Rebecca Ratner is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and the Dean's Professor of Marketing at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. She received a Ph.D. in social psychology from Princeton University in 1999, was a visiting scholar at the Wharton School in 1996 – 1997 and a visiting scholar at the Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business in 2004. Prior to her position at Maryland, she was assistant professor and associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ratner has taught courses on marketing management, marketing research, and consumer behavior to MBA students, undergraduate students, and executives.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – New findings from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business indicate that consumers make more hedonic choices when their preferences are visible to others, so that they can promote the image that they are having fun — whether or not they really are.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Getting ready to hit the road or fly off somewhere for Thanksgiving? Maryland Smith faculty share their best travel hacks, from traveling early to the best ways to tolerate traffic, to make your holidays easier.
Women Leading Research: Rebecca Ratner
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Amazon and Walmart both have plans to let unattended delivery people into your home to drop off parcels or restock your fridge.
Does food actually taste worse when we're dining alone? A recent study from researchers at Japan's Nagoya University suggests solitude negatively affects our enjoyment of food, but finds we can counter the effect by positioning a mirror or a photo of ourselves where we can see it. The Smith School's Rebecca Ratnersays the research demonstrates the power of solitude. Read more...
Companies Win When They Cater to Solo Consumers
Many people feel embarrassed about doing fun activities alone, such as dining out or going to a movie. Yet sociologists report that people today have fewer friends than in the past. New research from Rebecca Ratner at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business explores strategies for marketing to solo consumers.
If you want to meet new people, leave your “wingman” at home and go out alone. People will think you are more open-minded, curious and interested in the world and be more likely to strike up a conversation with you. That’s the finding of new research from Smith School professor Rebecca Ratner and a Smith marketing PhD student. Read more...
Why do we want the things we can't have? In the toy market, especially in the holiday season, it's sometimes because demand just takes off like a flying reindeer, surprising Santa, and toy makers and everyone in between. We're referring, of course, to the Hatchimal, the small, furry, motorized creature that pecks its way out of its colorful plastic egg and sings "Happy Birthday." Store shelves and online retail sites have been widely cleared of the little coveted creatures, leaving parents scrambling. Read more...
What is critical thinking? We hear it all the time – in the classroom, in the workplace, in interviews, in professional circles, but do we really know what it is, and more importantly, why it matters?
Smith School marketing professor Rebecca Ratner reached millions of news consumers with her study on the upsides of solo consumerism. Overall, Ratner’s research generated more than 100 media placements, earning her the inaugural Research Communicator Impact Award from the University of Maryland's Division of Research.
