Academic Staff Directory

Hildebrand, Christian

Dipl Economics & Business (Trier); PhD Management (St. Gallen)

Visiting Professor

Contact

Department of Marketing

11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Building
12 Chak Cheung Street
Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong

mkt@cuhk.edu.hk

+852 3943 8693

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Biography

Professor Christian Hildebrand is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Department of Marketing at CUHK Business School. He is Full Professor of Marketing Analytics and Executive Director of the Institute of Behavioral Science and Technology at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. His research examines how artificial intelligence and emerging technologies shape consumer judgment, decision-making, and consumer-firm relationships. His current work focuses on consumer-AI interaction, conversational and agentic AI, and the development of behavioural analytics tools.
His research has appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Information Systems Research, Management Science, IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, and the Journal of Social Robotics, among others. He previously held faculty positions at the University of Geneva and visiting appointments at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and ESADE. He serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and the Journal of Retailing.

Teaching Areas

AI for Business
Marketing Analytics and Behavioural Insights
Consumer Behaviour and Consumer Experience Management

Research Interests

Consumer-AI Interaction
Conversational AI and Speech Analytics
Autonomous and Agentic AI
Human-robot Interaction
Behavioral Analytics Tools and Open Science
Consumer Finance and Robo-advisory

Publications & Working Papers

Hildebrand, C., Hoffman, D., and Novak, T. (2026), “Your Request is My Command! How Conversational Styles Shape Consumer Experiences with Voice-Enabled Technologies,” Journal of Consumer Research, conditionally accepted.
Hildebrand, C., Cascio Rizzo, L., and Berger, J. (2026), “The Machine Between Us: How AI shapes the Way We Speak,” Current Opinion in Psychology, forthcoming.
Roggenkamp, H., Boegershausen, J., and Hildebrand, C. (2026), “DICE: Advancing Social Media Research Through Digital-In-Context-Experiments,” Journal of Marketing.
Hampton, W., and Hildebrand, C. (2026), “Haptic Rewards: How Mobile Vibrations Shape Reward Response and Consumer Choice,” Journal of Consumer Research.
Zehnle, M., Hildebrand, C., and Valenzuela, A. (2025), “Not All AI Is Created Equal: A Meta-Analysis Revealing Drivers of AI Resistance Across Markets, Methods, and Time,” International Journal of Research in Marketing.
Winder, P., Hildebrand, C., and Hartmann, J. (2025), “Biased Echoes: Generative AI Models Reinforce Investment Biases and Increase Portfolio Risks of Private Investors,” PLOS ONE.
Hostettler, D., Mayer, S., Albert, J. L., Jenss, K. E., and Hildebrand, C. (2025), “Real-Time Adaptive Industrial Robots: Improving Safety and Comfort in Human-Robot Collaboration,” ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, forthcoming.
Hildebrand, C., and Valenzuela, A. (2025), “AI-Mediated Consumer-Firm Interactions: A Framework and Policy Implications for Increasingly Automated Marketplaces,” Handbook of Marketing and Public Policy, M. Scott, K. Martin, and M. Mende, eds., forthcoming.
Hildebrand, C. (2025), “Consumer AI Interactions,” in Oxford Bibliographies in Marketing, S. Sridhar, ed., forthcoming.
Hildebrand, C., and Bergner, A. (2025), “From Tasks to Partnerships: A Typology of Consumer-Bot Experiences,” Handbook of Social Psychology and Consumer Behaviour, K. Quinn and E. Spangenberg, eds., forthcoming.
Valenzuela, A., Puntoni, S., Hoffman, D., Castelo, N., De Freitas, J., Dietvorst, B., Hildebrand, C., Huh, Y. E., Meyer, R., Sweeney, M., Talaifar, S., Tomaino, G., and Wertenbroch, K. (2024), “How Artificial Intelligence Constrains the Human Experience,” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 9(3), 241-256.
Efthymiou, F., and Hildebrand, C. (2024), “Empathy by Design: The Influence of Trembling AI Voices on Prosocial Behavior,” IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, 15(3), 1253-1263.
Fišar, M., Greiner, B., Huber, C., Katok, E., Ozkes, A. I., and the Management Science Reproducibility Collaboration (2024), “Reproducibility in Management Science,” Management Science, 70(3), 1343-1356. (Member of the Reproducibility Collaboration Project.)
Boegershausen, J., Castelo, N., Hildebrand, C., and Henkel, A. (2023), “Creating Customer Service Bots That People Don’t Hate,” Harvard Business Review, October, 1-5.
Hartmann, J., Bergner, A., and Hildebrand, C. (2023), “MindMiner: Uncovering Linguistic Markers of Mind Perception as a New Lens to Understand Consumer-Smart Object Relationships,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 33(4), 645-667.
Efthymiou, F., Hildebrand, C., de Bellis, E., and Hampton, W. (2023), “The Power of AI-Generated Voices: How Digital Vocal Tract Length Shapes Product Congruency and Ad Performance,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 59(2), 117-134.
Castelo, N., Boegershausen, J., Hildebrand, C., and Henkel, A. (2023), “Understanding and Improving Consumer Reactions to Service Bots,” Journal of Consumer Research, 50(4), 848-863.
Bergner, A., Hildebrand, C., and Häubl, G. (2023), “Machine Talk: How Verbal Embodiment in Conversational AI Shapes Consumer-Brand Relationships,” Journal of Consumer Research, 50(4), 742-764.
Gloor, J., Van Quaquebeke, N., Seong, M., Schmid, P., and Hildebrand, C. (2023), “Friend or Fiend? Disentangling Upward Humor’s (De)Stabilizing Effects on Hierarchies,” Current Opinion in Psychology, 53, 1-6.
Busquet, F., Efthymiou, F., and Hildebrand, C. (2023), “Voice Analytics in the Wild: Validity and Predictive Accuracy of Common Audio-Recording Devices,” Behavior Research Methods, 56, 2114-2134.
Hostettler, D., Mayer, S., and Hildebrand, C. (2022), “Human-Like Movements of Industrial Robots Positively Impact Observer Perception,” International Journal of Social Robotics, 15, 1399-1417.
Zierau, N., Hildebrand, C., Bergner, A., Busquet, F., Schmitt, A., and Leimeister, M. (2022), “Voice Bots on the Frontline: Voice-Based Interfaces Enhance Flow-Like Consumer Experiences and Boost Service Outcomes,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 51, 823-842.
Hildebrand, C., and Bergner, A. (2021), “Conversational Robo Advisors as Surrogates of Trust: Onboarding Experience, Firm Perception, and Consumer Financial Decision Making,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49, 659-676.
Cacault, P., Hildebrand, C., Lucchetti, J., and Pellizzari, M. (2021), “Distance Learning in Higher Education: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment,” Journal of the European Economic Association, 19(4), 2322-2372.
Walter, M., Hildebrand, C., Häubl, G., and Herrmann, A. (2020), “Mixing It Up: Disfluent Product Display Formats Promote the Choice of Unfamiliar Products,” Journal of Marketing Research, 57(3), 509-526.
Hildebrand, C., Efthymiou, F., Busquet, F., Hampton, W., Hoffman, D., and Novak, T. (2020), “Voice Analytics in Business Research: Conceptual Foundations, Acoustic Feature Extraction, and Applications,” Journal of Business Research, 121, 364-374.
Melumad, S., Hadi, R., Hildebrand, C., and Ward, A. (2020), “Technology-Augmented Choice: How Digital Innovations Are Transforming Consumer Decision Processes,” Customer Needs and Solutions, 1-12.
De Bellis, E., Hildebrand, C., Ito, K., Schmitt, B., and Herrmann, A. (2019), “Personalizing the Customization Experience: A Matching Theory of Mass Customization Interfaces and Culture-Specific Information Processing,” Journal of Marketing Research, 56(6), 1050-1065.
Hildebrand, C. (2019), “The Machine Age of Marketing: How Artificial Intelligence Changes the Way People Think, Act, and Decide,” Marketing Intelligence Review, 11(2), 10-17.
Hildebrand, C., and Bergner, A. (2019), “AI-Driven Sales Automation: Using Chatbots to Boost Sales,” Marketing Intelligence Review, 11(2), 36-41.
Hildebrand, C., and Schlager, T. (2019), “Focusing on Others Before You Shop: Exposure to Facebook Promotes Conventional Product Configurations,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(2), 291-307.
Rudd, M., Hildebrand, C., and Vohs, K. D. (2018), “Inspired to Create: Awe Enhances Openness to Learning and the Desire for Experiential Creation,” Journal of Marketing Research, 55(5), 766-781.
Schlager, T., Hildebrand, C., Häubl, G., Herrmann, A., and Franke, N. (2018), “Social Customization Systems: Peer Input, Conformity, and Consumers’ Evaluation of Customized Products,” Journal of Management Information Systems, 35(1), 319-349.
Lieven, T., and Hildebrand, C. (2016), “The Impact of Brand Gender on Brand Equity: Findings from a Large-Scale Cross-Cultural Study in Ten Countries,” International Marketing Review, 33(2), 178-195.
De Bellis, E., Hildebrand, C., Ito, K., and Herrmann, A. (2015), “Cross-National Differences in Uncertainty Avoidance Predict the Effectiveness of Mass Customization Across East Asia: A Large-Scale Field Investigation,” Marketing Letters, 26(3), 309-320.
Hildebrand, C., Häubl, G., and Herrmann, A. (2014), “Product Customization via Starting Solutions,” Journal of Marketing Research, 51(6), 707-725.
Hildebrand, C., Häubl, G., Herrmann, A., and Landwehr, J. R. (2013), “Conformity and the Crowd,” Harvard Business Review, July-August, 23.
Hildebrand, C., Häubl, G., Herrmann, A., and Landwehr, J. R. (2013), “When Social Media Can Be Bad for You: Community Feedback Stifles Consumer Creativity and Reduces Satisfaction with Self-Designed Products,” Information Systems Research, 24(1), 14-29.

Grants

“The Conversational Consumer: Mapping Voice Interaction Patterns Across Contexts and Time to Enhance AI-Mediated Consumer Touchpoints,” Swiss National Science Foundation, approximately CHF 358,000 (Principal Investigator)
“Towards Inclusive AI: Leveraging Conversational AI to Reduce Risk Exposure of Marginalized Consumers and Elevate Consumer Financial Well-Being,” Swiss National Science Foundation, approximately CHF 306,000 (Principal Investigator)
“Leveraging Passive Mobile Sensing to Foster Corporate Well-Being,” Innosuisse, approximately CHF 330,000 (with W. Hampton)

Awards & Honours

Finalist, Best Paper Award, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2026
Wiley Top Cited Article recognition for “MindMiner,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2025
Honorable Mention, Best Paper Award, ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2025
Honorable Mention, Best Paper Award, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 2025
Ferber Award finalist, Association for Consumer Research, 2024
Two Journal of Consumer Research Top Ten Most Viewed Articles, 2024-2026
Federal Award for Outstanding Research in Educational Sciences, 2023
Top Researchers Under 40 and DACH Top 100, WirtschaftsWoche, 2020 and 2022

Academic/Professional Services

Member, Editorial Review Board, Journal of Consumer Research, 2021–Present
Member, Editorial Review Board, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2021–Present
Member, Editorial Review Board, Journal of Retailing, 2026–Present
AMA Sheth Doctoral Consortium, Faculty Member
Junior Faculty & Early Career Mentoring Advisor, Association for Consumer Research
Jury Member, MSI Alden G. Clayton Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Competition, Marketing Science Institute
Board Member, Center for Space and Aviation Switzerland & Liechtenstein
Vice Dean, School of Management, University of St. Gallen, 2023-2025
Program Head, PhD in Marketing, School of Management, University of St. Gallen, 2020-2023