Erasmus School of Economics
Erasmus School of Economics

Marketing

Theory-grounded research with a quantitative modelling orientation
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Our aim is to be a leading marketing science (i.e., quant marketing) programme in the world. We conduct theory-grounded research with a quantitative modelling orientation and address important substantive areas in marketing with high academic and societal impact.

Publications are targeted at top journals in the marketing field, and we encourage our School as much as possible to produce high-quality, high-impact research.

Research Areas

The research programme conducts research that focuses on four areas, in particular Marketing Strategy in Global Markets, Marketing Analytics & Artificial Intelligence, Innovation & New Technology, and Consumer Decision Making & Preference Measurement. 

In our Marketing Strategy in Global Markets research, we study how firms design, optimise, and evaluate marketing strategies in an increasingly complex, global and interconnected world. At the firm level, we provide rigorous evidence on the financial implications of strategic marketing actions (e.g., advertising effectiveness, optimal global pricing, multi-channel distribution choices, M&A and restructuring decisions). At the consumer level, we examine how cultural differences shape attitudes, behaviour, and privacy preferences across markets, and we develop methodological innovations for valid cross-cultural research. Some publications from this area:

Marketing Analytics and Artificial Intelligence research develops new algorithms to help businesses transform complex data into actionable knowledge. By bridging marketing science and AI, we aim to understand and predict consumer and market behaviour and design solutions that enhance business impact and create societal value. Specific areas include large-scale personalization, and synthetic (LLM-based) data. Some publications from this area:

In our research on Innovation & New Technology, we study how (business model) innovations and new technologies shape markets, firms, and customers, including how new products diffuse, how firms forecast and manage launches, and how firms can generate and validate customer insights using both primary research and emerging AI-based approaches.

Finally, the research stream on Consumer Decision-Making and Preference Measurement combines behavioural decision theory with advanced econometric and statistical modelling. It helps us understand how consumers search for and process information, how choice complexity and context affect preferences, and how defaults and choice architecture influence decision-making. We also develop novel preference elicitation techniques (e.g., conjoint approaches with eye-tracking, privacy-protecting methodologies to measure sensitive behaviours such as illegal prescription drug purchases).

Research quality

The Marketing programme has established its high-quality output, while also increasing its academic impact as thought leaders in the field. Creativity is well appreciated in the Marketing programme. We do not want to publish papers that build on or marginally extend well-established streams of research but are focused on producing papers that steer an entire area. Good examples include De Jong’s work on social desirability in survey work; Andreas Bayerl’s 2024 paper on influencer marketing, winner of the AMA/MSI Paul Root Award; and Stefan Stremersch and Nuno Camacho’s work on faculty research incentives (lead article, Journal of Marketing) and on customer insights for innovation (a top-10 most downloaded J. Academy of Marketing Science paper, 2023–2025). 

In terms of output, the marketing programme has published more than 30 Marketing ERIM P*journal articles the last decade. Even more importantly, we achieved several other important milestones in key indicators of research quality, such as awards, prestigious roles in the field, and relevance to non-academics. Several faculty members played a significant role in the editioral review boards of top journals in the field (editorial board memberships at Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Research, and International Journal of Research in Marketing).

Our focus on research quality is also reflected in awards assigned to department members’ work:

  • Martijn de Jong: 2015 Paul Green award, and AMA SIG 2020 Global Marketing Award
  • Stefan Stremersch: 2015 International Francqui Chair at University of Ghent, 2015 IJRM Best Paper Award, 2020 EMAC Distinguished Scholar Award, 2020 MOA Insights Scientist of the Year Award.
  • Bas Donkers: 2026 Data&Insights Network Insights Scientist of the Year
  • Andreas Bayerl: AMA Marketing Research SIG Don Lehman Award (2025), and AMA/Marketing Science Institute H. Paul Root Award (2025)

In terms of research grants the department has been equally successful:

  • Bas Donkers obtained Netspar grants in 2016 and 2020
  • Martijn de Jong obtained a Porticus grant in 2024 to develop a RAG-based AI chatbot platform 

Societal Relevance

In the programme, we place great emphasis not only on rigor but also on relevance. Through this process, we aim to achieve a mutual positive impact from academia on practice and from practice on theory, where one informs and challenges the other in an ongoing learning process. We pursue impact through several complementary routes. 

Communication and outreach. We have invested in a dedicated LinkedIn presence (Marketing Science @ ESE), and engage actively with traditional and online media. Our research has been featured in outlets ranging from Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Süddeutsche Zeitung to Dutch national media such as AD, De Telegraaf, Nederlands Dagblad, and NPO, as well as practitioner-oriented outlets such as ESB, RetailWire, Vakblad Financiële Planning, and the LSE Business Review blog. We also organize yearly 'Research meets Practice' sessions with local marketing executives. Combined, our activities translate research findings into accessible formats for practitioners, policymakers, and the broader public, and they also help shape the academic agenda by inspiring fellow researchers, building networks, and signaling the questions we believe the field should be working on.

Collaboration and co-creation. Senior faculty members regularly work with business and societal partners to develop and test new academic theorising and methodology, often also in partnership with junior colleagues and PhD students from the programme. Examples span multiple themes and partner types. For instance, industry collaborations with firms such as KPN (collaborative projects on AI-driven customer service), Amazon (advertising and customer mindset metrics), data collaborations with companies such as SKIM, Achmea, etc. Applied research with pension funds and insurers, including the Pension Builder tool developed with Netspar support and adopted via the Achmea Beleggingsbalans by funds such as Shell Pension Fund. And finally, collaboration with societal organisations, such as Prof. de Jong's collaboration with The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI), and a funded project to build an AI-driven Catholic chatbot.

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