Professor Burroughs works and teaches in the area of consumer behavior, focusing specifically on such topics as materialism, consumer culture, and consumer creativity. His interest is in the role and status people accord products in their lives and the meanings they derive from product ownership and use. He has also recently been very active in transformative consumer research, which is consumer research that examines how consumption activities impact personal and societal well-being.
Professor Burroughs has published his research in such journals as Journal of Marketing; Journal of Consumer Research; and Journal of Consumer Psychology, among others. His research has also appeared in numerous academic books such as Handbook of Consumer Psychology and Transformative Consumer Research for Personal and Collective Well-Being. He is currently an associate editor of Journal of Consumer Research and has served on the editorial review board of this journal the past 6 years. He also currently serves on the editorial review board of Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. Professor Burroughs is a past advisory board member of the Association for Consumer Research and continues to be active in this organization and other professional marketing and consumer research societies. At the McIntire School, Professor Burroughs teaches courses in consumer behavior, as well in the School’s integrated third-year curriculum (ICE). He also recently taught a course on marketing and society at HEC Paris.