Members

Information is the lifeblood of decisions. It is a key source of competitive advantage and a major part of developed economies. But information is a peculiar product for which normal business rules do not always apply. Producing more does not necessarily cost more and producing better quality information can result in declining prices. Moreover, all the available information does not automatically result in better decisions or greater happiness. A wealth of information strains our limited attention, it creates more reference points and social comparisons, and it does nothing to reduce the overconfidence bias. In fact, it seems to create more uncertainty and anxiety. This raises many interesting questions about customer behaviour, competitive interactions, and society overall. My specific research interest is to understand through analytic, empirical and experimental methods how information facilitates and undermines firms’ ability to create and capture value, how it impacts the balance between innovation and imitation, and how managers should allocate their limited attention to acquire and process information and make better marketing decisions.

Today’s branding is human and authentic. I am convinced that meaning represents the new competitive advantage for tomorrow’s brands. My research interest revolves around the question of how companies can create meaning and well-being for stakeholders (especially customers, employees, managers, and society) through their marketing and branding activities. I mainly use concepts of positive psychology to promote the transdisciplinary exchange in research and teaching on the notions of branding and consumption. I am non-paradigmatic about the choice of research methods, because in my opinion method follows research question. Hence, I use a variety of methodological approaches such as interpretive research, survey research, as well as lab and field experiments.

In the 21st century, identity-related motivations affect consumer decisions in a broad spectrum of domains. My ongoing research interests pertain to identity phenomena in the areas of sustainable consumption, consumer response to brands and luxury marketing. A particularly important focus of my current research is the study of the role of individual environmental identities and their impact on consumer behavior.

We often underestimate the impact of emotional experiences. As a consumer psychologist, my research focuses on emotions and well-being and on how to deliver value via consumer experience and consumer happiness. I am interested in understanding consumers’ emotions to help them make happier, more fulfilling consumption decisions that will be better for themselves and for society. I seek to better understand emotional processes to help design marketing strategies that are both more effective and more respectful of individuals’ and society’s well-being. My research is applied to emotion-laden consumption episodes, such as retail experiences, luxury and indulgent consumption, pro-social or sustainable behavior, as well as individual or workplace well-being. To achieve that, I use a variety of methods, mostly lab/field experiments and surveys.

Nowadays, novel phenomena, which are often driven by the rapid technological proliferation, are shaping individuals and their behavior. For instance, firms have integrated games into their interactions with consumers, have opened their product configuration systems to social networks as Facebook, or urge consumers to take a selfie when they purchase novel outfits. Often, the consequences of these phenomena are not understood, which I find thrilling and consider to be a huge opportunity. 
My main research interest is in understanding how novel phenomena, which are spurred by upcoming technologies, affect consumers in their behavior and decision making. I strongly believe that this does not only contribute to consumers’ welfare—as they can make better decisions—but also that companies can draw on the insights to support consumers in making decisions that they benefit from. Along with classical experiments and field experiments my methods also comprise data-driven approaches focused on modeling heterogeneity of field data.

Digital technology have nowadays an important role in our daily life and companies have to adapt their marketing strategy accordingly. Unsurprisingly, social media advertising, search engine advertising and influencers marketing are capturing a growing share of their marketing investments. However, traditional media (television, radio..) remain relevant, especially when they are used with the objective of bringing consumers to the advertisers’ website and/or application.

My research focuses on the effectiveness of traditional and digital media on traffic acquisition and online sales. I study how brands can improve their advertising investment to optimize their online performance. To achieve this goal, brands have several possibilities such as developing more relevant content for their ads, adapting their strategy based on their competitors’ actions or looking for synergies between their different channels and media. In my research, I mainly work with companies with which I conduct field experiments and field studies.

I’m passionate about topics related to human judgment and decision making. My research focuses on how the social context affects people’s judgments and preferences. For instance, how does observing other people’s choices (e.g., on Instagram) affect our own purchase behavior? What is the source of people’s erroneous beliefs that they are better (or worse) than others at certain tasks? How does this overconfidence manifest in financial risk-taking on smartphones? And how can biased judgments like these be attenuated? Substantively, my research contributes to the area of biases and errors in judgments, influencer marketing, and financial decision making.