Pieter Verhallen

Pieter is a doctoral candidate in Marketing at Maastricht University's Graduate School of Business & Economics in the Netherlands. He holds a Master of Science degree in International Business: Entrepreneurship and SME Management from the same university, and an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Life Sciences from the liberal arts University College Maastricht.

Pieter's research, in collaboration with Dr. Elisabeth Brüggen, Dr. Thomas Post, and Prof. Dr. Gaby Odekerken-Schröder, disentangles the precise components of social norms and peer information driving conformity in consumer decision-making within the financial domain. Knowing which drivers are effective, and for whom, allows for tailored communication to promote optimal financial planning and decision-making.

One of Pieter's research projects focusses on leveraging individuals’ susceptibility to normative and informational influence through social identification and source credibility. By identifying the specific attributes of peer groups that amplify these channels, more individuals can be activated to make better informed financial decisions. Sawtooth Software's Choice-Based Conjoint package allows for identifying these specific attributes to support the theoretical model.