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
2011
Estimating Willingness-to-Pay with Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis ? Can Consumer Characteristics Explain Variations in Accuracy?
BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, 2011, vol. Vol. 22, Issue 4, pp. pp. 628-645 18 p.
Chapter
2011
Produktivitätsmessung von Dienstleistungen mit Hilfe von Varianten der DEA
in Dienstleistungsproduktivität., BRUHN, M., HADWICH, K., GEORGI, D. (eds), Gabler, pp. pp. 225-245 21 p., 2011
Book
2010
Allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre - Koordination betrieblicher Entscheidungen
Springer, Paris, Germany, 2010
Conference Proceedings
2010
Decoding the black box of intercultural negotiations
in Proceedings of the 32nd Conference INFORMS Marketing Science, INFORMS Marketing Science Conference, vol. 32nd, 2010, Cologne, Germany
Conference Proceedings
2010
In how far does the cultural context explain behaviour in and outcomes of intercultural business negotiation?
in Proceedings of the 23rd International Association for Conflict Management (IACM) Annual Meeting, International Association for Conflict Management, vol. 23rd IACM Annual Meeting, pp. 29 p., 2010, Boston, United States
Journal Article
2010
Steering sales reps through cost information: An investigation into the black box of cognitive references and negotiation behavior
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN MARKETING, March 2010, vol. 27/1, pp. 69-82
Paper presented in a Conference
2010
The role of team composition in intercultural business negotiations
in Proceedings of the German-French-Austrian (GFA) Conference on Quantitative Marketing, Vienna, 2010, Vienna, Austria
Research Monograph (Working papers)
2009
Consumer-related determinants in product bundling
ESCP Europe Working Paper, no. n° 49, 2009
Chapter
2009
Internationale Preiskoordination
in Management der Internationalisierung., SCHMID, Stefan (ed.), Gabler, pp. pp. 289-306, 2009
Journal Article
2009
Methoden zur Lösung grundlegender Probleme der Datenqualität in DEA-basierten Effizienzanalysen
BETRIEBSWIRTSCHAFT (DIE), 2009, pp. S. 289-309 21 S.
Team and contact
Kejiang Chen
