Vertically Differentiated Products and Consumer Decision-Making
Prof. Michael JIA
Associate Professor of Marketing
Deputy Area Head of Marketing
Associate Director, Institute of Behavioural and Decision Science
HKU Business School
University of Hong Kong
Date: 22 April 2026 (Wednesday)
Time: 10:30-12:00
Venue: FBA Lobby
Host: Prof. Fangyuan CHEN, Associate Professor in Marketing
Abstract
Consumers often make choices among vertically differentiated products, for which there is a trade-off between price and performance, across a wide range of market offerings, such as consumer electronics, air tickets, and hotel rooms. In this decision context, consumers face multiple products with multiple prices and multiple levels of performance. The complexity of the information presented and the trade-off involved makes consumers’ decisions regarding vertically differentiated products easily susceptible to the influences of various marketing mix variables, such as the characteristics of price promotions and the design features of shopping platforms. We have conducted a systematic program of research to examine how marketing mix variables influence consumers’ choices among vertically differentiated products and thereby provide recommendations for the optimization of the prices promotions and the retail interfaces for vertically differentiated products.
Speaker
Prof. Michael JIA is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the HKU Business School. His research focuses on visual processing and aesthetics on digital platforms, numerical processing and promotion decisions, and marketing for the greater good. His research has been published in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Information Systems Research, and Journal of Consumer Psychology. He serves on the editorial review boards of Journal of Marketing Research and Service Science. He has won the AMA Retail and Pricing SIG Emerging Scholar Award and Best Retail and Pricing Paper Award, the HKU Business School Outstanding Researcher Award and Research Output Prize, the AMS-Mary Kay Dissertation Proposal Competition, and the ACR-Sheth Foundation Dissertation Award.
All are welcome!
