Assistant Professor Andrea Bonezzi recently joined the Marketing group at the D'Amore-McKim School of Business. He joins Northeastern University from the Stern School of Business at New York University where he was an assistant professor of marketing.
Bonezzi's research explores consumer judgment and decision-making. His work spans several disciplinary boundaries, connecting notions from psychology to artificial intelligence, healthcare, and network theory. His research examines what motivates social transmission of information, how incentive and reward systems influence consumers, and how artificial intelligence shapes consumer behavior.
His most recent research focuses on consumers' receptivity to medical AI (i.e., artificial intelligence for medical decision-making).
“Artificial intelligence is posed to revolutionize healthcare, based on the promise that it can outperform physicians and deliver cost-effective care at scale,” says Bonezzi. “Yet, consumers' receptivity to medical AI is poorly understood.”
Bonezzi's research shows that consumers exhibit reluctance toward medical AI, because of a mismatch between two beliefs that are often erroneous, yet deeply rooted in human psychology. On one hand, people perceive themselves as more unique and different from others than they really are. On the other hand, they perceive machines as able to operate only in a standardized and rote manner that treats every individual in the same way. These two dissonant beliefs evoke a concern that AI providers are unable to take into account the unique facets of one's case to the same extent that a human provider can.
“Northeastern is investing seriously in interdisciplinary research, and that's highly attractive to me,” says Bonezzi. “My teaching is also centered around practical knowledge, so Northeastern's focus on applied learning—especially its renowned co-op program—resonates with me.”
Professor Bonezzi's research has been published in leading marketing and psychology journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Psychological Science, and Journal of Consumer Psychology.
In recognition of his academic work, Bonezzi was named a Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar in 2017, a recognition bestowed on some of the most promising scholars who are considered to be the leaders of the next generation of marketing academics. In 2017, Bonezzi also received the Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Journal of Consumer Research.
His research has also received national and international media coverage in outlets including CNBC, Forbes, Timemagazine, Huffington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Science Daily, Business Insider, New York magazine, Psychology Today, and Milano Finanza.
Originally from Italy, Bonezzi received his B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Parma and a Master of Business Administration and Management from Bocconi University. He has a Ph.D. in Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.