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Min Zhao

Associate Professor of Marketing, Carroll School of Management, Boston College

bio:

Min Zhao is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Boston College and a Research Fellow of Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR). Her primary research focuses on decision over time that pertains to consumers’ financial decisions, everyday task completion, new product adoption, and hedonic consumptions. She uses the behavioral economics approach to help consumers stay committed to their long-term goals in these domains. Min has published in leading marketing and psychological journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, and Psychological Science. Her research findings are featured in major media including the Wall Street Journal or Financial Times.

Min was identified by the American Marketing Association (AMA) as authors with top research productivity in the premier Marketing Journals in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. She was also named Marketing Science Institute “Young Scholar” in 2013, an award given to the most promising scholars in marketing and closely related fields. Min was recipient of multiple highly competitive grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Research Grant Council (RGC) in Hong Kong, and Research Across Departments and Schools (RADS) at Boston College. She currently serves at the Editorial Review Board of Journal of Consumer Research and Behavioural Public Policy.

Website: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/carroll-school/faculty-research/faculty-directory/min-zhao.html

3 questions:

  • What aspects of this research agenda are you most excited about?

I am most excited about researching effective behavioral strategies, along with this amazing research team, to help consumers improve their financial decision and act toward their long-term financial well-being.

  • Of all the work you have done, what project / paper is your personal favourite and why?

Soman, Dilip and Min Zhao (2011), “The Fewer the Better: Number of Goals and Savings Behavior,” Journal of Marketing Research, 48(6), 944–957.

I like this paper a lot because it shows that behavioral interventions based on a small low-cost tweak (such as narrowing the number of goals from a few to just one) can have a substantial impact on people’s mindset and their financial goal commitment. It also challenges our thinking by showing that common belief (e.g., more is better) is not always right.

  •  Which is the one paper or book that you wish you had written (but have not)?

    I would like to write about a paper about the ultimate long-term effect of behavioral interventions on overall happiness beyond the pursuit of the specific goals or accomplishment of a specific task.