Oliver Emrich investigates consumer behavior in digital environments and focuses on topics of omni-channel management, personalization, and social media. His aim is to investigate phenomena in field settings using a combination of experimental and quantitative methods. In collaboration with retailers, he sets up field experiments and tracks real search and purchase behavior on digital platforms and across channels. He is particularly interested in theories of mental categorization, mental budgeting, and goal activation. His research has been published/accepted in journals such as Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), Journal of the Association of Consumer Research (JACR), International Journal of Research in Marketing (IJRM), Journal of Retailing (JR), and Harvard Business Review.
Research findings are integrated into courses provided at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz and used for consultation of companies and planned start-up initiatives. The Master course „Cross-Channel Management“ is built around competences needed for creating competitive advantages through digital channels. The course also integrates ongoing research on the use of customer data for personalization and how acceptance of personalization can be increased by focusing on consumer utility of data usage. The interdisciplinary Master course „The Fabrics of Dreams – Cultural Creation, Consumer Trends, and Social Media“ encompasses consumer motivations for using social media, and how the interaction of cultural content, marketing content, and consumer participation influences consumer trends and consumer learning. Ongoing research on the imp
act of social media on cultural developments and consumer behavior is presented and further challenged by student discussions in this interactive format. The focus on consumer behavior across channels is also represented in the Master course „Decision-Making and Consumer Psychology“ and the Bachelor course „Digital Marketing“.
Oliver Emrich started his Ph.D studies at University of St.Gallen in 2007, specializing on the topic of Cross-Channel Management. In collaboration with multi-channel companies, he investigated this research area in many research and consultancy projects at the Institute of Retail Management (Prof. Dr. Thomas Rudolph) of University of St.Gallen. After finishing his dissertation in 2011, he was visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Before he was appointed as professor of management and social media at Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, he worked as assistant professor for distribution management and e-commerce at University of St.Gallen.