Research

Research Focus

Research at the chair focuses on consumer behavior in the areas of consumers’ inferences, consumers’ stereotypes, physical and financial well-being, branding, innovation and creativity.

Our research has been published in top ranked academic journals including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Review of Marketing Research, and, Emotion.

Individuals frequently make inferences about companies, products, and brands based on limited information – be it from publicly available information, from marketplace stimuli, from word-of-mouth, from their own experiences with a company, from their past knowledge, etc. These inferences can be understood at a very basic level as processes of induction and deduction. For instance, how do individuals make inferences about a brand from a single experience with a representative of that firm (induction: inferences from specific instances to general principles)? Or, how do consumers evaluate a new product innovation from a company that they know about (deduction: inferences from general principles to specific instances)? Understanding how and under what conditions individuals arrive at such conclusions has been a pivotal issue in business and psychology. The individuals making these inferences could be consumers, managers, or teams. Research at this chair will aim to enhance what we know about these inductive and deductive inferences. To do so, we conduct empirical research in multiple contexts (e.g., consumer stereotypes, product and service brands and brand extensions, product and service innovations, physical and financial health of individuals), drawing from theories in multiple fields – social and cognitive psychology, marketing, innovation, and business strategy. The primary research methods employed are experiments and surveys.

Research Topics

• Consumers’ Inductive and Deductive Inferences
• Branding and Brand Extensions

• Stereotypes in Consumer Behavior

• Financial and Physical Well-being

• Services Marketing and Management

• Innovation and Creativity

Research Grants

• Center for Positive Marketing and Association of National Advertisers Research Grant, 2019
• ING’s Think Forward Initiative (TFI) Research Grant 2018-2019
• Research Grant to Study the German Mittelstand and the US Middle Market, 2016
• Fisher College of Business Small Grants, 2009-2010, 2010-2011
• Coca Cola CDW Grant for research on perceptions of gender diversity in service firms, 2007-2008
• CIBER Global Competence Award for research on off-shoring of services, 2006-2007, 2007-2008