Prof. Dr. Leif Brandes

Ordentlicher Professor für Marketing

Dr. oec. publ.

T +41 41 229 58 90
leif.brandes@unilu.ch

Frohburgstrasse 3, Raum 4.B38

CV

Leif Brandes is Professor of Marketing at the Faculty of Economics and Management at the University of Lucerne. Prior to joining the University of Lucerne, he was first an Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Science at Warwick Business School, the University of Warwick (UK). Prior to that, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Yale School of Management, Yale University (US). He holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Zurich, and a Master of Mathematical Finance from the University of Konstanz (Germany).

His current reseearch interests relate to (1) consumer search on digital platforms, (2)  online word of mouth,  (3) the impact of new technologies (AR/VR, Blockchain, AI) on consumer behavior and firms' marketing strategies, and (4) innovative sales techniques (integration of AI, voluntary information disclosure). To address these topics he adopts a quantitative research approach, frequently involving a combination of field experiments, observational data, and laboratory/ online experiments. In his research, he uses data from different contexts,  including international mobility (travel), bricks-and-mortar retailing, and entertainment products, and often augments them with other available data.  

Leif Brandes' research has been published in top-tier academic journals, including Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Management Science, and International Journal of Research in Marketing. His research has been featured, among others, by BBC Radio (UK), Harvard Business Manager (DE), The Independent (UK), Ivey Business Journal (CAN), Wall Street Journal (US), the Washington Post (US), and Neue Zürcher Zeitung (CH).

He teaches courses related to Marketing Management, Business Strategy, Marketing Analytics (using Python). and Artificial Intelligence. He is also the initiator of the ‘Marketing Challenge Series', an innovative teaching format that requires students to solve real-world marketing problems. In this series, he has collaborated with firms such as Advitos, B.Braun, Eichhof, Gübelin, L’Oréal, and Sonect. 

Leif Brandes also actively engages in knowledge transfer to practice: he has written for practitioner-oriented journals, such as Harvard Business Review, and Marketing Review St. Gallen, and is co-director and lecturer for the CAS "AI-Mangement for Business Value" (in cooperation with HSLU). He currently serves as Director of the Institute for Marketing and Analytics at the University of Lucerne. 

Curriculum Vitae Leif Brandes (Englisch, PDF)
 

Selected Publications

Brandes, L. & Dölp, K. (2025). Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as Digital Brand Extensions: Evidence on Financial Performance and Parent-Brand Spillovers. International Journal of Research in Marketing (ABS: 4/VHB: A). Forthcoming.

Hofstetter, R., de Bellis, E., Brandes, L., Clegg, M., Lamberton, C., Reibstein, D., Rohlfsen, F., Schmitt, B.H., & Zhang, Z. J. (2022). Crypto-Marketing: How Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) Challenge Traditional Marketing. Marketing Letters, 33, 705 - 711. (ABS: 3/VHB: B). 

Brandes, Leif and Yaniv Dover (2022). Offline Context Affects Online Reviews: The Effect of Post Consumption Weather. Journal of Consumer Research, 49(4), 595–615. (ABS: 4*/ VHB: A+). 

Brandes, Leif; Godes, David and Dina Mayzlin (2022). Extremity Bias in Online Reviews: The Role of Attrition. Journal of Marketing Research, 59(4), 675-695. (ABS: 4*/ VHB: A+)

Brandes, Leif and Donja Darai (2017). The Value and Motivating Mechanism of Transparency in Organizations. European Economic Review, 98, 189 – 198. (ABS: 3/ VHB: not rated)

Brandes, L., Nüesch, S., & Franck, E. (2016). Death-related publicity as informational advertising: evidence from the music industry. Marketing Letters, 27(1), 143-157. (ABS: 3/VHB: B)

Bartling, Björn; Brandes, Leif and Daniel Schunk (2015). Expectations as Reference Points: Field Evidence from Professional Soccer. Management Science, 61, 2646 – 2661. (ABS: 4*/ VHB: A+)