Minu Kumar, Ph.D.

Faculty Site URL: https://faculty.sfsu.edu/~mkumar/

Minu Kumar is a Professor of Marketing at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and is the Founder-Director of the Responsible Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RI&E) Research Initiatives. He also serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Product Innovation Management (ABS 4, A* ABDC Journal). He earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, a Masters in Business Administration (Concentration in Pharmaceutical Marketing, 2002) and a Ph.D. in Marketing. His primary scholarly interest lies in the area of Innovation, New Product Design & Development, and Entrepreneurship.

Professor Kumar has published in journals such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Product Innovation Management among others. He has won several awards such as the Best Overall Conference Paper award at the Summer AMA conference (2011) and the University President’s Award for Research. His work has directly helped the university raise several millions of dollars for I&E programs https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SFSU-says-25M-crypto-gift-i… ). He has also worked for or consulted with firms such as Barilla, SAP, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals, Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals, Schering Plough Pharmaceuticals, Medtronic, Glaxo Smithkline, among others on product design & development, sales, and marketing projects.

Google Scholar Profile

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2913-2325

SELECTED UPCOMING EDITORIALS

Acur, Nuran, Jarryd Daymond, Carlos Carbajal, and Minu Kumar (Ongoing Special Issue expected to be published in 2027) "Responsible Innovation for Emerging Technology: Navigating Ethics, Society, Diplomacy, and Sustainability," Research-Technology Management. Click this Link for more details about submission.

Kumar, Minu, Sinapuelas, Ian C, Macnaghten, Phillip, and Li, Chenwei (Ongoing Special Issue expected to be published in 2026) “Special issue: Responsible New Product Development and Innovation Management.” Journal of Product Innovation Management. See this Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/pb-assets/assets/15405885/JPIM_RI_Special_issue_proposal%20final-1687365170957.pdf

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Kumar Minu, Micheli Pietro, and Singh Jatinder, Goldberg Neil, “Responsible design Thinking”. Journal of Marketing, Accepted and forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429251396423

Nickel Kristina, Ulrich R. Orth, and Minu Kumar (2025), "Consumer response to visual harmony: when is a gender difference, not a gender difference?" Journal of Marketing Communications, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2025.2455661. Second piece from Kristina Nickel's dissertation project.

Spanjol, Jelena, Charles H. Noble, Markus Baer, Marcel LAM Bogers, Jonathan Bohlmann, Ricarda B. Bouncken, Ludwig Bstieler, Luigi De Luca, Rosanna Garcia, Gerda Gemser, Dhruv Grewal, Martin Hoegl, Sabine Kuester, Minu Kumar, Ruby Lee, Dominik Mahr, Cheryl Nakata, Andrea Ordanini,  Aric Rindfleisch, Victor Seidel, Alina Sorescu, Roberto Verganti, and Martin Wetzels (2024), "Fueling innovation management research: Future directions and five forward‐looking paths." Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol 41 (September), p.893-948. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12754

Nickel Kristina, Ulrich R. Orth, and Minu Kumar(2020). Designing for the genders: The role of visual harmony. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 37(4), 697-713. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2020.02.006. From piece from Kristina Nickel's dissertation project.

Ho-Dac, N.N., Kumar, M. & Slotegraaf, R.J (2020). Using product development information to spur the adoption of continuous improvement products. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 48(November), 1156–1173. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-020-00730-6

Luchs Michael and Minu Kumar  (2017) "Yes, but this one looks better/works better: When might consumers choose superior sustainability despite a trade-off with other valued product attributes?" Journal of Business Ethics. 140(3), 567-584. DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2695-0

Kumar Minu and Charles H. Noble (2016) "Beyond form and function: why do consumers value product design?" Journal of Business Research, 69(2), 613-620. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.05.017

• This project was funded by Marketing Science Institute through their competitive grants
• An earlier version of this paper won the prestigious Overall Best Paper Award at the 2010 Summer AMA conference.

Kumar Minu, Janell Townsend and Douglas W. Vorhies (2015) “Enhancing relationships with brands using product design" Journal of Product Innovation Management. 32(5), 716-730. DOI: 10.1111/jpim.12245

• Press coverage in: Miami Herald, Phys.org, CTV news, Redorbit.com, Hindustan Times, and Express.be

Kumar, Minu and Nitika Garg, (2010) "Aesthetic principles and cognitive emotion appraisals: How much of the beauty lies in the eye of the beholder?" Journal of Consumer Psychology, Volume 20 (Issue 4), 485-494.

Noble Charles H. and Minu Kumar (2010) "Exploring the appeal of product design: A grounded, value-based model of key design elements and relationships," Journal of Product Innovation Management. 27:640–657.

SELECTED SERVICE TO DISCIPLINE

• 2022-2025 Organized three iterations of the annual Responsible Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference at SF State (With Chenwei Li and Ian Sinapuelas): 
  
  • One day of industry speakers
  • One day of PDWs with major journals
  • Over 250 attendees.
• Board member  Innovation and Product Development Management Conference (2025-present)
• Scientific Committee Member Innovation and Product Development Management Conference (2023-2025)
• Track Chair for Responsible Innovation The 30^th Innovation and Product Development Management Conference 2023 (in Lecco, Italy) with Carsten Schultz and Robert Kok
  
  • 17 papers received 14 accepted
  • Jury member for best papers (Tom Hustad and Krister Karlsson Best paper Awards)
• Vice President of Academics Product Development Management Association (PDMA), (2019-2021): As the VP of Academics, I was responsible for all the academic activities of PDMA (Chairing the Academic committee, PDMA’s annual conference and the JPIM Research Forum, PDMA Doctoral Consortium, PDMA Dissertation Proposal Competition,  designing and implementing new academic initiatives) along with maintaining a dotted line connection with the Co-Editors in Chief of Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM).
• PDMA Academic Committee Member (2022-2024)
• Academic Vice President Product Development Management Association (PDMA) 2019-2022 (Pro Bono Three year term):  As the VP of Academics, I was responsible for all the academic activities of PDMA (Chairing the Academic committee, PDMA’s annual conference and the JPIM Research Forum, PDMA Doctoral Consortium, PDMA Dissertation Proposal Competition, designing and implementing new academic initiatives such as the PDMA Research Competition). PDMA also publishes the Journal of Product Innovation Management.  This VP maintains a dotted line connection with the Co-Editors in Chief of JPIM. JPIM Research Forum along with the PDMA annual conference (over 300-person conference) brings together over 150 of the leading scholars in Innovation and Innovation Management with 150-200 practitioners of innovation, innovation management, and product development from the industry. The PDMA Doctoral consortium enhance the development of doctoral students who are conducting dissertation research in the domain of innovation and new product development. Students who are accepted into the Consortium will be honored as Doctoral Student Fellows and have a unique opportunity to network and meet and discuss ideas with leading innovation scholars and corporate executives in a collaborative, open, and sociable setting. The aim of the PDMA Dissertation Proposal Competition is to foster rigorous academic research on innovation and new product/service development and encourage close ties between the academic and corporate worlds.
• Doctoral consortium Faculty Fellow 
  
  • AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium 2026
  • PDMA Doctoral Consortium 2019
  • PDMA Doctoral Consortium 2022
• 2015-2022: Editorial Board member for Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM) 
  
  • Reviewing articles for the journal (3/4 articles per year)
  • Attending editorial board meetings regularly
  • Reviewing articles and recommending winners for various journal awards (Tom Hustad award, Abbie Griffin award among others)
• 2015- 2016 Social Media Manager for Journal of Product Innovation Management 
  
  • JPIM provided $7500 to buy out a course to do this work. Based on this work JPIM has a large online following on multiple platforms (e.g., Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter etc.)
  • During this time, the Social media presence of the JPIM was second only to Journal of Academy of Marketing Science
• 2013-2014: Conference Co-Chair (with Barry Bayus of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill) of the Product Development Management Association’s 2013 Academic Research Forum: responsibilities included, Editorial job of reviewing, finding and assigning reviewers and making acceptance and rejection decisions on almost 70 submitted manuscripts, setting the conference agenda and running the conference. The conference had > 200 participants.
• Track Co-chair (with Subin Im) for “New Product Development, Product Management and Entrepreneurship” track for the 2011 summer AMA conference: Editorial job of reviewing, finding and assigning reviewers and making acceptance and rejection decisions on over 40 submitted manuscripts.
• Ad Hoc Reviewer for Journals: Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Ethics, European Journal of Marketing, among others.
• Reviewing manuscripts for conferences: American Marketing Association Conference, JPIM Research Forum, Association for Consumer Research, International Product Development Management Conference, Academy of Marketing Science Conference, Academy of Marketing Science World Marketing Conference, among others.