Thomas Novak
Thomas Novak
Denit Trust Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Marketing, Emeritus
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Thomas P. Novak is the Denit Trust Distinguished Scholar and Professor Marketing, Emeritus. He co-directed the Center for the Connected Consumer at the George Washington University School of Business (GWSB) in Washington, D.C. from 2013 to 2025. Professor Novak received his A.B. in Psychology from Oberlin College in 1977 and his M.A. (1980) and Ph.D. (1984, in quantitative psychology with a formal minor in Biostatistics) from the L.L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He was recognized as a University of North Carolina Distinguished Graduate Alumni in 2002.
Professor Novak’s research since 1993 has focused on consumer behavior in online environments and digital marketing. His research interests deal with consumer experience of smart devices and the Internet of Things, using machine learning methods for natural language processing and visualization. He co-founded and co-
directed a series of research centers (Project 2000, eLab, the Sloan Center for Internet Retailing, and the Center for the Connected Consumer) with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Science Foundation, Paul Allen’s Interval Research Corporation and 40 other corporate sponsors including Walmart.com, Netscape, Sprint, Hewlett-Packard, FedEx, Procter & Gamble, and Hershey’s.
An internationally recognized scholar in Web-based commerce, Dr. Novak has published extensively on the subject in top academic journals in a range of scholarly disciplines. His work has had global impact with over 40,000 citations in Google Scholar. He is an area editor for the Journal of Consumer Research, and has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Interactive Marketing. He has received numerous prestigious research awards, including the Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award for long term contributions to the discipline of marketing, the Journal of Consumer Research 2021 Best Article Award, the American Marketing Association Lazaridis Prize, the Stellner Distinguished Scholar Award, the Robert D. Buzzell MSI Best Paper Award Honorable Mention.
Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington University in 2013, Dr. Novak served on the faculties of the University of California Riverside, Vanderbilt University, and Southern Methodist University. He has been a visiting scholar at Paul Allen’s Interval Research Corp., the University of Hong Kong, University of California San Diego, USC Annenberg School, and Stanford University. Prior to joining academia, he spent five years at Young & Rubicam, New York.
- Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1984)
- M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1980)
- A.B., Oberlin College (1977)
Hoffman, D.L. and T.P. Novak (2025), “Assembling Flow: A Unified Theoretical Framework for Understanding Online Experience in an AI-Powered World,” under review. SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=548540
Hoffman, D.L. and T.P. Novak (2025) “The Evolving Consumer IoT: A Novel Framework for Marketing Strategy Based on Assemblage Theory,” Journal of Product Innovation Management, Thought Leader Special Issue, pre-publication online November 6, 2024, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jpim.12767
Novak, T.P. and Hoffman, D.L. (2024) “Exploration and Exploitation in Consumer Automation: Visualizing IoT Interactions with Topological Data Analysis, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, Special Issue on Automation in Marketing and Consumption, July, 9(3), 282-294.
Novak, T.P. and D. L. Hoffman (2023), “Automation Assemblages in the Internet of Things: Discovering Qualitative Practices at the Boundaries of Quantitative Change,” Journal of Consumer Research, 49(5), 811-837. Published Online April 7, 2022
Hildebrand, C., F. Efthymiou, B. Francesc, W.H. Hampton, D.L. Hoffman and T.P. Novak (2020), “Voice Analytics in Business Research: Conceptual Foundations, Acoustic Feature Extraction, and Applications,” Journal of Business Research, 121 (December), 364-374.
Novak, T.P. (2020), “A Generalized Framework for Moral Dilemmas Involving Autonomous Vehicles: A Commentary on Gill,” Journal of Consumer Research, 47 (2) August, 292-300.
Novak, T.P. and D.L. Hoffman (2019), “Relationship Journeys in the Internet of Things: A New Framework for Understanding Interactions Between Consumers and Smart Objects,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, special issue on Consumer Journeys: Developing Consumer-Based Strategy, 47 (2) March, 216-237.
Hoffman, D.L. and T.P. Novak (2018), “Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach,” Journal of Consumer Research, 44(6), April, 1178-1204.
Hoffman, D.L. and T.P. Novak (2018), “The Path of Emergent Experience in the Consumer IoT: From Early Adoption to Radical Changes in Consumer’ Lives,” GfK Marketing Intelligence Review, 10 (2) October, 11-18.
Verhoef, P., Stephen, A., Kannan, P.K., Luo, X., Abhishek, V., Andrews, M., Bart, Y., Datta, H., Fong, N., Hoffman, D., Hu, M., Novak, T., Rand, W., and Zhang, Y. (2017), “Consumer Connectivity in a Complex, Technology-Enabled, and Mobile-Oriented World with Smart Products,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 40 (November), 1-8.
Hoffman, D.L., T.P. Novak and H. Kang, (2017) “Let’s Get Closer: How Regulatory Fit Drives Feelings of Connectedness in Social Media,” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, issue on “The Consumer in a Connected World,” 2(2).
White, T., T. P, Novak and D. L. Hoffman (2014), “No Strings Attached: When Giving It Away Versus Making Them Pay Leads to Negative Net Benefit Perceptions in Consumer-Retailer Exchanges,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 28 (August), 184-195.
Labrecque, L., Mathwick, C., vor dem Esche, J., Novak, T.P., and Hofacker, C. (2013), “Consumer Power: Evolution in the Digital Age,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27 (November), 257-269.
- Consumer experience in the Internet of Things (IoT)
- Assemblage Theory
- Machine learning approaches for visualization of IoT interactions including manifold learning, density-based clustering, word embeddings, and topological data analysis (TDA)
- Anthropomorphism of smart devices
- Human-device interactivity in smart environments
- Self-extension and self-expansion theory and measurement
Academic Honors and Awards
| 2021 | Best Article Award, Journal of Consumer Research. Awarded for Hoffman and Novak (2018), “Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach.” |
| 2021 | GWSB Dean’s Awards for Excellence: Senior Faculty Research Award. |
| 2020 | Finalist for Academy of Marketing Science Best JAMS Article Award Published in 2019. |
| 2019 | Winner of the Lazaridis Prize for the Best Paper on the Practice of Marketing as it relates to Innovation, Technology and Interactivity, awarded by the American Marketing Association (AMA) TechSIG. |
| 2019 | Best Reviewer Award, Journal of Marketing. |
| 2012 | University of Pennsylvania Future of Advertising Center/Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative. Winner for proposal “Crowdsourcing Ad Effectiveness: Can Emergent Segments Produce the Most Effective Online Ads?” ($7,500). |
| 2012 | Marketing Science Institute Ideas Challenge Winner for proposal “Idea Wars: Developing a Collaborative Research Agenda for the Gamification of Marketing” ($10,000). |
| 2012 | Finalist, Paul D. Converse Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Science of Marketing. |
| 2011 | National Science Foundation Grant # IIS-1114828, “Motivations, Expectations and Goal Pursuit in Social Media,” Co-PI ($413,756 for two years). |
| 2011 | Marketing Science Institute “Challenges of Communications and Branding in a Digital Era” research proposal competition winner ($8,750). |
| 2011 | Robert D. Buzzell MSI Best Paper Award Honorable Mention for the “Right” Consumers for the Best Concepts: Identifying and Using Emergent Consumers in Developing New Products (Hoffman, Kopalle and Novak). |
| 2009 | Thomson Reuters’ Essential Science Indicators cited Professors Donna Hoffman and Tom Novak’s Journal of Interactive Marketing (2009) article as a “Fast Breaking Paper” (one of the most cited in the past two years) in the entire field of Economics and Business, November 2009. |
| 2009 | Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program, “Are Brand Attitudes Contagious? Consumer Response to Organic Search Trends,” $55,000 (with Donna L. Hoffman). |
| 2008 | Marketing Science Institute Research Award, “The ‘Right’ Consumers for the Best Concepts: A Methodology for Identifying Emergent Consumers for New Product Development,” $6,750 (with Donna L. Hoffman and Praveen Kopalle). |
| 2008 | Marketing Science Institute Research Award, “Consumer Research in Virtual Worlds: The Role of Context and Content on Response Accuracy,” $10,000 (with Francesco Massara). |
| 2008 | Marketing Science Institute Visiting Scholar Sponsorship Award, $12,500 (sponsoring Professor Francesco Massara, Università IULM, Milan, Italy. 2008 National Science Foundation, Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) End-User Opt-In Initiative. |
| 2005 | Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award for the article, “Marketing in Computer-Mediated Environments: Conceptual Foundations,” Journal of Marketing 1996. This award is for long-term contributions to the discipline of marketing. |
| 2005 | Stellner Distinguished Scholar for 2005-2006, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| 2005 | MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) Business Classics Award for development of noncommercial learning resources. |
| 2003 | ISI Essential Science Indicators cited Professors Tom Novak and Donna Hoffman’s Marketing Science (2000) article as “Emerging Research Front” in the entire field of Economics and Business, December 2003. |
| 2003 | ISI Essential Science Indicators cited Professors Tom Novak and Donna Hoffman for the highest percentage increase in total citations in the entire field of Economics and Business, July 2003. |
| 2002 | University of North Carolina Distinguished Graduate Alumni |
| 1999 | EDSF Excellence in Education Award for Innovation in Higher Education (sponsored by Xerox) |
| 1999 | With Professor Donna Hoffman, voted as one of the top two Internet scientists by over 600 U.S. and European scientists and marketing managers in a survey conducted by the ProfNet Institute for Internet Marketing in Dortmund, Germany. |
| 1996 | TLS/SIRS Freedom of Information Award (sirs.com/freedom/tenn.htm) |
| 1993 | Honorable Mention, Marketing Science Institute Proposal Competition for Using Marketing to Serve Society. |
Undergraduate Courses
- Advertising Management (SMU)
- Consumer Behavior (SMU, NYU)
- Digital Marketing (GW)
- Electronic Marketing (UCR)
- Honors Research Project (UCR)
- Marketing Research (GW, SMU, NYU)
MBA Courses
- Advanced Marketing Research (Vanderbilt)
- Consumer Behavior (Columbia)
- Consumer Behavior in Online Environments (Vanderbilt)
- Digital Marketing (GW)
- Internet Marketing Project (UC Riverside, Vanderbilt)
- Internet Retailing Project (UC Riverside)
- Managing the Internet Retailing Customer Chain (Vanderbilt)
- Marketing Engineering (Vanderbilt)
- Marketing in Digital Environments (Vanderbilt)
- Marketing Research (Vanderbilt, SMU, Columbia, UCLA, NYU)
- Marketing Research Project (Vanderbilt)
Doctoral Seminars
- Market Segmentation (Columbia)
- Marketing in Computer-Mediated Environments (Vanderbilt)