Rate My Professor Gaia Rancati

Dr. Gaia Rancati serves as an Assistant Professor of Marketing and Neuromarketing in the Department of Marketing within the Jennings A. Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University, where she joined in fall 2022. She is also a Visiting Assistant Professor at IULM University in Milan, Italy. Dr. Rancati earned her Ph.D. in Marketing and Neuromarketing from IULM University, a Master of Leadership and Management from Sole 24ORE Business School, and a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from IULM University. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and a researcher at Claremont Graduate University in California, focusing on psychophysiology in retailing. Prior to her academic career, she held positions as a sales manager at Louis Vuitton, retail manager at Max Mara, and trainer for Hermès, Apple, and Ferrari.

Dr. Rancati’s research centers on neuromarketing applications in human-robot interactions across retail environments, including physical stores, online platforms, and the metaverse, examining consumer behavior through neuroscience, artificial intelligence, social robotics, and virtual/augmented reality. She coordinates the Neuromarketing & AI Lab at MTSU, Tennessee’s only facility integrating these technologies for retail research. Notable publications include “Neurophysiological Responses to Robot-Human Interactions in Retail Stores” (Journal of Services Marketing, 2023), “The Contagion of Neurologic Immersion Predicts Retail Purchases” (Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2025), “Young Customer Responses to Service Robots vs. Humans in Luxury Retail: A Multidisciplinary Approach” (Marketing ZFP, 2024), and “Customer Experience in Coffee Stores: A Multidisciplinary Neuromarketing Approach” (Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 2023). She has garnered awards such as the 2024 Best Paper Award at the European Marketing Conference, Most Influential Neuromarketing Paper awards in 2024 and 2022 from the Neuromarketing and Business Association, and the 2019 Woman of Excellence in Retail from the World Economic Forum. Dr. Rancati teaches Principles of Marketing, Retailing and eCommerce, and Neuromarketing. She co-founded Affectively Research in 2022, led an AMA panel on biometrics in 2024, and has spoken at the World Neuromarketing Forum (2022) and World Retail Congress (since 2019).