Itamar Simonson

Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing 

Phone: (650) 725-8981

Email: [email protected]

Academic Areas: Marketing

Itamar Simonson’s research includes consumer decision making, buyer behavior, consumer evaluation of brands and promotional offers, marketing management, and survey methods. Some of Simonson’s studies demonstrate a variety of seemingly irrelevant and irrational influences on consumers' decisions. These studies introduce a new perspective on consumer behavior and suggest more effective approaches to the design of market research investigations and marketing strategies.

Bio

Itamar Simonson is the Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. Itamar has published over 60 articles in leading marketing and decision making journals. His work has provided new insights into consumer choice, the factors that drive buyer decisions, the limits of customization, and other central marketing issues. He has won many awards for his research, including the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the Society for Consumer Psychology, the award for Best Article published in the Journal of Consumer Research, twice the Journal of Marketing Research O’Dell Award (for the JMR article that has had the greatest impact on the marketing field in the previous 5 years), the Best Article in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, the Association for Consumer Research Ferber Award, and the American Marketing Association award for the Best Article on services marketing. At Stanford Dr. Simonson has taught MBA courses on marketing management, marketing to businesses, and technology marketing, and PhD courses on consumer behavior, consumer research methods, and decision making. Itamar serves on nine editorial boards of leading marketing and decision making journals.

Academic Degrees

PhD, Duke Univ., 1987; MBA, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1978; BA, Hebrew Univ., 1976.

Professional Experience

Professor of Marketing; at Stanford since 1993. Asst. Prof., Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1987–93; Product Marketing Manager for two-way communications products, Intl. Div., Motorola Inc., 1978–83.

Selected Publications

Working Papers

  • 2029: On the Heritability of Choice, Judgement, and "Irrationality": Genetic Effects on Prudence and Constructive Predispositions
  • 1962: Customer Compliance with Presumed Market Research Goals: Motivational Drivers of Negative Service Evaluations
  • 1881: The Effect of Stating Expectations on Customer Satisfaction and Shopping Experience
  • 1883: In Defense of Consciousness: The Role of Conscious and Unconscious Inputs in Consumer Choice
  • 1882: Searching for a Mate: Theory and Experimental Evidence
  • 1938: The Influence Of Product Variety On Brand Perception And Choice
  • 1977R1: Will I Like A "Medium" Pillow? Another Look At Constructed And Inherent Preferences
  • 1336: The Effect of New Product Features on Brand Choice
  • 1337: The Effect of Choice Set Composition on Consumer Response To Sales Promotions
  • 1338: Context Effects in Managerial Decision Making by Groups and Individuals
  • 1339: Preference Reversals Between Consumer Choices and Ratings of Purchase Likelihood
  • 1607: Reasons as Carriers of Culture: Dynamic vs. Dispositional Models of Cultural Influence on Decision Making
  • 1608: The Effect of Expecting to Evaluate on Quality and Satisfaction Evaluations
  • 1609: The Effects of Incomplete Information on Consumer Choice
  • 1610: The Role of Explanations and Need for Uniqueness in Consumer Decision Making: Unconventional Choices Based on Reasons
  • 1688: Earning The Right To Indulge: Effort As A Determinant Of Customer Preferences Towards Frequency Program Rewards
  • 1738R: The Role of Effort Advantage in Consumer Response to Loyalty Programs: The Idiosyncratic Fit Heuristic
  • 1787: Anchoring Effects on Consumers' Willingness-to-Pay and Willingness-to-Accept
  • 1788: Effect Propensity: The Location of the Reference State in the Option Space as a Determinant of the Direction of Effects on Choice
  • 1794: Determinants of Customers' Responses to Customized Offers: Conceptual Framework and Research Propositions
  • 1823: The Effect of Explicit Reference Points on Consumer Choice and Online Bidding Behavior
  • 1871: Racial Preferences in Mate Selection: Evidence from a Speed Dating Experiment

Awards and Honors

  • The Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, 2007, Society for Consumer Psychology
  • Best Article, 1990, Journal of Consumer Research
  • O'Dell Award (in 1997 and 2001) for the article that has had the greatest impact on the marketing field in the previous five yea, 1997, Journal of Marketing Research
  • Award for the Best Article, 1993-95, 1995, The Journal of Public Policy and Marketing
  • Ferber Award, 1990, The Association for Consumer Research

Courses Taught

Affiliations

  • Member: American Marketing Assn., Assn. for Consumer Research, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, American Psychological Society (1985 - present)
  • Editorial Board: Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Marketing Research (1992 - present)
  • Editorial Board: Journal of Marketing, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (1995 - present)
  • Editorial Board: International Journal of Research in Marketing, Marketing Letters (1992 - present)

In The Media