Stephen Hoch
769 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA19104
Phone: (215) 898-0233
Fax: (215) 898-2534
hochs@wharton.upenn.edu

Personal Website

Research Interests: Retail merchandising, assortment, pricing, and promotion strategy; decision support systems and the psychology of forecasting; psychology of self-control; consumer behavior and learning; private label products.
Current Projects:
Internet pricing and auction mechanisms; perception of inflation; positioning of store brands.
 
 

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Stephen Hoch
Laura and John J. Pomerantz Professor in Marketing


Stephen J. Hoch is the Laura and John J. Pomerantz Professor in Marketing. Professor Hoch is internationally known for research on retail merchandising, assortment, pricing, and promotion strategy. He consults extensively with leading consumer goods manufacturers and retailers around the world, assisting them in focusing retail strategies and improving pricing and merchandising tactics via point-of-sale data.

Most recently, Professor Hoch's research offered retailers new insights into a valuable sub-species of shopper, the "cherry picker," a shopper who visits more than one store looking for the best price per unit. The study provided new details about the specific behavior and demographic characteristics of such shoppers, information that will help managers better formulate their approach to attracting discriminating shoppers.

A prolific scholar, Professor Hoch's research has been published in top-tier academic journals including the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science and the Journal of Retailing. He also serves as an Associate Editor for Management Science, the Journal of Consumer Research and other leading journals, is a past president of the Association for Consumer Research, and has won numerous academic awards.

Professor Hoch's teaching interests include courses in Marketing Management, Pricing, Consumer Behavior, Retailing and Marketing-Operations Integration, as well as teaching Competitive Marketing Strategy, Essentials of Marketing and Pricing Strategies for Wharton's Executive MBA program.

Professor Hoch received his PhD in Marketing from Northwestern University, his MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles and his BA in Human Biology from Stanford University.

Current Research Papers
Stephen Hoch, E. M. Eisenstein (2006), Intuitive Compounding: Framing Temporal Perspective and Expertise
Stephen Hoch, Alan L. Montgomery, Young-Hoon Park (2006), Long-Term Growth Trends in Private Label Market Shares
Stephen Hoch, Joseph P. Redden (2003), The Psychology of Two-Part Tarriffs

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Publications
Edward J. Fox, Stephen Hoch (2005), Cherry Picking, Journal of Marketing, 69 (1), 2005, 46-62
Stephen Hoch, Erica Mina Okada (2004), Spending Time versus Spending Money, Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (2), 2004, 313-323
Stephen Hoch, Jagmohan Raju, Serdar Seyman (2002), Positioning of Store Brands, Marketing Science, 21 (4), 2002, 278-397
Stephen Hoch (2002), Product Experience is Seductive, Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (December, 2002), 448-454
Stephen Hoch, H. Kunreuther (2001), Wharton on Making Decisions, Wiley

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In The News
What Consumers - and Retailers - Should Know about Dynamic Pricing, Knowledge@Wharton, 07/27/2006
Marketing Ethics in a post-Terrorist Economy: What is the Right Pitch?, Knowledge@Wharton, 05/23/2006
No Crystal Ball - or Historical Precedent - Can Help Predict Consumer Confidence, Knowledge@Wharton, 05/23/2006
Farewell, Peter Drucker: A Tribute to an Intellectual Giant, Knowledge@Wharton, 05/23/2006
Cherry Picking: The Weapon of Choice for Price-conscious Consumers, Knowledge@Wharton, 05/15/2006

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Awards
Faculty representative, AMA Doctoral Consortium (1984, 1985, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004), 2004
Best article in the Journal of Retailing, 1989, 1995, 1994, 2002
President, Association for Consumer Research, 2001
Alpha Kappa Psi Award 1989, 1995
National Science Foundation grant (DDMS division), 1989

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Executive Education
Program Faculty, Competitive Marketing Strategy
Program Faculty, Essentials of Marketing
Program Faculty, Pricing Strategies: Measuring, Capturing and Retaining Value

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Knowledge@Wharton Subscribe
Brand Disloyalty: Recession-weary Consumers Take Discounts to the Extreme (10/26/2011)
The Great Deleveraging: Will Consumer Spending Ever Recover? (10/12/2011)
No Longer Simply 'Chic,' Cheap Is Now a Badge of Honor (09/28/2011)
New Retail Strategies: Offering a Better Fit for Today's Careful Consumers (08/31/2011)
Can J.C. Penney's New CEO Reinvent the Department Store? (07/20/2011)
Many-stop Shopping? How Niche Retailers Are Thriving on Internet 2.0 (05/11/2011)
A Teakettle with Star Power? The Upsides and Pitfalls of Celebrity Brands (04/27/2011)
Back to the Future: Will Rising Commodities Prices Create a New 'Inflation Generation'? (04/13/2011)
Financial Services on Aisle Nine: Wal-Mart Gives Banks a Run for Their Money (09/01/2010)
A Seasonal Sales Shift: For Bargain Hunters, Retailers Make Every Day Feel like Christmas (08/18/2010)