Prachi Gala wins two ‘best paper’ awards at Atlantic Marketing Association conference

The assistant professor of marketing received “Best Paper Award in Marketing Strategy track” and “Overall Best Conference Paper Award.”

Prachi Gala, assistant professor of marketing in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, attended the virtual 2020 Atlantic Marketing Association conference on Oct. 2, where she was honored with two awards for her paper, “Breaking the News: How does CEO Media Coverage Influence Consumers and Shareholder Perceptions?”

Prachi Gala Assistant Professor of Marketing
Assistant Professor of Marketing Prachi Gala

Gala and co-author Samuel Staebler, assistant professor of marketing at Tilburg University, were recognized with Best Paper in the Marketing Strategy track and Overall Best Conference Paper honors.

Their research explores the impact of CEO behavior covered in press media on stock returns and customer perception along with levers like media volume and media valence that drive the CEO behavior stock returns/customer perception relationship.

In the paper, the authors “look at six types of CEO news categories (scandals, accomplishments, compensation, changes, political ideologies, altruism) and compare and contrast their individual impact on the customer perceptions and stock returns.”

This year’s conference marked the 45th anniversary of the Atlantic Marketing Association, encouraging the development of lasting friendships through networking opportunities.

Gala joined the Elon faculty in 2018 after earning her doctorate in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from the University of Mississippi. Prior to starting her academic career at Elon, she worked as a business technology analyst and a marketing strategist.