About

Rohini Ahluwalia is a professor holding the Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Business Analytics and Information Systems at the Carlson School of Management. She serves as the Academic Director of the Carlson Analytics Lab and is closely affiliated with the Carlson School's MS in Business Analytics program. Her work involves applying data analysis techniques to real business problems, with expertise in exploratory data visualization, predictive analytics, programming, data engineering, and machine learning methods. Her research and teaching focus on advancing data science and analytics to support organizational decision-making and social impact.

Research topics

• Business
• Advertising
• Marketing

Selected publications

• Leaves in the Wind: Underdeveloped Thinking Systems Increase Vulnerability to Judgments Driven by Salient Stimuli

  Review of marketing research · 2024-06-11

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Traveling the Paths to Brand Loyalty

  Psychology Press eBooks · 2023 · 6 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Business
  • Advertising
  • Marketing

  Brand and customer loyalty have recently been termed the “holy grail” of marketing. They represent not only the most desired goal but also the most challenging one for chief executive officers today. In fact, managing loyalty effectively has been identified as one of the biggest challenges facing chief executive officers. A review of the literature reveals three major factors leading to loyalty: performance, connections, and incentives. The performance set of factors is based on consumers’ experience with the brand. Positive and consistent performance is known to result in the development of brand trust, leading to experience-based loyalty. The consumer’s experience with the brand’s performance over time leads to the development of brand trust and is also reflected in the level of satisfaction with the brand. The concept of exceeding the expectations of the consumer or the notion of “delight” and positive emotion have also been considered in relation to building loyalty.

  PublisherDOI

• On the Science of Branding: An Introduction

  Psychology Press eBooks · 2023-04-24

  book-chapter

  This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book includes topics relevant to building and leveraging brands, including brand extensions, brand alliances, brand loyalty, and corporate social responsibility. It analyzes research and theory on the cultural symbolism of brands in multicultural markets, and proposes a framework for understanding the effects of cultural symbolism on brand perceptions. The book then develops a broad model of the social brand, which enables a more expansive view of influences on brand meanings. It also presents a new measure of brand equity, termed Marksure, which considers consumers’ relationships with their brands and companies’ investments in developing these relationships. The book examines brand equity from the perspective of customer value proposition, an emerging area of interest in marketing. It then provides a significant review of quantitative utility models of brand equity.

  PublisherDOI

• Brands and Brand Management

  Psychology Press eBooks · 2023 · 16 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Business
  PublisherDOI

• What do undergraduates with high levels of childhood adversity want to cope with stress?

  Journal of Clinical Psychology · 2020-07-13 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  OBJECTIVES: We aimed to determine how universities can tailor delivery of stress-related interventions and intervention-related messages for students with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). METHOD: We assessed 762 undergraduates (76% female; average age = 20.3) on an expanded ACEs measure, stress, health, and past use of interventions and what types of interventions they would like to cope with stress. We also experimentally manipulated websites advertising mental health services to test whether certain message frames and types of intervention delivery would appeal differentially to students with more ACEs. RESULTS: ACEs were associated with worse health, more stress, and a greater likelihood of having used health-related interventions. Students with more ACEs were more willing to try the interventions on the websites, regardless of messaging and type of delivery. They also expressed a greater desire for face-to-face interactions centered on mental health. CONCLUSIONS: School-wide adoption of ACE-informed policies can change lifelong trajectories of students with ACEs.

  PublisherDOI

• When Sharing Isn’t Caring: The Influence of Seeking The Best on Sharing Favorable Word of Mouth about Unsatisfactory Purchases

  Journal of Consumer Research · 2020-10-02 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Past research generally finds that if consumers share word of mouth about past purchases with others, the valence of the information tends to be congruent with actual perceptions. Thus, a negative purchase experience should elicit negative (vs. positive) word of mouth. We examine how a goal of attaining the best possible outcome, or maximizing, may alter this tendency. Drawing on prior work demonstrating that consumers may view their own personal failures more favorably through relative comparisons with others faring similarly or worse, we show that maximizing increases consumers’ propensity to share favorable word of mouth about unsatisfactory purchases, in an effort to encourage others to make the same poor choices, as they seek to enhance the perceived relative standing of and post-purchase feelings toward their own unsatisfying outcomes. We further show that consumers particularly exhibit this behavior when sharing with psychologically close (vs. distant) others, as comparisons with close others are especially relevant to relative standing. Finally, we consider the downstream consequences of such behavior, finding that when consumers successfully persuade close others to make the same bad decisions, they feel better about their own outcomes, but are also burdened with feelings of guilt that erode their overall wellbeing.

  PublisherDOI

• A Path to More Enduring Happiness: Take a Detour from Specific Emotional Goals

  Journal of Consumer Psychology · 2018-03-24 · 9 citations

  articleCorresponding

  Although much of consumption behavior is prompted by the pursuit of happiness, enduring happiness remains elusive, since happiness is destined to adaptation. Our research identifies a novel yet simple method of slowing hedonic adaptation from consumption activities: reducing specificity of the happiness goal. We propose that in the realm of happiness, contrary to findings from other domains, having a general (e.g., feeling good) versus a specific (e.g., excitement) emotional goal might hold the key to more enduring happiness. One lab experiment and a longitudinal study demonstrate general (vs. specific) goals expand the breadth of emotions experienced from consumption activities, which in turn impact the top‐of‐mind awareness of the consumption target over time; higher top‐of‐mind awareness of the target allows one to continue to derive happiness from it. Importantly, the happiness advantage of general emotional goals strengthens over time. Given a significant tendency by consumers to pursue specific happiness goals (as three pilot studies reveal), a simple change in the way they formulate their happiness goals could be consequential for consumer wellbeing.

  PublisherDOI

• Tailoring health-related messages for young adults with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)

  Child Abuse & Neglect · 2018-04-05 · 11 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Keep Calm and Smell the Roses: the Differential Impact of Low and High Arousal Emotions on Consumption Outcomes

  ACR North American Advances · 2017-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

• Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Stress, and Social Support on the Health of College Students

  Journal of Interpersonal Violence · 2016-12-05 · 145 citations

  articleSenior author

  The goal of the study was to describe the nature of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) reported by undergraduates and to examine the effect of ACEs, perceived stress, and perceived social support on their health. Although respondents ( N = 321) had parents with relatively high levels of education and indicated generally high levels of social support, results nevertheless showed a relatively high level of mental health problems and rates of ACEs that were similar to those in the general population in the state. Those with higher levels of ACEs had greater levels of stress and lower levels of social support. ACEs, social support, and stress explained more than half the variance in mental health scores, with stress making the greatest contribution. Despite the fact that we used different measures and an independent sample, findings generally replicated a previous study. Results point to a need to increase awareness of the association between ACEs and health on college campuses, to examine the effects of ACEs in more detail, and to design ACE-informed programs for this population.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Xiang Fang

  10 shared

• Vanitha Swaminathan

  10 shared

• Surendra Singh

  Clarkson University

  9 shared

• Nicholas J. Olson

  University of Victoria

  6 shared

• Carlos J. Torelli

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  6 shared

• Sara Loughran Dommer

  6 shared

• Aradhna Krishna

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  5 shared

• Robert E. Burnkrant

  5 shared

Awards & honors

• American Marketing Association Doctoral Dissertation Award (…
• Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal of Consumer Research (20…
• Curtis L Carlson Professorship in Marketing (2010-present)
• Business Week Faculty of the Year Teaching Award, Finalist,…
• American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium, Faculty…