Univ.-Prof. Dr. Nicola Stokburger-Sauer
Nicola Stokburger-Sauer received her doctoral degree from the University of Mannheim in Germany in 2003, where she also worked as an assistant professor from 2003 to 2008. Since 2009, she is Professor of Service Management at The Faculty of Business and Management, University of Innsbruck, Austria. Dr. Stokburger-Sauer’s research focuses on consumer behavior, marketing aesthetics, emotions, marketing communication, services and tourism marketing.
Dr. Stokburger-Sauer has published in international peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, Tourism Management, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, and Marketing Letters. She has won several best paper awards for her research, such as the renowned Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp Award for Long-Term Impact for the paper “Drivers of Consumer-Brand Identification” in International Journal of Research in Marketing (2012). She is an associate editor of the Journal of Business Research and part of the editorial review board of Psychology & Marketing.
Research focus
- Visual Aesthetics in Marketing and Consumer Decision Making
- Advice Seeking Processes in Customer-Employee-Relationships
- Emotions in Consumer Behavior
- Services- and Experiential Marketing
- Branding- and Marketing Communication
- Brand- and Online Communities
Publications (selection)
Reitsamer, Bernd F., Nicola E. Stokburger-Sauer, Johann Giertz, and Janina S. Nocker (2026), Marketer-Generated Content in Digital Social Touchpoints – A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda, Journal of Business Research, 205, 115883.
Stokburger-Sauer, Nicola E., Verena Hofmann, and Lisa Schoner-Schatz (2024), Smiling or Sad Faces in Charity Display Advertising? A Visual-Verbal Congruency Approach Considering the Role of Targeting, International Journal of Advertising, 1–22.
Reitsamer, Bernd F., Nicola E. Stokburger-Sauer, and Janina S. Kuhnle (2024), How and When Effective Customer Journeys Drive Brand Loyalty: The Role of Consumer-Brand Identification, Journal of Service Management, 35 (6), 109-135.
Hofmann, Verena, Nicola E. Stokburger‐Sauer, and Martin Wetzels (2024), The Role of a Smile in Customer-Employee Interactions: Primitive Emotional Contagion and its Boundary Conditions, Psychology & Marketing, 1–16.
Scholl-Grissemann, Ursula, Nicola E. Stokburger-Sauer and Karin Teichmann (2022), The Importance of Perceived Fairness in Product Customization Settings, The Service Industries Journal, 42(11–12), 823–842.
Koschate-Fischer, Nicole, Wayne D. Hoyer, Nicola E. Stokburger-Sauer and Jan Engling (2018), Do Life Events Always Lead to Brand Switching? The Mediating Role of Consumer Innovativeness, the Variety Seeking Tendency, and Price Consciousness, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 46 (May), 516-536.
Teaching in the summer semester 2026
- SE Quantitative research methods (PhD)
- VO & PS Strategy and Marketing (Bachelor)
- VU Marketingmanagement of Services (Bachelor)
- SE Specialization in International Business Administration: International Service Design and Innovation: Real-world Applications (Bachelor)
- SE Seminar with Bachelor's Thesis (Bachelor)
Project experience*
SOS Kinderdorf, Swarovski Professional, L’Image GmbH, Swarovski Architecture & Lighting, Edelweiß Bike Travel Reisegesellschaft m.b.H., Vorarlberger Kraftwerke AG, GE Jenbacher GmbH, Tirol Werbung GmbH, Merck KGaA, Reckitt Benckiser Deutschland GmbH, Roche Deutschland Holding GmbH, OTTO GmbH & Co. KG, Smart AG
*Corporate projects in a teaching context, practice-oriented case studies, and guest lecture series