Barbara E. Kahn

Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor
Professor of Marketing

Contact Information

Primary Email:
kahn@wharton.upenn.edu
Office Phone:
(215) 898-5404

office Address:
772 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Research Interests: brand loyalty, brand management, consumer choice, customer relationship management, customization, decisions under uncertainty/ambiguity, medical and financial services, price promotions, product assortments, retailing, variety seeking

Links: CV

Overview

Barbara E. Kahn is Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. She served as Director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center and as Executive Director of Marketing Science Institute (MSI). Barbara also served as the Dean and Schein Professor of Marketing at the School of Business Administration, University of Miami and as the Vice Dean of the Wharton undergraduate program.

Barbara is an internationally recognized scholar on retailing, variety-seeking, brand loyalty, product assortment and design, and consumer and patient decision-making. She has published more than 80 articles in leading academic journals. She is the author of Global Brand Power: Leveraging Branding for Long-Term Growth and The Shopping Revolution (revised and updated): How Retailers Succeed in an Era of Endless Disruption Accelerated by Covid-19, and coauthor of Visual Marketing: A Practical Guide to the Science of Branding & Retailing and Grocery Revolution: The New Focus on the Consumer. She has been featured in CNN, CNBC, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, NPR, Vox, Politico, and the Hidden Brain Podcast.

Barbara has been elected president of both Association for Consumer Research (ACR) and Journal of Consumer Research Policy Board and selected as an MSI trustee. She was associate editor at Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, and Marketing Science and has served on the editorial boards of all major marketing journals. She was elected as a Fellow for both ACR and Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP).

Barbara received her PhD, MBA, and MPhil from Columbia University, and her BA from University of Rochester.

Research

Barbara E. Kahn and Elizabeth Johnson, Visual Marketing: A Practical Guide to the Science of Branding & Retailing (Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge, 2025)
Barbara E. Kahn and Annie Wilson (2025), More than 50 Years of Consumer Behavior Research: What Will the Future Look Like, Journal of Business Research, 186 ().
Jacqueline Rifkin, Cindy Chan, Barbara E. Kahn (2024), Anxiety About the Social Consequences of Missed Group Experiences Intensifies FOMO,”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 128 (2), pp. 300-313.
Hoori Rafieian Koopaei, Barbara E. Kahn, Yanliu Huang (2024), “Variety Counts: How Pursuing Self-Regulatory Goals Impacts Variety Seeking in Vice and Virtue Categories,”, Journal of Consumer Research, 50 (6), pp. 1157-1171.
M. Mende, Dhruv Grewal, A. Guha, K. Alawadi, A Roggeveen, Maura Scott, A. Rindfleisch, K Pauwels, Barbara E. Kahn (2023), Exploring Consumer Responses to Covid-19: Meaning Making, Cohort Effects, and Consumer Rebound, Journal of Association of Consumer Research.
Eric Bradlow, Raghuram Iyengar, Barbara E. Kahn, Jerry (Yoram) Wind (2021), Wharton Marketing: Where Academia Meets Practice, Customer Needs and Solutions , 8 (Customer Needs and Solutions ), pp. 105-109.
Description: Bradlow, E.T., Iyengar, R., Kahn, B.E. et al. Wharton Marketing: Where Academia Meets Practice, Customer Needs and Solutions (2021)
Barbara E. Kahn and Hoori Rafieian Koopaei (2021), More than just the spice of life: Using Variety as a Signal for Change and Diversification, Journal of Consumer Research.
Jeff Galak and Barbara E. Kahn (2021), 2019 Academic Marketing Climate Survey: Motivation, Results, and Recommendations, Marketing Letters.
M. Holbrook, Barbara E. Kahn, Jeffrey R. Parker, D. R. Lehmann (2020), “The Past, Present, and Future of Consumer Research, Marketing Letters.
Julio Sevilla, Tong Lu, Barbara E. Kahn (2019), Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29 (), pp. 89-103.
Abstract: In this article, we examine the different ways in which consumers balance their consumption behavior in order to maximize utility. In particular, we focus on how people balance repeating the same options with the decision to seek variety. While earlier research represented variety seeking as a means of reducing physical satiation (McAlister, 1982), more recent research suggests that the relationship between choosing variety and minimizing satiation is more complex, as these behaviors may be motivated and influenced by exogenous factors. Past reviews have largely looked at the two processes separately. In this article, we discuss the nuanced relationship between these two constructs and point to future research directions that may help us further understand how consumers tackle the everyday challenge of maximizing enjoyment over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Awards and Honors

Wharton Teaching Excellence Award, 2019-2024
Fellow, Association for Consumer Research, 2016
Fellow, Society of Consumer Psychology, 2016
Wharton “Iron Prof” Competition, 2015
World’s Best B-School Professors, Poets & Quants, 2012
Davidson Award for the Best article in Journal of Retailing 2005, 2007
Finalist for Best Article, JCR, 2007
Elected President of Association of Consumer Research, 2006
Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research (CECCR), 2005 Description
Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania, $15,000.
Wharton-SMU Research Center Grant, 2005 Description
With S. Varghese and M. Lee, “Retrospective Preference for Variety: An Ease of Retrieval Perspective,” $38,422.22
Wharton-SMU Research Center Grant, 2004 Description
With M. F. Luce and S.Ramaswami, “Retail Assortment Variety Issues: Conflict Resolution in Store versus Brand Choice,” $66,000
Wharton-SMU Research Center Grant, 2003 Description
With S. RAmaswami, “Retail and Internet Assortment Variety Issues,” $33,500
Consortium Faculty, AMA Consortium, 1992 Description
1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003
SCP-SHETH Dissertation Proposal Competition winner, 2002 Description
Advisors: Barbara Kahn and Mary Frances Luce, Candidate: Elizabeth Miller
Marketing Science Institute Grant, 2003 Description
With K. Grashoff and M.F. Luce, $3200
Wharton School Grant, 1990 Description
Summer salary support, 1990-2000
Nestles’ Lecturer, Lund Institute of Economics, 1999
David W. Hauck Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Undergraduate Division, 1999
2000 William R. Davidson Award, 1998 Description
For article in the Journal of Retailing, Best Contribution to Theory and Practice in Retail Marketing, third prize, Huffman and Kahn, “Variety for Sale: Mass Customization or Mass Confusion?”
Earl Dyess Lecturer, Texas Christian University, 1998
National Science Foundation Grant, 1998 Description
Proposal No. #SBR-9730182,”The Subjective Value of Information in High-Stakes Domains: An Analysis of Patient Decisions to Obtain Diagnostic Testing,” (with M.F. Luce), 1998. Renewed, 1999-2001 (Total Amount Funded: $315,000)
John A. Howard Doctoral Dissertation Award, 1996 Description
Advisor: Barbara Kahn, Candidate: Satya Menon
Marketing Science Institute Grant, 1995 Description
With C. Huffman, $5000.
First Runner-Up for Best Article Award, 1991 Description
Journal of Retailing: Kahn and Lehmann, “Modeling Choice among Assortments”
Finalist for the O’Dell Award, 1991 Description
Kahn, Kalwani, and Morrison, Journal of Marketing Research (paper 1986)
Marketing Science Institute Grant, 1990 Description
With B. Harlam and L. Lodish, $5000
Chancellor’s Faculty Career Development Award, UCLA, 1988
UCLA summer research support, 1989 Description
1984-89
Beta Gama Sigma, 1982 Description
1982 MBA; 1984 Ph.D., Columbia University
AMA Doctoral Consortium Fellow, 1983
New York Chapter TIMS, “Management Science Student of the Year”, 1982
Doctoral fellowship in Marketing, Columbia University, 1982 Description
1982-84
Nicholas and Suzanne Bachner Samstag Fellowship, Columbia University, 1980 Description
MBA program, 1980-82

Activity

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Barbara E. Kahn and Elizabeth Johnson, Visual Marketing: A Practical Guide to the Science of Branding & Retailing (Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge, 2025)

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