Prof.dr. S.T.L.R. (Steven) Sweldens

Steven Sweldens
Rotterdam School of Management (RSM)
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Fellow ERIM
Field: Marketing
Affiliated since 2004

Steven Sweldens obtained his PhD in Marketing at Erasmus University in 2009, after which he became a marketing professor at INSEAD. There he taught courses in marketing strategy (MBA), social psychological foundations of management (PhD), experimental design (PhD) and marketing in the financial sector (executive education). His teaching skills were lauded every year with the INSEAD “Dean’s Commendation for Excellence in MBA Teaching.” At INSEAD, he published a case study on the Renova Paper Company, which became an instant best-seller, won the highest award at the Case Awards in 2012 and is now recognized as one of the ‘10 classic cases in Marketing’ according to the Case Center. In 2014, Steven returned to RSM Erasmus University where he teaches the marketing core course in RSM’s MBA and EMBA programs. The course offers a dynamic mix of theory, case discussions and simulation experience and is one of the most highly evaluated courses at RSM. It was therefore lauded with the RSM Dean’s “Innovative Teaching Award” in 2018. Most recently, Steven published a case study on TomTom, the navigation technology company, which again was lauded with multiple awards among which the Outstanding Case Writer award in 2020 and the Marketing Case award of 2021.

Steven’s academic research interests center on the psychological laws underlying advertising and the creation of brand attitudes. The importance of his research was recognized with several awards, winning for example the EMAC McKinsey Award for the best European Marketing Dissertation, was runner-up for the American Marketing Association John A. Howard Award for the worldwide best marketing dissertation, and won several Dutch national awards. His work was published in the top scientific journals in marketing (Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research), psychology (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Review) and organizational behavior (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes).

You can download his CV here.

Publications

Abstract (7)

  • Academic (7)

    • Hütter, M., & Sweldens, S. (2013). I… Must… Resist: On the (Un)Controllability of Evaluative Conditioning. 285-286.

    • Sweldens, S., Puntoni, S., Kruger, J., & Vissers, M. (2012). The Bias in the Bias: Socially Desirable Responding in Comparative Optimism.

    • Zhang, K., Sweldens, S., & Wadhwa, M. (2012). When Temptations Collide: More Temptations Are Less Desired. 250-252.

    • de Langhe, B., Sweldens, S., Osselaer, S., & Tuk, M. (2009). The Emotional Information Processing System is Risk Averse: Ego-Depletion and Investment Behavior. 604-605.

    • Sweldens, S., Puntoni, S., & Tavassoli, NT. (2009). Gender Identity Salience and Perceived Vulnerability to Breast Cancer. 667.

    • Sweldens, S., Osselaer, S., & Janiszewski, C. (2009). Evaluative Conditioning 2.0: Direct and Indirect Attachment of Affect to Brands. 676-677.

    • Sweldens, S., Puntoni, S., & Tavassoli, NT. (2007). At Your Own Risk: The Influence of Self-Identity on Perceived Vulnerability to Identity-Specific Risks. 230-231.

Article (19)

  • Academic (18)

    • Hütter, M., & Sweldens, S. (2024). How People (Fail to) Control the Influence of Affective Stimuli on Attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/383239426_How_People_Fail_to_Control_the_Influence_of_Affective_Stimuli_on_Attitudes

    • Lenkovskaya, M., & Sweldens, S. (Accepted/In press). How Numerical Cognition Explains Ambiguity Aversion. Journal of Consumer Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae041

    • du Plessis, C., D'Hooge, S., & Sweldens, S. (2024). The Science of Creating Brand Associations: A Continuous Trinity Model Linking Brand Associations to Learning Processes. Journal of Consumer Research, 51(1), 29-41. Article ucad046. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad046

    • Brendl, M. C., & Sweldens, S. (2023). Defining the Stimulus in S–R Interventions: On the Need to Embrace Theory and Organism in S–O–R. Consumer Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1002/arcp.1098

    • Gai, J., Tuk, M., & Sweldens, S. (2022). Light or Regular, Now or Later: The Impact of Advance Ordering and Restrained Eating on Choices and Consumption of Light and Regular Vice Food. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 7(4), 492-500. https://doi.org/10.1086/720446

    • Hütter, M., & Sweldens, S. (2018). Dissociating controllable and uncontrollable effects of affective stimuli on attitutes and consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(2), 320-349. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx124

    • Sweldens, S., Tuk, M., & Hütter, M. (2017). How to Study Consciousness in Consumer Research, A Commentary on Williams and Poehlman. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(2), 266-275. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx044

    • Kim, J. C., Sweldens, S., & Hütter, M. (2016). The Symmetric Nature of Evaluative Memory Associations: Equal Effectiveness of Forward versus Backward Evaluative Conditioning. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(1), 61-68. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550615599237

    • Tuk, M., Zhang, K., & Sweldens, S. (2015). The propagation of self-control: Self-control in one domain simultaneously improves self-control in other domains. Journal of Experimental Psychology-General, 144(3), 639-654. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000065

    • Sweldens, S., Puntoni, S., Paolacci, G., & Vissers, M. (2014). The Bias in the Bias: Comparative Optimism as a Function of Event Social Undesirability. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 124(2), 229-244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.03.007

    • Sweldens, S., Corneille, O., & Yzerbyt, V. (2014). The Role of Awareness in Attitude Formation Through Evaluative Conditioning. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18(2), 187-209. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868314527832

    • Hütter, M., & Sweldens, S. (2013). Implicit misattribution of evaluative responses: Contingency-unaware evaluative conditioning requires simultaneous stimulus presentations. Journal of Experimental Psychology-General, 142(3), 638-643. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029989

    • Tuk, M., Zhang, K., & Sweldens, S. (2013). Self-Control Spillover: Impulse Inhibition Facilitates Simultaneous Self-Control in Unrelated Domains. Advances in Consumer Research, 40, 858-859.

    • Zhang, K., Sweldens, S., & Wadhwa, M. (2013). Negative Scope Sensitivity: The Collapse of Feeling-Based Valuation for Multiple Desirable Objects. Advances in Consumer Research, 40, 909-910.

    • Hütter, M., Sweldens, S., Stahl, C., Unkelbach, C., & Klauer, KC. (2012). Dissociating contingency awareness and conditioned attitudes: Evidence of contingency-unaware evaluative conditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology-General, 141(3), 539-557. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026477

    • Puntoni, S., Sweldens, S., & Tavassoli, NT. (2011). Gender Identity Salience and Perceived Vulnerability to Breast Cancer. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(3), 413-424. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.48.3.413

    • Sweldens, S., Osselaer, S., & Janiszewski, C. (2010). Evaluative Conditioning Procedures and the Resilience of Conditioned Brand Attitudes. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(3), 473-489. https://doi.org/10.1086/653656

    • Sweldens, S., & Osselaer, S. (2010). Evaluatieve conditionering 2.0: directe versus indirecte transfer van gevoel naar merken. Ontwikkelingen in het Marktonderzoek / Jaarboek MOA, 2010(3), 43-59.

  • Professional (1)

Conference contribution (1)

  • Academic (1)

    • Sweldens, S., Lerouge, D., Dewitte, S., Verlegh, PWJ., & Warlop, L. (2004). Perceived Uniqueness as a moderator for Reciprocity.

Conference proceeding (1)

  • Academic (1)

    • Hütter, M., & Sweldens, S. (2013). On the Automatic Effects of Advertising: The Uncontrollability of Evaluative Conditioning Effects. In Advances in Consumer Research (Vol. 41, pp. 66)

Doctoral Thesis (1)

  • Internal (1)

    • Sweldens, S. (2009). Evaluative conditioning 2.0. Direct versus associative transfer of affect to brands. [Doctoral Thesis, Erasmus University Rotterdam]. Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR).

Inaugural speech (1)

  • Popular (1)

    • Sweldens, S. (2018). Puppets on a String : Studying Conscious and Unconscious Processes in Consumer Research. Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM). Inaugural Addresses Research in Management Series http://hdl.handle.net/1765/106425

Review article (1)

Teaching case (1)

  • Professional (1)

    • Sweldens, S., Yue, T., Boegershausen, J., Laurelii, F., & Monnier, A., (2024). Renoon: Reinventing Shopping for Sustainable Fashion, 12 p. https://casecent.re/p/202128

Additional activities (1)

  • Journal of Consumer Research (Journal)

    Publication Peer-review (Academic)

PhD Tracks (11)

Are You Talking to Me? Addressing Consumers in a Globalised World
  • Role: Member Doctoral Committee
  • PhD Candidate: Anne-Sophie Lenoir
  • Time frame: 2011 - 2015
Influencers: The Role of Social Influence in Marketing
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Christilene du Plessis
  • Time frame: 2014 - 2017
Contextualized Consumers: Theories and Evidence on Consumer Ethics, Product Recommendations, and Self-Control
  • Role: Daily Supervisor
  • PhD Candidate: Jia Gai
  • Time frame: 2015 - 2020
  • Role: Daily Supervisor
Navigating Temporal Dimensions: Consumer Decisions from Past to Future
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Youngjin Chun
  • Time frame: 2018 - 2024
Doctoral Research in Marketing (Marketing Science, Consumer Behaviour or Consumer Neuroscience
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Marina Lenkovskaya
  • Time frame: 2021 -
Doctoral Research in Marketing (Marketing Science, Consumer Behaviour or Consumer Neuroscience
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Ting-Yi Lin
  • Time frame: 2021 -
Doctoral Research in Marketing (Marketing Science, Consumer Behaviour, or Consumer Neuroscience)
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Yue Zhang
  • Time frame: 2022 -
The effect of visual metaphors on attention capture and attention transfer of advertisement elements.
The effect of visual metaphors on attention capture and attention transfer of advertisement elements.
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Ramiro Caso Besada
  • Time frame: 2020 -
PhD in Consumer Behavior
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Maxwell Grimshaw Poole
  • Time frame: 2024 -
PhD in Consumer Behavior
  • Role: Promotor
  • PhD Candidate: Sepehr Etminanrad
  • Time frame: 2024 -

Course (1)

Past
  • Current Topics in Marketing Research (2023/2024)

Events (4)

2018
May
18
Puppets on a String? Studying Conscious and Unconscious Processes in Consumer Research
Inaugural Address
As: Speaker, Contact
2011
June
09
Do Consumer Cues Bring Out the Worst in Us?
Research Seminar
As: Speaker
2009
May
29
Evaluative Conditioning 2.0: Direct versus Associative Transfer of Affect to Brands
PhD Defence
As: Speaker
2008
September
22
Evaluative Conditioning 2.0: Direct and Indirect Transfer of Affect to Brands
Research Seminar
As: Speaker

Address

Visiting address

Office: Mandeville Building T10-20
Burgemeester Oudlaan 50
3062 PA Rotterdam

Postal address

Postbus 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

Latest publication

Teaching case

Sweldens, S., Yue, T., Boegershausen, J., Laurelii, F., & Monnier, A., (2024). Renoon: Reinventing Shopping for Sustainable Fashion, 12 p. https://casecent.re/p/202128