Chair International Marketing
Chair ofInternational Marketing
Marketing is facing major challenges in times of the climate crisis. Growth and consumption generally contribute significantly to the climate crisis, and marketing in turn promotes growth and consumption, at least according to traditional understanding. The traditional role of marketing is also being criticized in the context of ethical and political debates surrounding surveillance capitalism, which involves the imperative to collect data for the purpose of exploiting and modifying consumer needs. It is therefore urgently necessary to fundamentally rethink the role of marketing. We would like to take part in this important debate: Our teaching and research projects should increasingly contribute to an understanding of marketing that is geared towards sustainability goals. On the one hand, we examine the consumer side and answer questions such as the reasons that make such a transition to more sustainable behavior so difficult. On the other hand, we look at measures that companies can use to encourage consumers to adopt more sustainable behavior. Interestingly, price-related decisions in particular can play a role here. We regularly integrate our research findings into our courses so that students can engage with them critically. Our main goal is to provide students and thus the decision-makers of tomorrow with sustainable and sustainability-oriented inspiration.
- Prof. Dr. Robert Wilken
The team
Teaching
We offer the following courses:
Bachelor in
Management (BSc)
- Human Behaviour (elective)
- International Management (elective)
- The Art of Selling (elective)
Master in
Management
- Data-driven Marketing (core course)
- Pricing (part of specialization "Selling to Customers")
SALES 4.0
MSc in International Sales Management
- Pricing (core course)
- Selling and Negotiations (core course)
Research
Research approach
According to Backhaus, we define marketing as the “management of comparative competitive advantages”. In our research projects, we look at both the company’s and the consumer’s perspectives. We analyse marketing-related problems in a manner that is theoretically sound and allows for empirical investigation. Recent research projects have adopted a behavioural perspective, emphasizing psychological foundations to understand human actions (e.g., consumers’ responses to marketing stimuli; sales people in business negotiations). Issues relating to the transition to sustainability are increasingly taking center stage.
Most of our projects seek to empirically test hypotheses and are hence quantitative in nature. Our goal is to provide companies with decision support that is scientifically substantiated, and to significantly contribute to the field of marketing research.
Research topics
Sustainable Consumption
Consumers often still find it difficult to make sustainable purchasing decisions. We are investigating potential reasons for this. We are also interested in understanding how and on the basis of which measures companies motivate consumers to adopt more sustainable purchasing behavior. Ultimately, the aim is to ensure that positive attitudes towards sustainable products are also reflected in such (purchasing) decisions.
Pricing
Excessively high prices often deter consumers from buying products or services, even if they correspond to their values. This is particularly the case when a consumer has to choose between a sustainable and a conventional product. Interestingly, price-related tactics can lead consumers to accept a higher price. Our recent research projects are interested precisely in this benefit communication through price-setting.
Business negotiations
On business markets, a negotiation is the most prominent way to handle transactions. We analyse contextual factors (in particular, those that relate to intercultural settings) and strategies that create favorable negotiation outcomes and hence offer support for improving sales productivity.
Quantitative methods
This research topic is about improving extant (mathematical, statistical) instruments to analyse marketing-related decision problems. We are particularly interested in contributing to willingness-to-pay (WTP) elicitation. Another field relates to the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to industrial services.
Publications
Find an overview
Journal Article
2014
On the Edge of Buying: A Targeting Approach for Indecisive Buyers Based on Willingness-to-Pay Ranges
JOURNAL OF RETAILING, 2014, vol. 90 (3), pp. 393-407
Journal Article
2014
The Impact of Stress on Consumers' Willingness to Pay
PSYCHOLOGY AND MARKETING, September 2014, vol. 31/9, pp. 774-785
Paper presented in a Conference
2014
The influence of negotiators’ individualism on disaggregated outcomes in multi-issue business negotiations
in Proceedings of the 43rd EMAC Conference, 2014, Valence, Spain
Chapter
2014
Verhaltensorientierter Ansatz zur Erklärung von Preisreaktionen bei Commodities und Empfehlungen für die Preissetzung auf Commodity-Märkten
in Commodity Marketing., ENKE M., GEIGENMÜLLER, A. (eds), Gabler, pp. pp. 119-134 15 p., 2014
Paper presented in a Conference
2013
Do Relationships Protect from Weak Alternatives in Business Negotiations?
in Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Enhancing Sales Force Productivity, 2013, Muenster, Germany
Conference Proceedings
2013
Power asymetry in intercultural business negotiations and its impact on negotiation strategies
in Proceedings of the INFORMS Marketing Science, INFORMS Marketing Science Conference, 2013, Istanbul, Turkey
Journal Article
2013
The ambiguous role of cultural moderators in intercultural business negotiations
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS REVIEW, August 2013, vol. 22(4), pp. 736-753
Paper presented in a Conference
2013
The Impact of Stress and Level of Construal on Willingness to Pay
in Proceedings of the INFORMS Marketing Science Conference, 2013, Istanbul, Turkey
Paper presented in a Conference
2013
The Influence of Uncertainty on Willingness-to-pay and Willingness-to-pay ranges
in Proceedings of the INFORMS Marketing Science Conference, 2013, Istanbul, Turkey
Journal Article
2013
Was bedeutet Internationalität in der Managementweiterbildung? Eine nachfrageorientierte Studie auf Basis von Latent-Class-Conjoint-Analysen
ZEITSCHRIFT FUR BETRIEBSWIRTSCHAFTLICHE FORSCHUNG, 2013, vol. Vol. 65, No. 3, pp. pp. 249-273
Team and contact
Kejiang Chen
