Chris Janiszewski, Ph.D.

Russell Berrie Eminent Scholar in Marketing

Warrington College of Business

2018 Awardee

Chris Janiszewski’s research interests center on why different things mean more to some people than others – better known as the concept of subjective value.

“I seek to understand how subjective value is created, calculated, represented and predicted,” Janiszewski said.

Understanding why people have different preferences can help businesses gain insight into consumer product choices, brand preferences, price sensitivity and consumption behavior.

Most recently, Janiszewski applied this concept to the food industry and its marketing strategy that promises to make food taste good – long after satiation is reached.

“Generally, the literature indicates that the hedonic appreciation of food, or the appreciation, declines with each additional bite,” Janiszewski said. “This is called adaptation.”

“Our study demonstrates that hedonic escalation (i.e., an increase in the appreciation for each added bite of food) occurs for a minority of people, meaning that it is obscured by the majority of people who tend to exhibit adaptation.”

The study also found that hedonic escalation is a function of an individual’s capacity to identify and appreciate other flavors across tests. The greater the opportunity for an individual to enjoy a variety of palatable flavors, the greater his/her opportunity to experience hedonic escalation.

In a 2008-2017 productivity report by the American Association of Marketing, Janiszewski ranked third among business and marketing researchers with 22 publications in premier marketing journals, such as the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, and Marketing Science.

Currently, he serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research. In the past five years, Janiszewski has also acted as an associate editor at the Journal of Marketing Science (2014-2015) and the Journal of Consumer Research (2014 – present). Additionally, he has also been an associate editor at the Journal of Marketing Research (2006-2009, 2010-2012, respectively).

Since 2009, Janiszewski has acted as the head of the Warrington College of Business’s doctoral program. During his time at UF, he has been a part of more than 50 graduate student committees. As of 2013, he has sat on more than 20 PhD committees and chaired or co-chaired four dissertations at both the University of Florida and other institutions.