Aronté Bennett, PhD

Associate Professor of Marketing & Business Law; Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion | Villanova School of Business | Villanova University

Villanova, PA, UNITED STATES

Aronté Bennett, PhD, specializes in consumer behavior, information processing and brand relationships

Media

Publications Photos Videos Documents Audio/Podcasts

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Areas of Expertise (11)

Marketplace Inclusion/Exclusion

Business

Corporate Social Responsbility

Marketing Research

Information Processing

Consumer Behavior

Pro Social Behavior

Brand Relationships

Research Methodology in Marketing

Branding

Vulnerable Consumers

Biography

Dr. Aronté Bennett specializes in consumer behavior and brand relationships, with research on corporate social responsibility, charitable donations, marketplace discrimination and brand perception. She teaches classes on marketing research and buyer behavior.

Education (3)

New York University: PhD

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University: MBA

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University: BS

Select Accomplishments (5)

Student Society Advisor of the Year (professional)

2016

Journal of Consumer Affairs Best Paper Award (professional)

2016 Awarded for “Shopping While Nonwhite: Racial Discrimination in the Marketplace."

Villanova School of Business Research Excellence Honorable Mention (professional)

2016

Villanova School of Business Summer Research Award, (professional)

2014, 2016

Advertising Education Foundation Visiting Professor Program Participant (professional)

2013

Links (1)

Villanova School of Busines Inspiring Minds Podcast: Shopping While Non-White

Affiliations (7)

Board of Directors, Fund for the Water Works
COO-Elect, Junior League of Philadelphia
Philadelphia Ad Club
American Marketing Association
Society for Consumer Psychology
Race in the Marketplace Research Network
The PhD Project, Marketing Ethnic Faculty Association

Select Media Appearances (6)

Retailers Increase Efforts to Reduce Racial Profiling in Stores

The Wall Street Journal

2024-01-27

In the past, retailers mostly aimed antibias training at managers rather than rank-and-file workers, says Aronté Bennett, associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion at Villanova University’s business school... Such training also traditionally hasn’t provided specific solutions for reducing bias, she says.

McDonald's CEO Faces Tall Task In Rebuilding Trust With Black, Brown Communities

Forbes

2021-11-11

"It makes me skeptical about everything they're trying to do," said Aronté Bennett, associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Villanova University School of Business. "It's scapegoating the exact same people it built its franchise upon."

'We got you.' Inside Phila.'s big push to market itself to minority visitors.

Philadelphia Business Journal

2018-08-17

Historically, tourism advertisements featuring minorities were rare, and the times they were featured they were “constrained or caricatured depictions,” said Aronté Bennett, associate chair of marketing and business law at Villanova School of Business. That’s changing, and destinations like Philadelphia and its accompanying marketing organizations are investing more in minority tourism, motivated by “a number of converging forces,” Bennett said.

After banner 2016, The Wildwoods is letting visitors be as 'wild' as they want to be

Philadelphia School of Business online

2017-04-07

The new campaign is designed to convey the strong emotional connection and feeling that visitors have for the Wildwoods, according to the tourism agency. The new campaign and tagline are examples of a balanced strategy, according Aronté Bennett, associate professor of marketing and business law at Villanova University School of Business.

That “shopping while black” feeling, charted

Quartz online

2016-01-16

Villanova University researchers Aronté Bennett, Ronald Hill, and Kara Daddario sought to put those feelings in concrete terms with a recent study titled “Shopping While Nonwhite: Racial Discrimination among Minority Consumers,” published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs last month.

'Shopping while black' lawsuit – a first by employees – targets CVS

Christian Science Monitor online

2015-06-04

In December, researchers at Villanova University near Philadelphia found that nonwhite Americans, and especially black Americans, experienced being racially profiled in retail stores, both by being wrongly detained or steered away from certain products. “We have a hard time recognizing these experiences that other people have, because we don’t notice them,” one of the researchers, Aronté Bennett, told Quartz in January. “Many consumers, minority and otherwise, don’t think that minorities are experiencing discrimination as a whole.”

Select Academic Articles (5)

Omission and Commission as Marketplace Trauma

Journal of Public Policy and Marketing

Aronté Bennett, Stacey M. Baker, Samantha Cross, J.P. James, Gregory Bartholomew, Akon Ekpo, Geraldine Henderson, Martina Hutton, Apoorv Khare, Abhijit Roy, Tony Stovall, and Charles Ray Taylor

2016

A Study of Social Equity within Bike Share Programs

Transportation Letters

Gavin, Kristin, Aronté Bennett, Amy Auchincloss and Anna Katenta

2016

Shopping While Nonwhite: Racial Discrimination in the Marketplace

Journal of Consumer Affairs,

Bennett, Aronté, Ronald P. Hill and Kara Draddario

2015

The Impact of Disparate Levels of Marketplace Inclusion on Consumer-Brand Relationships

Journal of Public Policy and Marketing

Bennett, Aronté, Ronald P. Hill, and Daniel Oleksuik

2013

The Universality of Warmth and Competence: A Response to Brands as Intentional Agents

Journal of Consumer Psychology

Bennett, Aronté and Ronald P. Hill

2012