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Raj Raghunathan

Professor

Department:     Marketing

Industry Areas:     Consumer Behavior

Research Areas:     Affect and Decision Making, Hedonic and Utilitarian Consumption

Raj Raghunathan
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Raj Raghunathan
(512) 471-2987

CBA 7.232

Raj Raghunathan earned his PhD from the Stern School of Business at New York University and is currently employed as a professor of marketing at the McCombs School of Business, the University of Texas at Austin. Raj’s work juxtaposes theories from psychology, behavioral sciences, decision theory and marketing to document and explain interrelationships between affect and consumption behavior. Raj’s work has been published in top marketing and psychology journals such as, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Marketing, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Motivation and Emotion, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. His work has also been cited in the popular press, such as The New York Times, the Austin American Statesman, and Self magazine. Raj was recognized as a Marketing Science Young Scholar in 2005 for his contributions to the field of Marketing, and was recently awarded the prestigious NSF Career Award (for $440,000).

ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP & AWARDS

2007

NSF Career Grant Award ($440, 302)

 

2005

McCombs Research Excellence Grants

 

2005

McCombs Research Excellence Grants

 

2010

Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal of Consumer Research

 

2006

The CBA Foundation Research Excellence Award for Assistant Professors

 

2005

Marketing Science Young Scholar

 

Raj Raghunathan, and Anoosha Izadi. The “Realizing Growth Potential” Emotion Regulation Strategy: How Realizing the Potential for Psychological Growth from Negative Events can Mitigate Emotional Negativity Associated with the Events. Journal of Happiness Studies.  Forthcoming.

Max Alberhasky, and Raj Raghunathan. Oct. 2023.
Skills Make You Happy: Why High (vs. Low) Skill Activities Make Consumers Happier, Yet They Don’t Choose Them.
Psychology & Marketing 40(10): 2088-2102.

Wangshuai Wang, Raj Raghunathan, and Dinesh Gauri. Dec 2022. Powerlessness, Variety-Seeking, and the Mediating Role of Need for Autonomy. Journal of Retailing 98(4): 706-723.

Gunes Biliciler, Rajagopal Raghunathan, and Adrian Ward. Consumers as Naive Physicists: How Visual Entropy Cues Shift Temporal Focus and Influence Product Evaluations. Journal of Consumer Research. Apr2022, Vol. 48 Issue 6, p1010-1031. 

 

Rajagopal Raghunathan and Deepa Chandrasekaran. 2021. The Association between the Attitude of Food-Waste-Aversion and BMI: An Exploration in India and the US. Journal of Consumer Psychology 31(1), 81-90.

 

Rajagopal Raghunathan, Zhiyong Yang, and Deepa Chandrasekaran. 2020. How Parental Love Received in Childhood Affects Consumers’ Future Financial Discipline. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 5(3), 248-258.

 

Jacob Suher, Rajagopal Raghunathan, and Wayne D. Hoyer. 2016. Eating Healthy or Feeling Empty? How the "Healthy = Less Filling" Intuition Influences Satiety. Journal of the Association of Consumer Research 1(1), 26-40.

 

Gu, Bin, Prabhudev C. Konana, Michelle Chen, and Rajagopal Raghunathan. 2014. The Allure of Homohily: Evidence from Investor Responses on Virtual Communities. Information Systems Research 25(3), 604-617.

 

JaeHong Park, Prabhudev C. Konana, Bin Gu, Alok Kumar, and Rajagopal Raghunathan. 2013. Information Valuation and Confirmation Bias in Virtual Communities: Evidence from Stock Message Boards. Information Systems Research 24(4), 1050-1067.

 

Jeffrey Loewenstein, Rajagopal Raghunathan, and Heath, Chip. 2011. The Repetition-Break Plot Structure Makes Effective Television Advertisements. Journal of Marketing 75(5), 105-119.

 

Michael Luchs, Rebecca Naylor, Julie R. Irwin, and Rajagopal Raghunathan. 2010. The Sustainability Liability: Potential Negative Effects of Ethicality on Product Preference. Journal of Marketing 74(5), 18-31.

 

Ravi Chiturri, Rajagopal Raghunathan, and Viijay Mahajan. 2008. Delight By Design: The Role of Hedonic Vs. Utilitarian Benefits. Journal of Marketing 72, 48-63.

 

Rajagopal Raghunathan. 2008. Tracing the Evolution of the Experience Economy: It's Past, Present and Future, in Brandbook on Brand and Experience Management, Bernd Schmitt, ed.

 

Ravi Chitturi, Rajagopal Raghunathan, and Mahajan, Vijay. 2007. Form Versus Function: How the Intensities of Specific Emotions Evoked in Functional Versus Hedonic Tradeoffs Mediate Product Preferences. Journal of Marketing Research 44, 702-14.

 

Rajagopal Raghunathan, Michel T. Pham, and Kim P. Corfman. 2006. Informational Properties of Anxiety and Sadness, and Displaced Coping. Journal of Consumer Research 32, 596-602.

 

Rajagopal Raghunathan and Kim P. Corfman. 2006. Is Happiness Shared Doubled and Sadness Shared Halved?: Social Influence on the Enjoyment of Hedonic Experiences. Journal of Marketing Research 43, 386-394.

 

Rebecca W. Naylor, Rajagopal Raghunathan, and Suresh Ramanathan. 2006. Promotions Spontaneously induce a Positive Evaluative Response. Journal of Consumer Psychology 16, 295-305.

 

Rajagopal Raghunathan and Wayne D. Hoyer. 2006. The Unhealthy = Tasty Intuition and Its Effects on Taste Inferences, Enjoyment and Choice of Food Products. Journal of Marketing 70, 170-184.

 

Sridhar Balasubramanian, Rajagopal Raghunathan, and Vijay Mahajan. 2005. Consumers in Multiple Channel Environment: Product Utility, Process Utility and Channel Choice. Journal of Interactive Marketing 19(2), 12-30.

 

Rebecca E. Walker and Rajagopal Raghunathan. 2004. Competitive Paper Session: Sales and Service Issues. Advances in Consumer Research31, 198-214.

 

Rajagopal Raghunathan and Kim P. Corfman. 2004. Sadness as Pleasure-Seeking Prime, Anxiety as Attentiveness Prime: The “Different Affect Different Effect (DADE) Model. Motivation and Emotion 28(1), 23-41.

 

Mark I. Alpert and Rajagopal Raghunathan. 2003. Psychometrics of Hotel Service Quality: Comparative Factor Structures of Alternative Market Segments. International Business and Economics Research Journal 2(9), 33-40.

 

Aaron Rochlen, Christopher Blazina, and Rajagopal Raghunathan. 2002. Gender Role Conflict, Attitudes Toward Career Counseling, Career Decision-Making and Perceptions of Career Counseling Advertising Brochures. Psychology of Men and Masculinity 3(3), 122-134.

 

Rajagopal Raghunathan and Yaacov Trope. 2002. Walking the Tightrope Between Feeling Good and Being Accurate: Mood as a Resource in Processing Persuasive Messages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83(3) Sept, 510-525.

 

Yaacov Trope, Melissa Ferguson, and Rajagopal Raghunathan. 2001. Mood as a Resource in Processing Self-relevant Information, in Handbook of Affect and Social Cognition, J. P. Forgas, ed. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 257-272.

 

Rajagopal Raghunathan and Julie R. Irwin. 2001. Walking the Hedonic Product Treadmill: Default Contrast and Mood-Based Assimilation Effects in Judgments of Predicted Happiness with Target Product. Journal of Consumer Research 28(3), 355-368.

 

Rajagopal Raghunathan and Michel Tuan Pham. 1999. All Negative Moods Are Not Equal: Motivational Influences of Anxiety and Sadness on Decision Making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 71(1), 56-77.

 

Rajagopal Raghunathan, Luchs, Michael, Naylor, Walker, Rebecca, and Irwin, Julie R.. Is There an Expected Trade-off Between a Product's Ethical Value and Its Effectiveness? Exposing Latent Intuitions and Ethical Products, in 34, North American Conference Proceedings, 357-358.