WSU Business Awards Faculty Excellence Distinguished Professorship to David Sprott

PULLMAN, Wash. — David Sprott, associate professor of marketing at Washington State University, has been named the holder of the Gardner O. Hart Faculty Excellence Distinguished Professorship in the College of Business and Economics.

“The Hart professorship was created in 2003 to reward and enable faculty excellence throughout the college,” says CBE Dean Eric Spangenberg. “Dave’s outstanding research and resulting publications in top academic journals, his excellence in teaching and his considerable service to the college and university make him specially suited for the Hart position. His unique accomplishments in those three areas make him uniquely representative of, and a role model for, faculty excellence.”

The Hart professorship is funded from an endowment created by a gift from the late alumnus Gardner O. Hart, a 1929 graduate with a degree in economics. It is supported by his widow Barbara Beall Hart. A Spokane native, Hart built a career at Lockheed in southern California that spanned three decades.

The first holder of the Hart award was Spangenberg, who currently holds the Maughmer Freedom Philosophy Endowed Chair.

“It means a great deal to me to be honored by the college with the Hart professorship. It will help me to continue my ongoing research activities,” Sprott said.  “The award means even more knowing that I received it at a time when the CBE has reinvigorated its research, teaching and service expectations for its faculty.”

Sprott’s 25 research articles have appeared in journals that include the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Consumer Psychology and the Journal of Retailing. His ongoing research examines various aspects of consumer psychology within the domains of social influence, branding and consumer information processing in retail settings. His most recent research — scheduled to appear next year in the Journal of Consumer Research — examines how self-predictions about socially normative behaviors (e.g., making donations to a charitable organization) can influence one’s future behavior.  

Sprott, his wife, Constance, and daughters Chapin, Arden and Piper, recently returned to Pullman following a year in Brig, Switzerland. As service to the college, he helped establish an ongoing Swiss study abroad program for all business majors and minors. It builds upon a partnership between the CBE’s School of Hospitality Business Management and Cesar Ritz Colleges, which ends in December. The new, college-wide partnership will kick off in January when approximately 20 CBE students and two WSU faculty members will have a semester of classes in the heart of the Swiss Alps. Each semester thereafter, more business students will be able to study in Switzerland.  He is also working on a similar program in Geneva for MBA students.

“These types of programs strike at the heart of the CBE’s strategic objective to increase international exposure for our students, professors and staff,” said Sprott, the faculty member leading the new programs.

Sprott joined the marketing faculty in 1995 and was promoted to associate professor in 2003. He earned a doctorate in business administration, with a major in marketing and a minor in psychology, from the University of South Carolina. His bachelor’s and MBA degrees are from Kent State University. He is a native of Ravenna, Ohio.

He was also named a Dean’s Excellence Fellow at the spring CBE awards ceremony. He is the coordinator for the doctorate program’s concentration in marketing and is in charge of the Department of Marketing’s consumer behavior lab and subject pool.  Building upon his research background and interests, Sprott teaches various courses related to consumer behavior and branding at WSU and a doctorate seminar on social science research methods.