Behavior Change Management

Course Objective

The purpose of this course is a) to cover some of the main behavioral theories and principles that lead to sub-optimal decisions and b) develop skills to test and implement behavioral interventions to create meaningful behavior change that can increase well-being. Students will reach this goal by gaining theoretical knowledge in the lectures and putting this into practice with a real-life marketing case.

By the end of this course, you will learn how to apply fundamental principles and theories of judgment and decision‐making to create impactful behavioral change. You will be able to identify behavioral challenges and opportunities in various settings including marketing, public policy, health services, finance, and environmental sustainability. As a result, you will have gained the following skills:

• Academic Skills: You will be able to read, understand, and interpret academic literature. You will also learn how to empirically test ideas with experimental research.
• Knowledge: You will understand the practical value of the concepts, theories and models in various domains of decision making.
• Analytical Skills: You will learn to analyze business and public policy problems from a behavioral perspective.
• Bridging Theory and Practice: You will learn to apply behavioral solutions to business and public policy problems.
• Communication Skills: You will learn to work well with others in a team and communicate your ideas convincingly to different audiences.

Course Content

This course examines how to use consumer judgment and decision-making theory to influence individuals to make better decisions and improve the well-being of themselves and others. The course will start with a deep-dive into fundamental theories of decision making (e.g., dual-process theories, heuristics and biases, prospect theory, etc.). We will then focus on specialized topics across the lectures including choice freedom, information seeking, happiness, financial decision making, medical decision making, among many others. Throughout the lectures, you will learn to reflect on different practical ways of using this theoretical knowledge to change human behavior. Specifically, you will gain hands-on experience in designing marketing interventions to tackle the urgent issues of the society including climate change, social inequality, corruption, or health emergencies.

Additional Information Teaching Methods

This class will have two main components:

1. Lectures: Each week, you will have two lectures covering different topics on consumer judgment and decision-making theory. In some of the lectures, we will have guest speakers from the industry.
2. Tutorials: Each week, you will have one tutorial where you will work on a real-life case collaborating with a company or policy institution. This will give you an opportunity to apply the theoretical knowledge to improve the well-being of the society.

Method of Assessment

Written examination (individual): 70%;
Assignments (group): 30%;
Each to be completed with a minimum score of 5.0.

In order to pass this course, you need a minimum overall course grade of 5.50.

Literature

You will read academic articles, book chapters, managerial articles and/or case studies.

Explanation Canvas

All materials and relevant information will be shared on Canvas.

Recommended background knowledge

The most useful quality that will make this course enjoyable—and also students successful—is an innate curiosity to understand human behavior and creative thinking to tackle societal problems.