The AMA Foundation (AMAF) is proud to honor Shane Wang, Professor of Marketing at Virginia Tech University, as the recipient of the 2026 Robert J. Lavidge Global Marketing Research Award!
The Robert J. Lavidge Global Marketing Research Award recognizes a marketing practitioner or educator who has devised and successfully implemented a research/insight procedure within the last five years that has practical implications for use by others. Professor Wang’s research methodologies, particularly in audio mining and attribute embedding, offer marketing practitioners transformative tools to extract deep, actionable insights from unstructured data sources. These procedures are not only academically rigorous but also explicitly designed with real-world adoption in mind, addressing long-standing challenges in scalability, interpretability, and behavioral insight extraction.
About the Winner
Professor Shane Wang is recognized for developing innovative marketing research methodologies that enable organizations to transform vast amounts of unstructured consumer data, including voice recordings, online reviews, and other digital interactions, into actionable business insights. By integrating artificial intelligence, machine learning, and consumer behavior, his research has introduced practical approaches for measuring customer emotions, uncovering consumer preferences, and supporting informed business decisions. His pioneering work in audio mining and attribute embedding has helped organizations improve customer experience, optimize marketing communications, accelerate product innovation, and strengthen strategic decision making across a wide range of industries. Professor Wang is Professor of Marketing at Virginia Tech. His research has appeared in leading marketing and consumer research journals. Building on his work in unstructured data analytics, his recent research explores AI agents, digital twins of customers, and human AI collaboration, advancing the next generation of intelligent marketing systems that help organizations understand customers, support managerial decision making, and create more personalized customer experiences.
Shane Wang will be honored at the AMA Foundation Awards Luncheon on July 25, 2026, during the 2026 AMA Summer Academic Conference in Denver, CO, July 24-26.
The AMA Foundation (AMAF) strengthens and elevates the marketing profession by advancing knowledge, building a global community of marketing leaders, and supporting marketing initiatives that drive innovation and societal impact. Gifts to the AMA Foundation empower the next generation of marketing students, develop forward-thinking faculty, support passionate professionals, build a dynamic community, and celebrate influential and transformative marketers and their work. Learn more about the AMA Foundation’s impact and ways to get involved here.