Bocconi University
Erasmus University
Reichman University
University of Basel
The annual AMA/Marketing Science Institute/H. Paul Root award is given to the Journal of Marketing article that has made the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of marketing in a calendar year. It is cosponsored by the American Marketing Association and the Marketing Science Institute, and it honors past AMA Board Chair H. Paul Root, who also served as president of MSI from 1990 to 1998. The winners of the 2024 AMA/MSI/H. Paul Root Award are Maximilian Beichert, Andreas Bayerl, Jacob Goldenberg, and Andreas Lanz for their article “Revenue Generation Through Influencer Marketing,” (Volume 88, Issue 4).
The selection committee, composed of Detelina Marinova (University of Missouri), Shane Wang (Virginia Tech), and Vanessa Patrick (University of Houston) noted:
“The AMA/Marketing Science Institute/H. Paul Root award recognizes a Journal of Marketing article that has made a significant contribution to advancing the practice of marketing. As such, we judged articles based on their impact, rigor, innovation, and practical relevance.
‘Revenue Generation Through Influencer Marketing’ by Maximilian Beichert, Andreas Bayerl, Jacob Goldenberg, and Andreas Lanz utilizes a large-scale proprietary dataset on influencer-driven sales across multiple platforms, complemented by a series of field experiments, to evaluate the revenue impact of influencer marketing. In contrast to prior research that primarily focuses on engagement metrics, this study shifts the emphasis to actual sales performance. Notably, the authors find—contrary to conventional wisdom—that smaller influencers deliver significantly higher returns on investment (ROI) from direct sales campaigns than their more prominent counterparts. The findings have real-world implications, especially given that influencer marketing expenditures are projected to reach $39.33 billion in 2025.
As such, the paper demonstrates measurable and substantial influence on marketing practice and can be widely adopted by practitioners. Furthermore, the paper is written in a clear, engaging manner that makes complex ideas accessible to practitioners. There is already initial evidence of the widespread impact of this work. As of March 2025, the paper has already accumulated over 32,000 downloads, 61 citations on Google Scholar, and 269 Mendeley readers. It also ranks in the top 4% of research outputs tracked by Altmetric.”
A detailed summary of this research is available here.
The authors will be honored at the 2025 AMA Summer Academic Conference, August 22–24 in Chicago. Previous recipients of this award can be found here.
The other excellent finalists for this award are:
- “No Comments (from You): Understanding the Interpersonal and Professional Consequences of Disabling Social Media Comments,” by Michelle E. Daniels and Freeman Wu
- “Choice Architecture for Healthier Insurance Decisions: Ordering and Partitioning Together Can Improve Consumer Choice,” by Benedict G.C. Dellaert, Eric J. Johnson, Shannon Duncan, and Tom Baker
- “Measuring Willingness to Pay: A Comparative Method of Valuation,” by Sharlene He, Eric T. Anderson, and Derek D. Rucker
- “Can Words Speak Louder Than Actions? Using Top Management Teams’ Language to Predict Myopic Marketing Spending,” by Andre Martin and Tarun Kushwaha
- “‘Statistical Significance’ and Statistical Reporting: Moving Beyond Binary,” by Blakeley B. McShane, Eric T. Bradlow, John G. Lynch Jr., and Robert J. Meyer
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