Associate Professor Taku Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration receives Japan Society of Commerce and Industry Outstanding Paper Award

Associate Professor Taku Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration was awarded the Outstanding Paper Award at the 67th National Research Conference of the Japan Society of Commerce and Industry (May 26-28, 2017, University of Hyogo).

Founded in 1951 with the aim of conducting theoretical and empirical research on commerce, the Japan Society of Marketing and Distribution plays a central role in the advancement and development of not only domestic and international commerce studies, but also marketing and distribution theory. In order to widely publicize the results of research by its members and to stimulate research exchange, the society publishes its academic journal, Distribution Research, and presents an Outstanding Paper Award every year to the best paper published in the society.

This year's Outstanding Paper Award was given to papers published in the journal Ryutsu Kenkyu in 2016. The winning paper, "The Influence of Images on Packaging on Product Evaluations: A Study Based on Construal Level Theory," with Associate Professor Togawa as lead author, was published in Volume 18, Issue 1, in March of the same year.

Associate Professor Togawa and his colleagues conducted an experiment that demonstrated that the effect shown in existing research that including product images on packaging produces favorable consumer responses does not always occur. This paper shows that packaging with only text increases product evaluations when the consumer is thinking of gifting it to a third party (the social distance to the consumer is long) or reserving it for the distant future (the temporal distance to the point of consumption is long). This discovery not only advances existing packaging research and construal level theory research, but also offers significant implications for marketing and design practice.

Associate Professor Togawa commented, "I am delighted to receive this highly prestigious award. I would like to express my gratitude to my co-authors and other professors who gave me advice. I will continue to devote myself to my research, and hope to incorporate these results into my student education."