Research in the area of recommender systems in retailing is still in its infancy. In an interdisciplinary research project with Jella Pfeiffer, Thies Pfeiffer and Christian Peukert, we work on developing a recommender system based on attentional information, i.e., mobile eye-tracking information. Results of first empirical studies were recently published in the Journal of Management Information Systems, Information Systems Research, and Journal of Business Research. The development of such a recommender system is a long-term project that requires overcoming technical obstacles and working on many open questions regarding the interpretation of mobile eye-tracking data. Our research group is among the first investigating attentional processes in virtual retail environments. Our approach allows us to automatically analyze the respective data, i.e., allocate fixations to the respective objects in virtual reality. In virtual reality, we can analyze attentional processes “on the fly” and change the environment in real time based on the respondent’s gaze behavior.

Research in this area focusses on better understanding information search processes and decision making. We are particularly interested in understanding the extensive information search processes for digital innovations. We use eye tracking to measure visual attention of decision makers. PhD courses on how to use eye tracking are offered on a regular basis. Results of empirical studies were published in the Journal of Marketing Research and Organizational Research Methods. We collaborate with scholars from international universities, such as Duke University (US, Joel Huber), Monash University (Australia, Harmen Oppewal) and Andrés Musalem (University of Chile).

Social media have become an integral part of digital marketing strategies. Companies must rethink their communication strategies and learn how to use social media in a targeted manner. A particular challenge is also the fact that the relevance of social media is constantly changing. The marketing discipline is faced with the task of developing and empirically testing theories that justify the effective use of social media. Our research focuses on investigating new phenomena in social media.