Jared Watson

Biography

Jared Watson joined New York University Stern School of Business as an Assistant Professor of Marketing in July 2018.

Professor Watson’s research investigates the context-dependent nature of how consumers use information, largely in the digital economy. One stream of research investigates how consumers use various elements of reviews (e.g., average product ratings, number of reviews, text of individual reviews, etc.) to form preferences. In another ongoing project, he investigates how suspicion of review veracity changes the information consumers pursue and the judgments they form. Beyond his work involving product reviews, Professor Watson also investigates the role social media plays in consumer behavior. To that end, he has projects investigating the determinants of who we choose to “follow” and why we choose to “unfollow”, the boundaries of social media influencer effectiveness, and how non-traditional advertising mediums (e.g., memes) can wield major influence in consumer decisions. His work has been presented at academic conferences worldwide and has been published in the Journal of Marketing.

Before joining NYU Stern, Jared completed his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland. Prior to entering academia, he was a sales district leader for Frito-Lay where he managed a team of 15 employees and over $10 million in annual revenue.

Research Interests

• Digital Economy
• Social Media
• Product Reviews
• Word of Mouth
• Information Diagnosticity
• Persuasion Knowledge

Courses Taught

• Consumer Behavior (Fashion & Luxury MBA)
• Consumer Behavior (Undergraduate)

Academic Background

Ph.D., Marketing
Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

B.A., Business Administration (Focus: Marketing)
Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington