Archana Mannem, Marketing Ph.D. Student, Takes First Place in 2023 WSU Graduate Research Symposium

Archana Mannem, a 4th year Ilitch School Ph.D. student in Marketing, is one of three first place winners of the 2023 Wayne State Graduate Research Symposium for her presentation "Carbon labeling and its implications on consumer behavior."

In her presentation, Mannem noted that in 2021 the United Nations identified individual consumption patterns were a critical contributing factor to climate change. As a result, many manufacturers now display carbon labels, which indicate the amount of GHG emissions a product generates through its life cycle. The reason they do this is to encourage environmentally conscious consumption choices. However, after her initial study, Mannem found that consumers were not well-equipped to accurately interpret the label nor to make decisions based on them. Based on her findings, she concluded that there is a need to make carbon labels more effective by educating consumers regarding interpretation of the label, and to complement the label with a reference point to help guide decision-making. She was the lead author on this project.

Mannem is currently working on her dissertation under the guidance of Dr. Andrea Tangari.