About

Amna Kirmani is the Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Marketing at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Her research interests include morality, persuasion knowledge, online communication, and branding. Her work has been published in several journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Consumer Psychology. She has served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Consumer Research and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Consumer Psychology. Her contributions to the field include examining consumer responses to marketing strategies, the effects of corporate activism on unethical consumer behavior, and the role of self and brand in consumer psychology.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Business
• Marketing
• Social Science
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Advertising
• World Wide Web
• Economics
• Demographic economics
• Social psychology
• Public relations

Selected publications

• Does activist rebranding increase sales?

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Cycles of inequality in the marketplace: Insights from macro, marketer, and consumer perspectives

  International Journal of Research in Marketing · 2025-09-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Seeking inequality via differentiation is a fundamental theme in the marketing literature: consumers derive utility from products that convey socially valued attributes, and marketers target consumers by giving them opportunities to differentiate on socially valued attributes. However, as a large body of evidence shows, inequality can reduce consumer well-being and limit economic growth. In this paper, we take a systemic view of marketplace inequality, examining the interdependence among consumers, marketers, and macro forces in shaping inequality in markets for goods and services. Our broad review of the marketing literature across ten marketing journals and a variety of subdomains within the field (e.g., macromarketing, consumer behavior, marketing strategy, quantitative marketing) suggests that macro forces, marketers, and consumers are all part of a dynamic system in which each contributes to creating, perpetuating, and disrupting cycles of marketplace inequality. By highlighting the process by which inequality can be created, perpetuated, and reduced, we hope to give marketing researchers and practitioners insight into interventions that have the potential to increase consumer well-being and marketer profitability.

  PublisherDOI

• Why Consumers Boycott More Than Buycott: The Role of Perceived Instrumentality and Self-Enhancement

  Journal of the Association for Consumer Research · 2024 · 2 citations

  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Advertising

  Consumers can voice their values by avoiding purchase from brands that oppose their values (boycotting) or deliberately purchasing from brands that support their values (buycotting). Prior literature has found that consumers are more likely to boycott than to buycott, but it has not yet provided a clear answer to why this is the case. Drawing from the literature on boycotting, we argue that this difference is, in part, because consumers perceive boycotting versus buycotting: (1) to be more instrumental in influencing brands’ actions and (2) to better satisfy self-enhancement motives. In our context, we show that self-enhancement motives are stronger than instrumental ones in influencing activism engagement intentions. Three experiments provide support for the predictions. The findings offer implications for activists calling consumers to engage in activism and for brands responding to boycotts and buycotts.

  PublisherDOI

• Designing Brand Cocreation Activities to Increase Digital Consumer Engagement

  Journal of Interactive Marketing · 2023 · 14 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Advertising
  • Business

  Brand cocreation campaigns offer consumers various activities centered on interpreting brand image. Yet, little is known about what brand cocreation characteristics increase digital consumer engagement (DCE; e.g., liking a brand on Facebook) and how they do so. Given the importance of DCE, the current research addresses this gap. Three experiments demonstrate that brand cocreation activities with high (vs. low) focus on brand meaning generate greater DCE among consumers who have high self–brand connection. Evidence suggests that this occurs because an activity's high focus on brand meaning facilitates the generation of abstract brand knowledge. For consumers with low self–brand connection, focus on brand meaning does not differentially affect DCE because these consumers lack appropriate knowledge about the brand. This research also offers implications for optimizing interactive marketing practice.

  PublisherDOI

• Lying and Cheating the Company: The Positive and Negative Effects of Corporate Activism on Unethical Consumer Behavior

  Journal of Business Ethics · 2023-10-25 · 15 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Companies are increasingly engaging in corporate activism, defined as taking a public stance on controversial sociopolitical issues. Whereas prior research focuses on consumers’ brand perceptions, attitudes, and purchase behavior, we identify a novel consumer response to activism, unethical consumer behavior. Unethical behavior, such as lying or cheating a company, is prevalent and costly. Across five studies, we show that the effect of corporate activism on unethical behavior is moderated by consumers’ political ideology and mediated by desire for punishment. When the company’s activism stand is [incongruent/congruent] with the consumer’s political ideology, consumers experience [increased/decreased] desire to punish the company, thereby [increasing/decreasing] unethical behavior toward the company. More importantly, we identify two moderators of this process. The effect is attenuated when the company’s current stance is inconsistent with its political reputation and when the immorality of the unethical behavior is high.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Not too far to help: residential mobility, global identity, and donations to distant beneficiaries

  London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) · 2020-01-01

  articleOpen access

  Extant research shows that consumers are more likely to donate to close than distant others, making donations to geographically distant beneficiaries a challenge. This paper introduces residential mobility as a novel variable that can lead to increased donations towards distant beneficiaries. We propose that residential mobility (vs. stability) leads consumers to have a stronger global identity, whereby they see themselves as world citizens. This global identity results in higher donations to distant beneficiaries. A multi-method approach provides evidence for this prediction. An analysis of a national panel dataset demonstrates that high residential mobility is correlated with donations to distant beneficiaries. Lab experiments, including one with real monetary donations, replicate these effects using both actual moving experience and a residential mobility mindset.

  OA PDF

• In Times of Trouble: A Framework for Understanding Consumers’ Responses to Threats

  Journal of Consumer Research · 2020 · 252 citations

  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Business

  Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic downturn have dramatically impacted the lives of consumers around the world. From a conceptual perspective, such health and economic threats can severely disrupt consumers’ sense of ontological security and elicit adaptive responses by both consumers and marketers. Given the opportune timing, this issue of the Journal of Consumer Research is focused on articles that address questions of consumers’ responses to external threats. The purpose of this introduction is to provide an organizing “conceptual tapestry” to connect the articles appearing in the issue. This framework is provided as a tool to help researchers structure their particular projects within the broader landscape of consumer threat response and to present some potential directions for future research. In conjunction with these articles, we hope that this conceptual framework will provide a point of departure for researchers seeking to enhance the understanding of how consumers and markets collectively respond over the short term and long term to threats that disrupt consumers’ routines, lives, or even the fabric of society.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Not Too Far to Help: Residential Mobility, Global Identity, and Donations to Distant Beneficiaries

  Journal of Consumer Research · 2020 · 44 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Business
  • Demographic economics

  Abstract Extant research shows that consumers are more likely to donate to close than distant others, making donations to geographically distant beneficiaries a challenge. This article introduces residential mobility as a novel variable that can lead to increased donations toward distant beneficiaries. This article proposes that residential mobility (vs. stability) leads consumers to have a stronger global identity, whereby they see themselves as world citizens. This global identity results in higher donations to distant beneficiaries. A multi-method approach provides evidence for this prediction. An analysis of a national panel dataset demonstrates that high residential mobility is correlated with donations to distant beneficiaries. Lab experiments, including one with real monetary donations, replicate these effects using both actual moving experience and a residential mobility mindset.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 12M Friendship Matter: How Inter-Senders Friendship Shapes Influences Information Receivers’ Information Consumption

  ACR North American Advances · 2019-01-01

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

• Red Flag! the Consequences of Alerting Consumers to Fake Reviews

  ACR North American Advances · 2018-01-01

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Rosellina Ferraro

  6 shared

• Margaret C. Campbell

  6 shared

• Ted Matherly

  4 shared

• Sanjay Sood

  Anderson University - South Carolina

  3 shared

• Linda L. Price

  University of Wyoming

  3 shared

• Yajin Wang

  China Europe International Business School

  3 shared

• J. Jeffrey Inman

  3 shared

• Peter Wright

  Murdoch University

  3 shared

Awards & honors

• Paul Green Award in the Journal of Marketing Research
• Maynard Award in the Journal of Marketing
• Best Paper Award in the Journal of Advertising
• 2012 Article of the Year Award from the AMA TechSIG
• Outstanding Reviewer, Journal of Consumer Research