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Ethan Milne

Ethan Milne

Assistant Professor
DepartmentMarketing Management
EducationPhD at Ivey Business School, Western University (2026)
https://approachingsignificance.com/ (external link) 

Overview

My research examines the moral and political dimensions of consumer behavior—in particular, why consumers punish, boycott, and act aggressively toward the brands and other people they encounter in the marketplace, and how their moral convictions and political ideologies shape these decisions. Within this space, I study a range of behaviors, including consumers who give to charity as a form of retaliation, who purchase products specifically to offend others, and who pursue social status through aggression. 

A second, methodological strand of my work takes a metascientific approach to understanding the state of consumer behaviour: how do consumer researchers choose the stimuli they use in their experiments? Are field-level methodological improvements resulting in improved evidentiary quality? How do new tools like LLMs fit into existing marketing research?

 (PDF file) Ethan Milne's CV (external link, opens in new window) 

Google Scholar Profile  (external link, opens in new window) 

Selected Research & Professional Contributions

Published Papers:

Published Patents:

  • “Pediatric Board”, Canadian Patent (CA2905466), Issued January 16th, 2018.
  • “Pediatric Board”, US Patent (US9766116B2), Issued September 19th, 2017.

Conference Presentations:

  • Taylor, Nukhet, Ethan Milne (2026).
    Evaluating the Evidentiary Climate of Consumer Research. Southern Ontario Behavior and Decision Research, Guelph, Ontario.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, Miranda Goode, and Katherine White (2026).
    How Political Ideology Shapes Prosocial Consumer Behavior Research. Society for Consumer Psychology, San Diego, California.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, and Miranda Goode (2026).
    Fanfiction: When Copyright Violation Benefits Brands. Society for Consumer Psychology, San Diego, California.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, and Miranda Goode (2026).
    Fanfiction: When Copyright Violation Benefits Brands. American Marketing Association Public Policy and Marketing, Montreal, Quebec.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, Miranda Goode, and Katherine White (2025).
    How Political Ideology Shapes Prosocial Consumer Behavior Research. Southern Ontario Behavior and Decision Research, Toronto, Ontario.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, and Miranda Goode (2025).
    Fanfiction: When Copyright Violation Benefits Brands. Harry Potter Academic Conference, Online.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, Miranda Goode, and Katherine White (2025).
    Defining Prosocial Consumer Behavior. Association for Consumer Research, Washington, DC.
  • Sibai, Olivier, Aya Aboelenien, Carmen Mal, Ethan Milne, Mario Campana (2025).
    How Brand Activism Polarizes: the Role of Totalitarian Imagination. Bath Business, Organizations, and Society Symposium, Bath, UK.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, and Miranda Goode (2025).
    Fanfiction: When Copyright Violation Benefits Brands. American Marketing Association, Phoenix, Arizona.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, Miranda Goode, and Katherine White (2025).
    How Political Ideology Shapes Prosocial Consumer Behavior Research. European Marketing Academy, Madrid, Spain.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, Miranda Goode, and Katherine White (2025).
    How Political Ideology Shapes Prosocial Consumer Behavior Research. Academy of Marketing Science, Montreal, Quebec.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, and Miranda Goode (2024).
    Offensive Consumption. Society for Consumer Psychology, Nashville, Tennessee.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, Miranda Goode, and Katherine White (2024).
    How Political Ideology Shapes Prosocial Consumer Behavior Research. Association for Consumer Research, Paris, France.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, and Miranda Goode (2024).
    Offensive Consumption. Association for Consumer Research, Paris, France.
  • Sibai, Olivier, Aya Aboelenien, Carmen Mal, Ethan Milne, Mario Campana (2024).
    How Brand Activism Polarizes: the Role of Totalitarian Imagination. Oxford Reputation Symposium, Oxford, UK.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, and Miranda Goode (2024).
    Fanfiction: When Copyright Violation Benefits Brands. Fan Studies Network North America, Online.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, and Miranda Goode (2024).
    Fanfiction: When Copyright Violation Benefits Brands. Fan Library and Information Science, Online.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, and Miranda Goode (2024).
    Fanfiction: When Copyright Violation Benefits Brands. Southern Ontario Behavior and Decision Research, Toronto Ontario.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson and Miranda Goode (2024).
    Retributive Philanthropy. Behavioral Insights into Business for Social Good, Vancouver, British Columbia.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson and Miranda Goode (2024).
    Retributive Philanthropy. Theory and Practice in Marketing, Austin, Texas.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson and Miranda Goode (2023).
    Retributive Philanthropy. Association for Consumer Research, Seattle, Washington.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson, and Miranda Goode (2023).
    Fanfiction: When Copyright Violation Benefits Brands. Association for Consumer Research, Seattle, Washington.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson and Miranda Goode (2023).
    Retributive Philanthropy. Southern Ontario Behavior and Decision Research, Toronto, Ontario.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson and Miranda Goode (2023).
    Retributive Philanthropy. Society for Consumer Psychology, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson and Miranda Goode (2023).
    Status Seeking Aggression. Society for Consumer Psychology, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
  • Milne, Ethan, Kirk Kristofferson and Miranda Goode (2022).
    Status Seeking Aggression. Association for Consumer Research, Denver, Colorado.

Course code Course title
MKT 100 Principles of Marketing, Ted Rogers School of Management, TMU
BUS 4461 Strategic Market Planning  (Ivey Business School, Western University)

  • SSHRC Insight Grant (2024-2027), $131,232, (Primary Investigator: Kirk Kristofferson)
  • Ivey Business School Doctoral Thesis Grant (2024), $3,000 (Primary Investigator: Ethan Milne)
  • SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (2023-2025), $60,000 (Primary Investigator: Ethan Milne)
  • SSHRC Explore Grant (2023), $6,000, (Co-Primary Investigators: Ethan Milne and Kirk Kristofferson)

  • American Marketing Association CBSIG Rising Star Award (2025)
  • Bath Business and Society Best Paper Award, Runner-up (2025)
  • American Marketing Association Sheth Doctoral Fellowship (2024)
  • Society for Consumer Psychology Dissertation Proposal Award, Runner-up (2024)
  • SSHRC Doctoral fellowship (2023)
  • Western University Faculty Association Scholarship (2023)
  • C. B. (Bud) Johnston Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2021)
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2021)
  • Ivey Business School Gold Medal Recipient (2020)