Research

As an experimentalist, I employ a mix of methods including on-line, lab, and field studies, as well as secondary data, to evaluate how consumers make financial and health related decisions. Within these two areas of research, I evaluate how consumers generate financial preferences, make debt financing and debt repayment decisions, set budgets and attain savings goals, and respond to advertised financial information to make financial decisions. Additionally, I evaluate how consumers process clean labels as well as COVID-19 communications to make food purchase decisions. Armed with these insights, in my future research, I strive to develop interventions firms can implement to improve consumer well-being. Ultimately, it is my goal to conduct research that advances theory and offers practical implications firms can implement in a timely manner.


When pursuing research ideas, I draw inspiration from firm and consumer behaviors present in society. For instance, over the past few years, consumers have demonstrated an increasing willingness to accrue more debt and agree to longer loan terms. In my dissertation research, I demonstrate how financial institutions may be influencing these behaviors. Moreover, my recent community involvement has provided me opportunities to partner with financial institutions and non-profit agencies to conduct field studies to better understand the role of financial institutions in underrepresented consumer financial decision making. These institutions differ in the marketing problems they face, and offer varying industry insights, which I draw from to inform my research.


PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

Johnson, Alicia M., Daniel Villanova and Ronn J. Smith (2023), “The Effect of Loan Application Formats on Consumer Loan Decisions,” Journal of Consumer Research, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad015 (Dissertation Essay 1).


Rybak, Garrett, Alicia M. Johnson, and Scot Burton (2023), “How Restaurant Ad Messaging Can Increase Patronage Intentions During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Serial Mediation and Conditional Effects of Consumer Concern about COVID-19,” Journal of Advertising, 52, 145-156.


Rybak, Garrett, Scot Burton, Alicia M. Johnson, and Christopher Berry (2021), “Promoted claims on food product packaging: Comparing direct and indirect effects of processing and nutrient content claims,” Journal of Business Research, 135, 464-79. 



WORKING PAPERS UNDER REVIEW

Johnson, Alicia M., Anastasiya Pocheptsova Ghosh, and Bikram Ghosh (2023) "How Consumers' Pay Frequency Affects Their Budget Setting," under review. 


Johnson, Alicia M., Daniel Villanova and Scot Burton (2023), “Rethinking Consumer Borrowing Term Preferences: The Roles of Typical and Advertised Terms on Consumer Loan Decisions,” under review, (Dissertation Essay 2).



SELECTED  RESEARCH IN PROGRESS

Johnson, Alicia M., Daniel Villanova, Julio Sevilla, Mathew Isaac, and Rajesh Bagchi, “First In, First Out? How Debt Age Affects Debt Repayment,” collecting data.

Johnson, Alicia M. and Yuna Choe, “How Expense Reduction Strategies Affect Goal Success,” collecting data.

Johnson, Alicia M. and Anastasiya Ghosh, “The Effect of the Child Tax Credit on Consumer Spending and Well-Being,” analyzing data.

Johnson, Alicia M. and Matthew Godfrey, “Breaking Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycles of Poverty”, designing field study.


GRANTS, AWARDS, AND SCHOLARSHIPS