Education
He received his B.A. in Economics and Political Science from theWork
Consumer choice
Simonson has studied both preferences that are created "on the fly" when people make choices and predetermined preference elements that reflect people's habits, predispositions, and genes. He began studying consumer choice in 1987. Simonson's doctoral dissertation introduced the notion that consumers select the options that are supported by the best reasons or justifications, rather than the options that maximizeAnticipating regret
Anticipating the possibility of regret tends to lead consumers to buy a product that is on "sale" now instead of waiting for a better "sale" later, and to choose a well-known, expensive brand over a lesser-known, less expensive brand. When making risky choices, anticipating regret leads to the opposite effect than anticipating responsibility or blame.Idiosyncratic fit heuristic
Kivetz and Simonson showed that people tend to put too much weight when making choices on product aspects that fit them better than others, referred to as the "Idiosyncratic Fit Heuristic." They demonstrated the implications of this tendency (or heuristic) with respect to participation in loyalty programs and the evaluation of other offers and opportunities.Highlighting versus balancing and ratings versus choice
Dhar and Simonson examined conditions that lead consumers to either "go all the way" (e.g., buy a tasty but unhealthy entree and also tasty but unhealthy dessert), referred to as highlighting, versus trying to balance things out (e.g., on a particular trip, flying first class but taking an inexpensive shuttle bus to the airport). Nowlis and Simonson examined the different consumer preferences that emerge from rating of individual options as opposed to choosing between options.Expectation and satisfaction
As Ofir and Simonson showed, telling customers before a service encounter or a shopping experience that they would later be asked to evaluate that experience causes them to be less satisfied, and customers who state their expectations from a service before the experience are also less satisfied.Inherent preferences
Simonson has argued that it is meaningful to assume that consumers have dormant preferences for product configurations even before the products embedding those preferences exist. For example, consumers may have a dormant preference for a licorice candy even before ever trying such a candy and they might have a preference for a videogame system using a motion-sensitive remote even before such a game system was invented. The ultimate inherent preferences are those that are largely heritable. In particular, initial evidence obtained by Simonson and Sela indicates that many consumer preferences (e.g., for compromise options, pleasurable versus useful products, chocolate, jazz, science fiction movies, and hybrid cars) are significantly heritable.Awards
Simonson has received many awards for his research, including Honorary Doctorate: University of Paris II – Sorbonne Universities, awards for the best article published in the Journal of Marketing Research, ''Journal of Consumer Research'', ''Journal of Public Policy & Marketing'', as well as awards from the Association of Consumer Research, American Marketing Association, and the Society for Consumer Psychology. Notably, he was named a fellow of the Association for Consumer Research in 2013.Selected works
* * * * * * * * *Stephen Nowlis and Itamar Simonson (1997), "Attribute–Task compatibility as a Determinant of Consumer Preference Reversals," Journal of Marketing Research, 34 (May), 205-218. *Chezy Ofir and Itamar Simonson (2001), "In Search of Negative Customer Feedback: The Effect of Expecting to Evaluate on Satisfaction Evaluations,” Journal of Marketing Research, 38 (May), 170-82. *Ran Kivetz and Itamar Simonson (2003) "The Idiosyncratic Fit Heuristic: The Role of Effort Advantage in Consumer Response to Loyalty Programs,” Journal of Marketing Research, 40 (November), 454-67. * *References
External links
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simonson, Itamar 1951 births Stanford University Graduate School of Business faculty Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Social Sciences alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Fuqua School of Business alumni Marketing theorists 21st-century American economists Living people