PhD position Consumer Behavior (Marketing)

We are all consumers; making use of products, services, ideas, or even people. Consumption is abstract (e.g., processing information, buying, owning, borrowing, sharing, recycling, putting to waste), yet concrete (e.g, shopping online, eating (un)healthy, (not) taking medicine, commenting on social media). Consumer researchers investigate the constant flux of decisions and choices people make, what people think, feel and do, and how consumption is influenced by many factors, such as people’s personalities, social, economic, cultural and technological experiences.

The department of Marketing is looking for a PhD candidate, eager to join our academic adventure of science with purpose. This means that we study consumer behavior and marketing strategy in hope to have positive impact on the world: more sustainable, more inclusive, offering equal opportunities, and focused on consumers’ health and well-being. Together, we will explore your interests and ideas and how they align with ours. You will build on and contribute to fundamental scientific knowledge about human behavior, developing expertise in handling and understanding complex empirical behavioral data and research methods.

Research and teaching activities
You will conduct research under the guidance of dr. Jiska Eelen and Prof. dr. Peeter Verlegh, but also have the opportunity to collaborate with other faculty members. Your advisors work on topics such as online retailing, body size diversity, clothing, ownership and the sharing economy, resistance against persuasion, and branding. Their research draws on theories and concepts in consumer psychology, related to information processing, self and identity, behavioral change, implicit measurement of attitudes and behavior, emotion, persuasion, embodied cognition, using different methodologies, such as causal experimentation, eye tracking, and text analyis.

https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/jiska-eelen

https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/peeter-verlegh

https://research.vu.nl/en/organisations/marketing-2/persons/

About 80% of your time will be dedicated to research activities. Initially you will go through a period of learning by doing, joining an ongoing research project of your advisors about consumers’ decision making in online clothing shopping and product returns. However, we expect you to define and execute your own research projects, in line with your advisors’ expertise (see above) and the School’s mission to conduct science with purpose (see below), and become an independent marketing scholar with an international network. You will have access to the excellent research facilities of the VU Behavioural Lab. You will take doctoral courses at VU Amsterdam or partner universities according to your needs and interests. You will present your research at international conferences, apply for research grants and write academic articles targeted at the international top-tier marketing journals, such as the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing and Journal of Consumer Psychology. You are expected to adhere to the principles of Open Science, and make available the stimuli, datasets and code of your projects.

About 20% of your time will be dedicated to teaching responsabilities such as supervising bachelor’s and master’s thesis students and tutoring groups of students in courses of marketing and consumer behavior. You will take a teaching training.

To stay the vibrant research group we are, you are expected to work on campus most of the time, participate actively in research meetings, seminars, and occasional team activities, ask for and provide constructive feedback to fellow PhD students and faculty members.

Requirements:

You have a strong interest in behavioral science, marketing and psychology, and knowledge (at the masters level) of data analysis and statistics. You feel comfortable to keep learning more advanced behavioral research techniques. You are encouraged to apply if you have a (Research) Master degree (at the start of the academic year 2025-2026) in Psychology, Marketing, Business, Economics, Econometrics, Communication, Data science or an adjacent field.

You recognize yourself in the following skills and traits (at least when the sun shines): ability to learn and process complex information quickly, critical thinking, diverse interests, curious, self-disciplined, organized (planning, timing, tasks, goals), showing initiative, persistent, dedicated, pushing through challenges, bouncing back from failure, collaborative, nuanced, precise, open to new perspectives.

Ideally you have gained experience with conducting and writing academic research. You are familiar with (or eager to learn) creating and programming experimental studies (e.g., using Qualtrics, Psychopy or Eprime) and conducting advanced data analyses (e.g., using R, Spss syntax, Python), data management and open science practices (e.g., using Github, data archiving, preregistration). A high level of spoken and written English proficiency is required.

Salary Benefits:

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of € 2.901,00 (PhD) and maximum € 3.707,00 (PhD) gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment
• an employment contract of initially 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. The position starts on September 1, 2025 (earlier or later upon mutual agreement).

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and arrangements. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package

De Boelelaan 1105