Frank May

Biography

Frank May is Associate Professor of Marketing and the Mary F. McVay & Theodore R. Rosenberg Junior Faculty Fellow at the Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech. Frank received his Bachelor's degree from New Jersey City University in Finance in 2006 and his MBA from the University of Minnesota in 2010. He obtained his Doctoral degree in Marketing from the University of South Carolina in 2014.

Frank investigates factors that influence consumer decision making. More specifically, he focuses on the topics of time and self-control. In much of his work, he combines these topics in exploring how variables pertaining to time influence self-control decisions. In doing so, he contributes to a number of literature including those on intertemporal choice, goals, wage rates, anthropomorphism, impulsivity, and others. 

Frank’s research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and the Review of Marketing Research. In addition, his research has been featured in various news outlets, such as the Chicago Tribune, HuffPost, nymag.com, Pulse of the Planet, and others. He won the Pamplin College of Business Annual Faculty Award for Excellence in Research in both 2017 and 2018.  Additionally, he was selected as a 2019 MSI Young Scholar by the Marketing Science Institute.

Education

B.S., Finance, New Jersey City University

MBA, Marketing, University of Minnesota

Ph.D., Marketing,University of South Carolina

Teaching Interests

Marketing, Consumer Behavior, and Marketing Research

Research Interests

Time, Intertemporal choice, and Self-control

Publications

May, Frank and Caglar Irmak (equal authorship) (2018), “The Effects of Rarity on Indulgent Consumption: Non-Impulsives Indulge When Low Frequency is Salient,” Journal of Consumer Research, 45 (2), 383-402.

Monga, Ashwani, Frank May, and Rajesh Bagchi (equal authorship) (2017), “Eliciting Time versus Money: Time Scarcity Underlies Asymmetric Wage Rates,” Journal of Consumer Research, 44 (4), 833-52.

May, Frank (2017), “The Effect of Event Markers on Intertemporal Choice is Moderated by the Reliance on Emotions Versus Reason to Make Decisions,” Journal of Consumer Research, 44 (2), 313-31.

Siddiqui, Rafay, Frank May, and Ashwani Monga (equal authorship) (2017), “Time Window as a Self-Control Denominator: Shorter Windows Shift Preference Toward Virtues and Longer Windows Toward Vices,” Journal of Consumer Research, 43 (6), 932-49.

May, Frank, Alokparna Basu Monga, and Kartik Kalaignanam (2015), “Consumer Responses to Brand Failures: The Neglected Role of Honor Values,” In Review of Marketing Research (Special Issue on Brand Meaning Management), Special Issue Editors: Deborah J. MacInnis and C. Whan Park. Publisher: Emerald.

May, Frank and Caglar Irmak (2014), “Licensing Indulgence in the Present by Distorting Memories of Past Behavior,” Journal of Consumer Research, 41 (October), 624-641.

May, Frank and Ashwani Monga (2014), “When Time Has a Will of Its Own, the Powerless Don’t Have the Will to Wait: Anthropomorphism of Time Can Decrease Patience,” Journal of Consumer Research, 40 (February), 924-942.

Siddiqui, Rafay, Frank May, and Ashwani Monga (equal authorship) (2014), “Reversals of Task Duration Estimates: Thinking How rather than Why Shrinks Duration Estimates for Simple Tasks, but Elongates Estimates for Complex Tasks,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 50 (January), 184-189.