Stephanie Tully
University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business
“Professor Tully demonstrates an extraordinary commitment to the growth of her students, which I find deeply admirable. When I was going through a personal career crisis, Professor Tully met with me and provided advice that ultimately played a pivotal role in my decision to switch into the Business Administration major at USC. One particularly impactful element of her teaching was her integration of real-world executives from diverse industries into our class, accompanied by career assignments that encouraged us to explore our future goals beyond the scope of the course. It is clear that her goal as a professor is not just to prepare her students for exams but to ensure that we truly learn for life.” – Tori Feinstein
Stephanie Tully is Associate Professor of Marketing at USC’s Marshall School of Business and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Consumer Finance Institute. She is an expert in consumer behavior, with a particular focus on the impact of consumers’ resources of money, time, and technology. Her research tackles questions like, how does feeling financially constrained change the way consumers make choices, why are some sources of money treated differently than others, and how does access to new technologies impact consumers’ lives.
Tully’s research has been published in top academic journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Marketing Research. Her research has been selected as a finalist or winner for numerous best paper awards from marketing associations and journals, and won the Innovation in Behavioral Policy Award from the Behavioral Science and Policy Association in 2022.
She was honored as a Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar and received USC Marshall’s Dean’s Award for Research Excellence. Professor Stephanie Tully’s research bridges theory, practice, and policy, focusing on topics that enhance consumer welfare and provide real-world impact. Her research findings also appeal to everyday consumers and have gained media attention from outlets such as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR.
BACKGROUND
At current institution since what year? 2022 (I was at USC from 2015 to 2019, but went to Stanford from 2019 to 2021 before returning to USC in 2022).
Education:
- B.S., Business Administration (marketing concentration), Economics minor
- University of San Francisco; M. Phil, Marketing, New York University; Ph.D., Marketing, New York University
List of Undergraduate courses you teach: Consumer Behavior
TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR
I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when … I was a kid. I even played “professor” back in elementary school. But it wasn’t until later, when my mother shared a website about pursuing a Ph.D. in marketing, that I fully understood what the path entailed. Reading about the kinds of questions I could explore in a marketing Ph.D. program resonated with me, and from that moment, I knew it was exactly what I wanted to do.
What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? I’ve been exploring the importance of psychological ownership in financial decisions for a number of years. This is the idea that the extent to which a consumer feels like a source of money is “theirs” (regardless of legal ownership) can influence the types of financial decisions they make. In research with Eesha Sharma (SDSU) and Cynthia Cryder (Wash U. St. Louis), we examined why consumers are more willing to use lines of credit than loans, despite the fact that lines of credit typically have much higher interest rates than loans. We found that people feel greater psychological ownership over lines of credit compared to loans, and that these feelings play a larger role in people’s willingness to borrow money than structural factors like interest rates. In subsequent research co-led with Wendy De La Rosa (U Penn) and Eesha Sharma (SDSU), we examined how psychological ownership framing could be used to encourage eligible, low-income consumers to apply for government benefits. So the big idea is that feelings of ownership towards different sources of money matter in how people make important financial decisions.
If I weren’t a business school professor, I’d be … either working at a consumer-centric data driven company like Netflix to try to improve customer experience or working for the government to try to improve consumers’ financial lives.
What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? I know that I learn best when I am engaged and actively participating in something. Thus, as a professor, I aim to make my classes very interactive through activities (e.g., simulations, case studies, exercises) and discussion.
One word that describes my first time teaching: Pregnant! (I was in my second trimester while teaching at NYU during grad school)
Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: Finding a supportive mentor is key. There is a lot of critical feedback as a professor, and some of the feedback can be conflicting. Having someone you trust as a resource makes it easier to navigate both practically and emotionally.
Professor I most admire and why: Christian Wheeler for learning improv and developing a course about improv to help business students. It’s unusual, but incredibly creative and useful.
TEACHING BUSINESS SCHOOL STUDENTS
What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? I love watching students connect classroom concepts to real-world business challenges through their final projects working with local companies. And I sometimes hear from former students about how the class changed the trajectory of their career, which makes my job feel meaningful.
What is most challenging? Helping students see that learning, rather than grades or graduation, is the real goal of their education. With easy online access, it’s become tempting for some students to disengage during class or rely on AI for assignments. I emphasize that these shortcuts ultimately undermine the value of their college experience and the skills they came here to develop.
In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Motivated.
In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Disrespectful.
When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as … tough, but fair
LIFE OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
What are your hobbies? Hiking, traveling, paddle boarding, and cooking
How will you spend your summer? I haven’t thought about summer yet!
Favorite place(s) to vacation: Anywhere with a nice beach and warm water.
Favorite book(s): Recently, for nonfiction, “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”, and for non-fiction: “The Anxious Generation”
What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? Veep. It’s an incredibly smart show that’s also hysterical.
What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? I listen to lots of different music, and it can depend on many things including my mood and who I’m with. The only music I’m not a fan of is country, though I do like folk music.
THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this … critical thinking and soft skills. As AI improves, I think these skills are going to be the greatest asset the workforce can offer.
In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at … maximizing for consumer welfare.
I’m grateful for … all of the wonderful people who have helped me reach this point in my career. This includes my family, my grad school advisor, Tom Meyvis, and the outstanding faculty at all of the institutions that I’ve been a part of that have mentored me both formally and informally along the way.
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