dr. Michail Kokkoris

Associate Professor, School of Business and Economics, Marketing

Personal information

Michail Kokkoris is associate professor of marketing at Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam (Netherlands). Previously, he held teaching positions at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria) and University of Cologne (Germany). He has also been visiting scholar at Stanford University (USA) and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). In addition, he has industry experience in marketing and market research and has collaborated with multinational firms in the area of FMCGs, such as Unilever.

Michail holds a habilitation degree (the highest qualification in the German academic system) in economic and social psychology from the University of Cologne (Germany), and a doctoral degree (PhD) in psychology from Jacobs University Bremen (Germany), as well as a master’s degree (MSc) in organizational and economic psychology and a bachelor’s degree (BSc, Hons) in psychology, both from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Greece).

Research

Michail conducts behavioral research at the intersection of psychology and marketing. The primary focus of his research is on the interplay between decision making and identity. He is working on topics related to self-expression, self-control, authenticity, individual differences in decision making (maximizing/satisficing), beliefs and lay theories, meaning, and well-being.

Michail's research has been published in top journals in business and psychology, such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Harvard Business Review, and Journal of Business Research. His work has received several awards and distinctions, has been featured as Editor's Choice in Science, and has been extensively covered by international media outlets, such as Psychology Today and Forbes.

Michail's research has also attracted substantial third-party funding from numerous national and international sources, such as the European Commission (Horizon Europe), the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Austrian Brands Associations (MAV).

Michail is a member of the Editorial Review Board of Journal of Business Research and regularly serves as ad-hoc reviewer for various academic journals.

PhD supervision:

Current students

Pantelis Karavassilis
Sander Palm

Past students

Fabienne Krywuczky (graduated: 2025). Current job placement: Toulouse School of Management (Toulouse, France), Assistant Professor.
Seongun Jeon (graduated: 2024). Current job placement: Xi'an Jiatong-Liverpool University (Suzhou, China), Assistant Professor.

Teaching

Consumer Behavior (E_EBE3_CBEH)
Marketing II (E_EBE2_MRKT2)
Advanced Research Design (EQ_MKT_ARD)

Prizes and Awards

WU City of Vienna Best Paper Award 2020 in the category New Research Avenues for the paper “True to which self? Lay rationalism and decision satisfaction in self-control conflicts” published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Top Downloaded Paper 2018-19 in European Journal of Social Psychology for the paper “Choosing goals that express the true self: A novel mechanism of the effect of self‐control on goal attainment”
Top Downloaded Paper 2018-19 in Journal of Applied Social Psychology for the paper “Can you be yourself in business? How reminders of business affect the perceived value of authenticity”
Finalist Best Paper Award La Londe Conference 2017 (3^rd prize) for the paper “Losing self-control but finding myself: Authenticity and choice satisfaction in self-control conflicts”

Grants

Project leader and WP leader, research project "TealHelix", funded by the European Commission (Horizon Europe), 2024-2028
Research partner, research project "ReWise", funded by the Lithuanian Research Council, 2022-2025
Visiting Fellow Grant (Nanyang Technological University), WU Vienna, 2019
Research project "Brand authenticity" financed by the Austrian Brands Association (MAV), 2018-2019
Research Group Meeting Grant, WU Vienna, 2018
Independent Start-Up Grant, Center for Social and Economic Behavior (C-SEB), University of Cologne, 2015
Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences Scholarship, German Research Foundation (DFG) / Excellence Initiative, 2009-2012
Bodossakis Foundation Scholarship, 1997-2001

Ancillary activities

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