Jennifer Aaker


Jennifer Aaker is an American behavioural scientist and General Atlantic Professor and Coulter Family Fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is known for her research on time, money, and happiness. Aaker also focuses on the transmission of ideas through social networks, the power of story in decision making, and how to build global brands across cultures. She is the recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from the Society for Consumer Psychology and the Stanford Distinguished Teaching Award.
WWW gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-...

Early life and education

Aaker was born in Palo Alto, California to Kay Aaker and David Aaker, a professor and brand consultant. Aaker attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied under social psychologist Philip E. Tetlock and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 1989. In 1990, Aaker began postgraduate work at Stanford Graduate School of Business, earning a PhD in marketing with a minor in psychology in 1995. Her dissertation on brand personality led to the publication of academic papers in Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Consumer Research.

Career

Aaker began her academic career in 1995 as an assistant professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. In 1999, she returned to the Stanford Graduate School of Business as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 2001, and earned a full professorship in 2004. In 2005, Aaker was named General Atlantic Professor and Coulter Family Fellow, Stanford GSB. Her work has been published in scholarly journals in psychology and marketing and has been highlighted in The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, BusinessWeek, Forbes, NPR, CBS MoneyWatch, Inc., and Science. She serves as an advisory board member for several private and public companies.
In 2010, Aaker and her husband, startup advisor Andy Smith, wrote The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change.
In a real world demonstration of the Dragonfly Effect, Aaker and her students founded 100K Cheeks, an organization dedicated to registering 100,000 South Asian donors in the National Bone Marrow Registry. In addition to using social networks, Aaker ran the first ever cheek swab in India. As a result of these efforts, 100K Cheeks exceeded their goal by registering more than 115,000 potential donors.
In 2021, Aaker published Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is A Secret Weapon in Business and Life with co-author Naomi Bagdonas.

Books

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Selected publications

  • How Happiness Impacts Choice, Mogilner, Aaker and Kamvar, JCR
  • Awe Expands People's Perception of Time and Enhances Well-Being, Rudd, Vohs, and Aaker, Psychological Science.
  • If Money Doesn't Make You Happy, Consider Time, Aaker, Rudd, and Mogilner, JCP
  • The Shifting Meaning of Happiness Mogilner, Kamvar and Aaker, SPPS
  • Non-Profits Are Seen as Warm and For-Profits as Competent, Aaker, Vohs and Mogilner, JCR
  • The Time versus Money Effect, Mogilner and Aaker, JCR
  • The Happiness of Giving: The Time-Ask Effect, Liu and Aaker, JCR
  • When Good Brands Do Bad, Aaker, Fournier, and Brasel, JCR
  • Can Mixed Emotions Peacefully Co-Exist?, Williams and Aaker, JCR
  • Consumption Symbols as Carriers of Culture, Aaker, Benet-Martínez, and Garolera, JPSP
  • Dimensions of Brand Personality, Aaker, JMR