Rom Schrift
Associate Professor of Marketing | Indiana University, Kelley School of Business
Bloomington, IN, UNITED STATES
Rom Schrift studies consumer behavior focusing on judgment and decision making and teaches systematic approaches to creativity.
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Biography
Rom Schrift is an associate professor at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Prior to Joining Kelley, Rom was an assistant professor at the Wharton School and received his PhD from Columbia University. Rom studies consumer behavior focusing on judgment and decision making and teaches systematic approaches to creativity. Rom’s work has been published in top-tier academic journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and Psychological Science. He currently serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Marketing Research and the International Journal of Research in Marketing. Rom’s research received several awards and recognitions, including multiple “Best Paper” awards, and the finalist for the “2016 William F. O’Dell Award.” Prior to his academic career, Rom worked as an R&D Engineer and as a marketing research consultant.
Industry Expertise (3)
Mechanical/Industrial Engineering
Education/Learning
Advertising/Marketing
Areas of Expertise (7)
Systemic Approaches to Creativity
Multitasking and Persistence
Regulation of Conflict
Preference Formation
Decision Making
Social Influence
Sense of Autonomy
Accomplishments (2)
Excellence in Teaching Award (professional)
2018 Excellence in Teaching Award, Undergraduate Division, The Wharton School
Top 40 Undergraduate Professors (professional)
2017 “Top 40 Undergraduate Professors,” Poets & Quants Selection
Education (3)
Columbia University: Ph.D., Marketing 2011
The Jerusalem School of Business: M.B.A., Marketing 2006
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev: B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering 2002
Links (1)
Articles (5)
Multi-Stage Decision Processes: The Impact of Attribute Order on How Consumers Mentally Represent Their Choice
Journal of Consumer Research,
2018 With the ever-increasing number of options from which consumers can choose, many decisions are made in stages. Whether using decision tools to sort, screen, and eliminate options, or intuitively trying to reduce the complexity of a choice, consumers often reach a decision by making sequential, attribute-level choices. The current article explores how the order in which attribute-level choices are made in such multistage decisions affects how consumers mentally represent and categorize their chosen option. The authors find that attribute choices made in the initial stage play a dominant role in how the ultimately chosen option is mentally represented, while later attribute choices serve only to update and refine the representation of that option. Across 13 studies (six of which are reported in the supplemental online materials), the authors find that merely changing the order of attribute choices in multistage decision processes alters how consumers (1) describe the chosen option, (2) perceive its similarity to other available options, (3) categorize it, (4) intend to use it, and (5) replace it. Thus, while the extant decision-making literature has mainly explored how mental representations and categorization impact choice, the current article demonstrates the reverse: that the choice process itself can impact mental representations.
The Illusion of Multitasking and Its Positive Effect on Performance
Psychological Science
2018 With technological advancements, the desire, ability, and often necessity to multitask are pervasive. Although multitasking refers to the simultaneous execution of multiple tasks, most activities that require active attention cannot actually be done simultaneously. Therefore, whether a certain activity is considered multitasking is often a matter of perception. This article demonstrates the malleability of what people perceive as multitasking, showing that the same activity may or may not be construed as multitasking. Importantly, although engaging in multiple tasks may diminish performance, we found that, holding the activity constant, the mere perception of multitasking in fact improves performance. Across 32 studies (30 of which had performance-based incentives) containing a total of 8,242 participants, we found that individuals who perceived an activity as multitasking were more engaged and consequently outperformed those who perceived that same activity as single tasking.
In Pursuit of Enhanced Customer Retention Management: Review, Key Issues, and Future Directions
Customer Needs and Solutions
2017 In today’s turbulent business environment, customer retention presents a significant challenge for many service companies. Academics have generated a large body of research that addresses part of that challenge—with a particular focus on predicting customer churn. However, several other equally important aspects of managing retention have not received similar level of attention, leaving many managerial problems not completely solved, and a program of academic research not completely aligned with managerial needs. Therefore, our goal is to draw on previous research and current practice to provide insights on managing retention and identify areas for future research. This examination leads us to advocate a broad perspective on customer retention. We propose a definition that extends the concept beyond the traditional binary retain/not retain view of retention. We discuss a variety of metrics to measure and monitor retention. We present an integrated framework for managing retention that leverages emerging opportunities offered by new data sources and new methodologies such as machine learning. We highlight the importance of distinguishing between which customers are at risk and which should be targeted—as they are not necessarily the same customers. We identify trade-offs between reactive and proactive retention programs, between short- and long-term remedies, and between discrete campaigns and continuous processes for managing retention. We identify several areas of research where further investigation will significantly enhance retention management.
Do Costly Options Lead to Better Outcomes? How the Protestant Work Ethic Influences the Cost-Benefit Heuristic in Goal Pursuit
Journal of Marketing Research
2017 People often assume that costlier means lead to better outcomes, even in the absence of an objective relationship in the specific context. Such cost–benefit heuristics in goal pursuit have been observed across several domains, but their antecedents have not been fully explored. In this research, the authors propose that a person's tendency to use cost–benefit heuristics depends on the extent to which that person subscribes to the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE), an influential concept originally introduced to explain the rise of capitalism. The PWE is a core value predicated on the work-specific belief that hard work leads to success, but people who subscribe strongly to it tend to overgeneralize and align other work-unrelated cognitions for consistency. Across ten studies (N = 1,917) measuring and manipulating PWE, robust findings show that people who are high (vs. low) in PWE are more likely to use cost–benefit heuristics and are more likely to choose costlier means in pursuit of superior outcomes. Suggestions are provided for how marketers may identify consumers high versus low in PWE and tailor their offerings accordingly.
Complicating Decisions: The Work Ethic Heuristic and the Construction of Effortful Decisions
Journal of Experimental Psychology
2016 The notion that effort and hard work yield desired outcomes is ingrained in many cultures and affects our thinking and behavior. However, could valuing effort complicate our lives? In the present article, the authors demonstrate that individuals with a stronger tendency to link effort with positive outcomes end up complicating what should be easy decisions. People distort their preferences and the information they search and recall in a manner that intensifies the choice conflict and decisional effort they experience before finalizing their choice. Six experiments identify the effort-outcome link as the underlying mechanism for such conflict-increasing behavior. Individuals with a stronger tendency to link effort with positive outcomes (e.g., individuals who subscribe to a Protestant Work Ethic) are shown to complicate decisions by: (a) distorting evaluations of alternatives (Study 1); (b) distorting information recalled about the alternatives (Studies 2a and 2b); and (3) distorting interpretations of information about the alternatives (Study 3). Further, individuals conduct a superfluous search for information and spend more time than needed on what should have been an easy decision (Studies 4a and 4b). (PsycINFO Database Record.
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