Consumer Research Cluster (CRC)
The Consumer Research Cluster (CRC) examines how people think, feel, and behave in the marketplace across a wide range of consumption contexts.
About CRC
The Consumer Research Cluster (CRC) studies how people think, feel, and behave in the marketplace. It investigates a broad range of phenomena dealing with what people need, want, and buy, as well as explores how and why consumers interact with market-related entities, products, companies, brands, other consumers, and employees.
Methods and approaches
The CRC spotlights the human aspects of consumption and sees consumer behavior as an integral element of the social environment. As such, it draws on multiple methodological domains and utilizes both qualitative (e.g., in-depth interviews, focus groups, case studies) and quantitative research methods (e.g., lab experiments, field studies, surveys, eye-tracking).
Vision
The CRC aims to consistently produce high-quality research with clear societal implications. We intend to become the primary hub for consumer behavior research in the Nordic region by leveraging the pluralism and diverse research capabilities of our members, as well as by establishing strong academic and industry networks at both a national and an international level.
Scholarship and Research Excellence
The CRC strives to maintain a network of individual researchers who share the ambition of producing novel and daring research that has an international outreach and is published in premier academic outlets.
The CRC facilitates collaborations and advice-based links between senior members with experience publishing in top-tier journals and young, ambitious, and less experienced members.
The CRC members publish frequently in FT50, AJG 4*/4/3 journals, including, among others, the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Strategic Management Journal, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Retailing, British Journal of Management, Journal of Advertising, Journal of International Marketing, and Psychology & Marketing. These publications have attracted attention from national and international media and are frequently covered across press and social media channels.
Esprit de Corps
The CRC values openness, collegiality, and respect. It welcomes anyone interested in researching consumer behavior and decision-making across various contexts. While its members draw on multiple epistemologies, methodologies, and research topics, they share a genuine curiosity in understanding human behavior. Members also share the desire to provide cutting-edge pedagogical content and conduct original research that contributes significantly to theory and practice.
Societal Relevance and Outreach
The CRC is committed to being curious, critical, and innovative in exploring the opportunities and dilemmas that society faces today. Research activities include projects related to health issues, financial services, restrictions such as COVID-19, social inequalities and discrimination, sustainability, populism and xenophobia, and human–tech interactions such as artificial intelligence and privacy issues.
The CRC’s research engages with societal challenges not only at a theoretical level but also in a pragmatic way. The cluster collaborates with businesses, governments, and public-policy stakeholders, including organisations such as Københavns Kommune, Foodland, Madkulturen, the Danish Food Culture Institute, and the New Zealand Food Safety Science and Research Centre.
Members are regularly invited to deliver talks and seminars at academic institutions and to participate in corporate and industry events. The cluster is further involved in organising international activities such as the Northern European Consumer Research Symposium (NECRS) and additional workshops and research seminars.
External Research Funding
CRC members have extensive experience with external research funding from national and international, public and private funding bodies. These include the European Commission (HORIZON), the European Social Fund, the Strategic Research Council, the Global Innovation Network Programme, the Carlsberg Foundation, and the Independent Research Council of Denmark (DFF). The cluster facilitates collaborations and knowledge sharing that support successful applications and enable joint funding opportunities.
Research
Research focus (Panel content)
CRC researchers draw on theoretical frameworks from social, cognitive, neuro-, personality, evolutionary, environmental, and cross-cultural psychology to explain consumer behavior across areas such as food, financial services, luxury, tourism, hospitality, and service consumption. Members also engage in cross-disciplinary work involving psychology, economics, neuroscience, technology, and tourism.
CRC uses diverse qualitative and quantitative research methods, including experiments, questionnaires, field studies, eye-tracking, and the analysis of online datasets. Consumer research lends itself to inter-disciplinary inquiry, and the cluster works to strengthen this through approaches such as the observe–bridge–challenge framework.
Transformational capabilities and excellence in the educational portfolio
CRC contributes to CBS’s strategic ambition to educate leaders who can navigate the interconnected challenges of organisations, individuals, and society. Members teach across undergraduate, graduate, MBA, and PhD levels, offering courses such as Consumer Behavior, Consumer Psychology, Brand Management, Marketing Communications, Neuroscience, International Marketing, Language Effects, and Service Design. The cluster also supports exchanges of teaching practices among members.
Societal relevance, impact, and value
CRC works at the intersection of challenges that depend on understanding and changing human behavior. Research collaborations span public policy, tourism, and food sectors, including partnerships with Københavns Kommune, Dansk Erhverv, Dansk Industri, Carlsberg, VisitDenmark, Wonderful Copenhagen, Foodland, Madkulturen, the Danish Food Culture Institute, and the New Zealand Food Safety Science and Research Centre.
Exploration of big challenges and wicked problems
CRC research addresses major societal issues, including health, financial services, COVID-19 restrictions, social inequalities, discrimination, populism, xenophobia, digitalization, artificial intelligence, privacy, and the societal impacts of tourism and hospitality.
Publications (Panel content)
These selected publications showcase CRC’s contributions to consumer behaviour, branding, tourism research, business ethics, industrial marketing, and adjacent fields.
- Gülen Sarial Abi; Aulona Ulqinaku (2020), Financial Constraints Influence How Consumers Evaluate Approach-Framed versus Avoidance-Framed Messages, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 49, No. 3, 2020, p. 270-291
- Sarial-Abi, Gülen, Ezgi Merdin, and Zeynep Gurhan-Canli (2020), “Responses to Replica (vs. Genuine) Touristic Experiences,” Annals of Tourism Research.
- Sarial-Abi, Gülen, Kathleen D. Vohs, Ryan Hamilton, and Aulona Ulqinaku (2017), “Stitching Time: Vintage Consumption Connects the Past, Present, and Future”, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 27(2), 182-194.
- Sarial-Abi, Gülen, Zeynep Gürhan-Canli, Tarcan Kumkale, and Yeosun Yoon (2016), “The Effect of Self-Concept Clarity on Discretionary Spending Tendency,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(3), 612-623.
- Sela, Aner, S. Christian Wheeler, and Gülen Sarial-Abi (2012), “We Are Not the Same as You and I: Causal Effects of Minor Language Variations on Consumers’ Attitudes toward Brands,” Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (October), 629-43.
- Yoon, Yeosun, Gülen Sarial-Abi, and Zeynep Gürhan-Canli (2012), “Effect of Regulatory Focus on Selective Information Processing,” Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (1), 93-110.
- Thyra Uth Thomsen; Jonas Holmqvist; Sylvia von Wallpach; Andrea Hemetsberger; Russel W. Belk (2020), Conceptualizing Unconventional Luxury, Journal of Business Research, 116 (5), 441-445.
- Marina Leban; Thyra Uth Thomsen; Sylvia von Wallpach; Benjamin G. Voyer forthcoming), Constructing Personas : How High-Net-Worth Social Media Influencers Reconcile Ethicality and Living a Luxury Lifestyle, Journal of Business Ethics.
- Torben Hansen and Thyra Uth Thomsen (2013), I Know What I Know, but I Will Probably Fail Anyway : How Learned Helplessness Moderates the Knowledge Calibration-Dietary Choice Quality Relationship, Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 30 (11), 1008-1028.
- Charlotte Gaston-Breton; Elin Brandi Sørensen; Thyra Uth Thomsen (2020), “I Want to Break Free!": How Experiences of Freedom Foster Consumer Happiness, Journal of Business Research, 121 (12), 22-32
- Rosa Llamas; Thyra Uth Thomsen (2016), The Luxury of Igniting Change by Giving : Transforming Yourself While Transforming Others' Lives, Journal of Business Research, 69 (1), 166-176.
- Kock, Florian (2020). The Behavioral Ecology of Sex Tourism: The Consequences of Skewed Sex Ratios. Journal of Travel Research.
- Kock, Florian, Josiassen, Alexander, and A. George Assaf (2020). The Xenophobic Tourist. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 74, 155-166.
- Ostinelli, Massimiliano, Luna, David and Ringberg, Torsten (2014). When up Brings you Down: The Effects of Imagined Vertical Movements on Motivation, Performance, and Consumer Behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 24, No. 2, p. 271-283.
- Ringberg, Torsten, Gaby Odekerken-Schröder and Glenn L. Christensen (2007). A cultural models approach to segmenting consumer recovery expectations. Journal of Marketing, Vol.71 (July), p. 194-214.
- Xiaojing Yang; Torsten Ringberg, Huifang Mao, Laura Peracchio (2011). The Construal (in)compatibility Effect: The Moderating Role of a Creative Mindset. Journal of Consumer Research.
- Kock, Florian and Torsten Ringberg. Embodied Cognition Effects on Tourist Behavior. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 78.
- Josiassen, Alexander and A. George Assaf (2013). Look at Me - I am Flying: The Influence of Social Visibility of Consumption on Tourism Decisions. Annals of Tourism Research.
- Josiassen, Alexander (2011). Consumer Disidentification and Its Effects on Domestic Product Purchases: An Empirical Test in the Netherlands. Journal of Marketing.
- Zenker, S.; Braun, E.; Petersen, S. (2017). Branding the destination versus the place: The effects of brand complexity and identification for residents and visitors. Tourism Management, 58: 15-27.
- Schnittka, O.; Sattler, H.; Zenker, S. (2012). Advanced brand concept maps: a new approach for evaluating the favorability of brand association networks. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 29(3): 265-274.
- Erfgen, C.; Zenker, S.; Sattler, H. (2015). The vampire effect: When do celebrity endorsers harm brand recall? International Journal of Research in Marketing, 32(2): 155-163.
- Iglesias, Oriol, Stefan Markovic, Mehdi Bagherzadeh, and Jatinder J. Singh (2020), “Co-creation: A key link between corporate social responsibility, customer trust, and customer loyalty,” Journal of Business Ethics, 163(1), 151-166.
- Iglesias, Oriol, Stefan Markovic, Jatinder J. Singh, and Vicenta Sierra (2019), “Do customer perceptions of corporate services brand ethicality improve brand equity? Considering the roles of brand heritage, brand image, and recognition benefits,” Journal of Business Ethics, 154(2), 441-459.
- Iglesias, Oriol, Stefan Markovic, and Josep Rialp (2019), “How does sensory brand experience influence brand equity? Considering the roles of customer satisfaction, customer affective commitment, and employee empathy,” Journal of Business Research, 96, 343-354.
- Markovic, Stefan, and Mehdi Bagherzadeh (2018), “How does breadth of external stakeholder co-creation influence innovation performance? Analyzing the mediating roles of knowledge sharing and product innovation,” Journal of Business Research, 88, 173-186.
- Markovic, Stefan, Oriol Iglesias, Jatinder J. Singh, and Vicenta Sierra (2018), “How does the perceived ethicality of corporate services brands influence loyalty and positive word-of-mouth? Analyzing the roles of empathy, affective commitment, and perceived quality,” Journal of Business Ethics, 148(4), 721-740.
- Sierra, Vicenta, Oriol Iglesias, Stefan Markovic, and Jatinder J. Singh (2017), “Does ethical image build equity in corporate services brands? The influence of customer perceived ethicality on affect, perceived quality, and equity,” Journal of Business Ethics, 144(3), 661-676.
- Laura Lavertu; Ben Marder; Antonia Erz; Robert Angell (2020), The Extended Warming Effect of Social Media : Examining Whether the Cognition of Online Audiences Offline Drives Prosocial Behavior in ‘Real Life’, Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 110.
- Ben Marder; David Gattig; Emily Collins; Leyland Pitt; Jan Kietzmann; Antonia Erz (2019), The Avatar's New Clothes : Understanding Why Players Purchase Nonfunctional Items in Free-to-play Games, Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 91, 72-83.
- Antonia Erz; Ben Marder; Elena Osadchaya (2018), Hashtags : Motivational Drivers, their Use, and Differences Between Influencers and Followers, Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 89, 48-60.
- Michel Van der Borgh; Ad de Jong; Edwin J. Nijssen (2019), Balancing Frontliners’ Customer- and Coworker-directed Behaviors when Serving Business Customers, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 22 (3), 323-344
- Niek Hensen; Debbie I. Keeling; Ko de Ruyter; Martin Wetzels; Ad de Jong / Making SENS : Exploring the Antecedents and Impact of Store Environmental Stewardship Climate, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 44 (4), 497-515
- Jeroen Schepers; Tomas Falk; Ko de Ruyter; Ad de Jong (2012), Maik Hammerschmidt / Principles and Principals : Do Customer Stewardship and Agency Control Compete or Complement when Shaping Frontline Employee Behavior?, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 76 (6), 1-20
- Jeroen Schepers; Ad de Jong; Ko de Ruyter; Martin Wetzels (2011), Fields of Gold : Perceived Efficacy in Virtual Teams of Field Service Employees, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 14 (3), 372-389
- Ad de Jong; Ko de Ruyter; Martin Wetzels (2006), Linking Employee Confidence to Performance : A Study of Self-managing Service Teams, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 34 (4), 576-587
- Marcel Van Birgelen; Ad de Jong; Ko de Ruyter (2006), Multi-channel Service Retailing : A Comprehensive Study on the Effects of Multi-channel Satisfaction, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 82 (4), 367-377
- Ad de Jong; Ko de Ruyter; Martin Wetzels (2005), Antecedents and Consequences of Group Potency : A Study of Self-managing Service Teams, Management Science, Vol. 51 (11), 1610-1625
- Ad de Jong; Ko de Ruyter; Jos Lemmink (2004), Antecedents and Consequences of the Service Climate in Boundary-Spanning Self-Managing Service Teams, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 68 (2), 18-35
- Ad de Jong; Ko de Ruyter; Jos Lemmink (2003), The Adoption of Information Technology in Self-Managing Service Teams, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 6 (2), 162–179
- Andrea Ciceri; Vincenzo Russo; Giulia Songa; Giorgio Gabrielli; Jesper Clement (2020), A Neuroscientific Method for Assessing Effectiveness of Digital vs. Print Ads : Using Biometric Techniques to Measure Cross-Media Ad Experience and Recall, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 60 (1), p. 71-86
- Jesper Clement; Viktor Smith; Jordan Zlatev; Kerstin Gidlöf; Joost Van de Weijer (2017), Assessing Information on Food Packages, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 51 (1), 219-237
RCR Members
Other RCR Members
Serena Wider, PhD Fellow