Erica van Herpen is Associate Professor in the Marketing and Consumer Behavior Group.

General reaserch topic: Consumer evaluation, use of, and choice from (food) product assortments

Current research: Current studies examine consumer decisions, mainly in retail settings, to answer questions such as: How do cues such as product popularity influence consumer choice from product assortments? What type of expectations do consumers form based on the layout of a store? How do household practices regarding the food assortment at home influence food waste?

Topics center on:

1. general store context (store layout, social influence)
2. on-shelf product presentation (shelf organization, product packaging, health claims)
3. consumers' use of the assortment of food products at home, and resulting food waste
4. the use of novel research tools such as virtual reality.

The above presentation about household food waste was given during the bioeconomy policy day of the European Commission. More information on the bioeconomy policy day can be found here.

A podcast on the same topic (in Dutch), made on the occasion of the NVRD Jaarcongres 2019, can be found here

Personal website: http://ericavanherpen.wix.com/ericavanherpen#

A main ongoing research project is the EU-funded project REFRESH, regarding food waste. More information on this project, as well as research projects that have recently been completed, can be found below.

REFRESH ('Resource Efficient Food and dRink for the Entire Supply cHain'): a project funded by EU Horizon 2020, started in 2015. REFRESH focuses on the reduction of avoidable food waste, and involves 26 partners from 12 European countries and China. More info on: http://eu-refresh.org/

NUDGIS ('Novel Understanding of Designs for Good Intervention Strategies in the food environment', 2015-2018): a research program examining the effectiveness of nudges, to gently suggest healthier food choices. The program entails four projects, and I am involved in the project on the role of social context. More info on: http://www.nwo.nl/en/research-and-results/research-projects/62/2300181562.html

DONRO ('Developer of Nudges for Retail and Out-of-Home', 2013-2015) is a topsector project that has investigated nudges related to retail atmospherics (light, music, scent). More info (in Dutch) on: http://www.wageningenur.nl/nl/project/DONROtechnologie-voor-succesvol-nudgen-1.htm

FOCOM (2012-2014) is a consortium of companies and research institutions which has developed test systems, to get a better understanding of perception, choice, and eating behaviour. One of the systems that has been developed is a virtual choice environment.

• ECH-31306 - Consumer Decision Making
• MCB-10806 - Social Psychology
• MCB-30806 - Sensory Perception and Consumer Preference