About

Stacy Wood is the Langdon Distinguished University Professor of Marketing and the Executive Director of the Consumer Innovation Consortium at NC State's Poole College of Management. She specializes in applying behavioral approaches to increase the success of innovations, focusing on how firms design new products and services and how end-users discover, understand, adopt, and adapt to new innovations. Her research spans diverse industries, including global vaccination adoption, corporate agility in NASCAR, and building market security for coastal seafood producers, as well as understanding security issues in the emerging space economy. Recently, she has collaborated with New Zealand healthcare to design and test AI tools aimed at improving patient experiences and healthcare delivery in rural areas. Her work has significantly contributed to consumer-centric innovation, with publications in top marketing and medical journals, and she is recognized for her global talks on consumer-centric innovation. Dr. Wood has held leadership roles such as president of the Association for Consumer Research and served as Editor of the Journal of Consumer Research. She joined NC State in 2010 after teaching at the University of South Carolina and has held sabbaticals at Duke and MIT. Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Florida.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Medicine
• Computer Science
• Computer Security
• Psychology
• Virology
• Advertising
• Marketing
• Economic growth
• Philosophy
• Law
• Public relations
• Environmental health
• Immunology
• Epistemology
• Nursing
• Internal medicine
• Business
• Psychiatry
• Family medicine
• Economics

Selected publications

• Comments on “<scp>AI</scp> and the advent of the cyborg behavioral scientist”

  Journal of Consumer Psychology · 2025-03-16 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Below are comments on Tomaino, Cooke, and Hoover by four teams of collaborative reviewers that helped clarify and focus its original version. Their comments on the refined version articulate how the fast‐moving world of generative AI can alter authors, readers, reviewers, and consumer behavior journals. In the first comment, Blythe, Kulis, and McGraw propose that Generative AI requires substantial effort to generate research that is fast, cost‐effective, and of high quality. They articulate three recommendations: to ask, to train, and to check the system. Asking builds on GenAI's ability to reveal its own capabilities at different stages of the research process. Training allows the system to be customized with relevant context, domain‐specific documents, and tailored examples, enhancing its accuracy and reducing errors. Checking is strongly advised to validate that the outputs are both reasonable and robust. Haenlein, Hewett, and Yoo build on the capabilities of Large Language Models that go beyond the research practices central to consumer psychology. They outline strategic prompting strategies: starting broadly and gradually narrowing to specific domains, downloading information from relevant articles and data that is unlikely to be part of the current corpus, and evoking specific theories, methods, or presentation formats. They also elaborate on the ways the apparent magic of GenAI may raise learning or ethical challenges. The third comment by Stacy Wood focuses less on the capabilities of GenAI and more on how its adoption will depend on researcher feelings—in other words, how different aspects of its use may alter researchers' experiences of doing research and their identities as scholars. GenAI has the potential to both build (through increased productivity or increased accessibility) and limit (through loss of agency or faster production) pride of purpose in research. She argues that feelings from using GenAI are likely to differ across research steps, from developing novel concepts, processes, analyses, and writing of the paper. Wherever GenAI may lessen the excitement, satisfaction, motivation, and perceived status of the researcher, barriers to its use are likely to be erected. Finally, Vicki Morwitz identifies new AI capabilities beyond those explored in Tomaino et al. Those include the ability to generate synthetic data that can guide empirical experiments, a facility to create audio and visual stimuli, a capability to study group behavior, and a capacity to reliably interpret complex human statements. The comment then closes with important questions for editorial policies, raising issues about limitations on AI use by authors, its appropriate applications by review teams, and possible publishers' restrictions on uploading copyrighted articles.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Digitally Enabled Care Framework: Leveraging Technology to Enhance the Physician–Patient Relationship

  NEJM Catalyst · 2024-09-18 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Not-so-speedy delivery: Should retailers use discounts or donations to incentivize consumers to choose delayed delivery?

  Journal of Retailing · 2024 · 5 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Business
  • Marketing
  • Advertising
  PublisherDOI

• 50 Years of <i>JCR</i>

  Journal of Consumer Research · 2024-05-15 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The inaugural issue of the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) was published 50 years ago, in June 1974.The first issue was eclectic, covering a wide range of topics from consumer economics to psychological theory.This diversity reflected the Journal's broad sponsorship base, including seven of the now eleven sponsoring organizations, and continues to represent the multidisciplinary orientation of the Journal and the field.The then-nascent academic field of consumer research is now a well-established and thriving field due, in large part, to this journal.This 50 th anniversary special issue is a testament to the scholars who have published here over five productive decades.This issue includes conceptual and empirical articles, reviews of research areas and new insights, and historical as well as futuristic perspectives.Some articles reflect on the Journal over the years and the academic discipline of consumer research, considering the relevance, innovativeness, and impact of research in our field.Others explore important consumer theories or emerging marketplace phenomena.We structure the articles using editorial essays on five key JCR themes: consumer information processing and behavioral decision-making (Schmitt), society and culture (Cotte), innovation and emerging topics (Stephen), consumer research methods (Wood), and the Journal itself (Giesler).These essays are based on interviews with prominent consumer scholars who have shaped consumer research and made significant contributions over the years.They provide both a reflection on where we have been and a perspective on where we are going.In looking back at 50 years of research and insight for academic researchers, marketing practitioners, and other stakeholders, we celebrate the diversity of ideas, constructs, and methodologies that characterize our field.In this very special issue, we invite you to join us in the intellectual celebration.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Future of Consumer Research Methods: Lessons of a Prospective Retrospective

  Journal of Consumer Research · 2024-05-15 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Looking back at 50 years of Journal of Consumer Research methods and interviewing some of the field’s most respected methodologists, this article seeks to craft a core set of best practices for scholars in consumer research. From perennial issues like conceptual validity to emerging issues like data integrity and replicability, the advice offered by our experts can help scholars improve the way they approach their research questions, provide empirical evidence that instills confidence, use new tools to make research more inclusive or descriptive of the “real world,” and seek to become thought leaders.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Will We Be the Last Human Editors of <i>JCR</i>?

  Journal of Consumer Research · 2024-09-16 · 6 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Marketing + Medicine: Using Marketing Theory to Improve Patient Choices and Outcomes

  2023-03-06

  preprint1st authorCorresponding

  Marketing (as an academic field and as a practice) is often misunderstood by those promoting important innovations in the sciences and healthcare. In this talk, we will discuss how marketing theory is critically useful to the future of healthcare delivery and describe its recent successes in Covid-19 vaccination efforts. How do we encourage patients to adopt healthy new habits or adhere to new treatments? How do we communicate with large, diverse, and changing populations? How do we leverage the benefits of new technologies for patient engagement and avoid the pitfalls of those same technologies? Join us to learn the latest tools to guide healthy choices by understanding key consumer behaviour theories of how people choose and live with the consequences. The presentation will be followed by a workshop on the same topic at 1.30 pm in room 507- G080. This is an initiative supported by the University of Auckland Business School, the University of Auckland School of Population Health and the University of Canterbury Business School. To join online, please enter the following Zoom link into your browser: https://auckland.zoom.us/j/95125034110?pwd=WUNNY2tlQlZxTUFSQUhLMTRDS0JRZz09 Meeting ID: 951 2503 4110 - Passcode: 411408

  PublisherDOI

• In-Hospital Code Status Updates: Trends Over Time and the Impact of COVID-19

  American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine® · 2023-12-18 · 2 citations

  article

  OBJECTIVE: The primary objective was to evaluate if the percentage of patients with missing or inaccurate code status documentation at a Trauma Level 1 hospital could be reduced through daily updates. The secondary objective was to examine if patient preferences for DNR changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This retrospective study, spanning March 2019 to December 2022, compared the code status in ICU and ED patients drawn from two data sets. The first was based on historical electronic medical records (EHR), and the second involved daily updates of code status following patient admission. RESULTS: Implementing daily updates upon admission was more effective in ICUs than in the ED in reducing missing code status documentation. Around 20% of patients without a specific code status chose DNR under the new system. During COVID-19, a decrease in ICU patients choosing DNR and an increase in full code (FC) choices were observed. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of regular updates and discussions regarding code status to enhance patient care and resource allocation in ICU and ED settings. The COVID-19 pandemic's influence on shifting patient preferences towards full code status underscores the need for adaptable documentation practices. Emphasizing patient education about DNR implications and benefits is key to supporting informed decisions that reflect individual health contexts and values. This approach will help balance the considerations for DNR and full code choices, especially during health care crises.

  PublisherDOI

• How Consumers Behave in a Crisis: International Lessons (and Innovations) from COVID-19

  Journal of International Marketing · 2022-05-25 · 18 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Among the myriad challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, many touched on how individuals chose to utilize their resources to protect their personal well-being and the downstream impact on society. Marketing researchers rose to the challenge, and much work in the 2020–2022 period has been devoted to improving well-being by using marketing theory to create better health messaging, develop effective interventions, understand mechanisms that shift purchasing patterns, motivate cooperation and compliance, and speak to the high-impact decisions that people and organizations are being forced to make each day. Here, the author introduces the Protection Knowledge Model to synthesize much of the research to date on COVID-19 response. This model highlights the individual–institution interaction in how people choose (and institutions promote) protective strategies and focuses on the dangers of misalignment in individuals’ and institutions’ knowledge of each other and of the situation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Deep-seated psychological histories of COVID-19 vaccine hesitance and resistance

  PNAS Nexus · 2022-03-24 · 34 citations

  articleOpen access

  To design effective pro-vaccination messaging, it is important to know "where people are coming from"-the personal experiences and long-standing values, motives, lifestyles, preferences, emotional tendencies, and information-processing capacities of people who end up resistant or hesitant toward vaccination. We used prospective data from a 5-decade cohort study spanning childhood to midlife to construct comprehensive early-life psychological histories of groups who differed in their vaccine intentions in months just before COVID vaccines became available in their country. Vaccine-resistant and vaccine-hesitant participants had histories of adverse childhood experiences that foster mistrust, longstanding mental-health problems that foster misinterpretation of messaging, and early-emerging personality traits including tendencies toward extreme negative emotions, shutting down mentally under stress, nonconformism, and fatalism about health. Many vaccine-resistant and -hesitant participants had cognitive difficulties in comprehending health information. Findings held after control for socioeconomic origins. Vaccine intentions are not short-term isolated misunderstandings. They are part of a person's style of interpreting information and making decisions that is laid down before secondary school age. Findings suggest ways to tailor vaccine messaging for hesitant and resistant groups. To prepare for future pandemics, education about viruses and vaccines before or during secondary schooling could reduce citizens' level of uncertainty during a pandemic, and provide people with pre-existing knowledge frameworks that prevent extreme emotional distress reactions and enhance receptivity to health messages. Enhanced medical technology and economic resilience are important for pandemic preparedness, but a prepared public who understands the need to mask, social distance, and vaccinate will also be important.

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Frequent coauthors

• John Lynch

  7 shared

• June Cotte

  7 shared

• Kevin A. Schulman

  Stanford University

  7 shared

• Adam Craig

  University of Kentucky

  5 shared

• Sina Rahmani

  Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

  4 shared

• Roxanne Panchasi

  4 shared

• Julia Aoki

  Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

  4 shared

• Markus Giesler

  4 shared

Labs

• Consumer Innovation ConsortiumPI

Awards & honors

• 1997 H. Paul Root Award for the article published in Journal…
• 2005 Lewis Stern Award (AMA) for best paper in marketing and…
• Runner-up for the 2010 Park Prize for best paper in JCP