Surprise Marketing,” building a comprehensive framework to understand how and under what conditions uncertain or surprise products can facilitate consumers’ and marketers’ goal attainment. She will also be investigating a recent phenomenon - retailers' attempts to promote diversity at the marketplace by singling out products from underrepresented stakeholders.

hillary wiener photo — Assistant Professor of Marketing Hillary Wiener

Wiener plans to work on two journal articles that are currently in the revise and resubmit stage, “Possessions as Icebreakers: Possession-Facilitated Conversations” expected to be published in the Journal of Marketing Research and “Using Gifts to Compensate for Deficits of Emotional Support” expected to be published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. Wiener also expects to submit a new article on the role of small talk in service encounters.

Additionally, the two researchers will work together to explore word-of-mouth behaviors for products that are uncertain and have not yet been obtained by the consumer.

The Dr. Nuala McGann Drescher Diversity and Inclusion Leave Program is named for a retired president of United University Professions and Distinguished Service Professor Emerita at the State University of New York College at Buffalo.

The Drescher Award enhances employment opportunities by assisting employees to prepare for permanent or continuing appointments with preferences given to minorities, women, persons with disabilities or employees with military status.