Manoj K. Thomas

Biography

Manoj Thomas is the Sabanci Professor of Management & Marketing and Associate Dean of NYC Initiatives. He oversees the Johnson Cornell Tech MBA program, Johnson’s Executive MBA programs, and spearheads new initiatives in New York City.

A behavioral scientist, Thomas studies how the interaction between human psychology and marketing actions shapes perceived economic value. His initial research focused on behavioral pricing, examining how cognitive heuristics influence price judgments and spending patterns. His research shows how the left-digit effect, paying by credit card, and quantity framing influence consumer perception of value, demonstrating that economic value is psychologically constructed. More recently, Thomas has explored the moral dimension of consumption, investigating how sociomoral values, ideologies, and political identities guide consumer behavior—from everyday purchases to broader social trends. These insights led to the development of customer value engineering, a framework that helps managers leverage behavioral science to create customer value.

Thomas trains MBAs and executives to be customer-centric leaders, and his lectures are available online through eCornell’s certificate program on Consumer Behavior. He has received the Apple Award and the Stephen Russell Family Teaching Award for excellence in teaching.

He is the co-author of Why People (Don’t) Buy: GO and STOP Signals and serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Consumer Research.

Selected Publications

• Thomas, Manoj; Ma, Yu; Gauri, Dinesh. "Food Craving Increases Unhealthy Food Purchases: A Study of SNAP Households"Journal of Marketing Research. 61.1 (2024): 49-69
• Thomas, Manoj. "Heuristic price theory: A model of pluralistic price evaluations"Consumer Psychology Review. 6.1 (2023): 75-91
• Monnier, Arnaud; Thomas, Manoj. "Experiential and Analytical Price Evaluations: How Experiential Product Description Affects Prices"Journal of Consumer Research. 49.4 (2022): 574-594
• Goenka, Shreyans; Thomas, Manoj. "Are Conservatives Less Likely Than Liberals to Accept Welfare? The Psychology of Welfare Politics"Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. 7.3 (2022): 305-315
• Kyung, Ellie; Thomas, Manoj; Krishna, Aradhna. "How Political Identity Influences COVID-19 Risk Perception: A Model of Identity-Based Risk Perception"Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. 7.3 (2022): 316-324
• Goenka, Shreyans; Thomas, Manoj. "The Malleable Morality of Conspicuous Consumption"Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 118.3 (2020): 562-583
• Sokolova, Tatiana; Seenivasan, Satheesh; Thomas, Manoj. "The Left-Digit Bias: When and Why Are Consumers Penny Wise and Pound Foolish"Journal of Marketing Research. 57.4 (2020): 771-788
• Santana, Shelle; Thomas, Manoj; Morwitz, Vicki. "The Role of Numbers in the Customer Journey"Journal of Retailing. 96.1 (2020): 138-154
• Thomas, Manoj; Kyung, Ellie. "Slider Scale or Text Box: How Response Format Shapes Responses"Journal of Consumer Research. 45.6 (2019): 1274-1293
• Chun, HaeEun Helen; Park, Joowon; Thomas, Manoj. "Cold Anticipated Regret versus Hot Experienced Regret: Why Consumers Fail to Regret Unhealthy Consumption"Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. 4.2 (2019): 125-135

Awards and Honors

• Outstanding Reviewer Award (2016) Journal of Consumer Research
• Stephen Russell Teaching Award (based on vote by students who graduated 5 years ago) (2016) Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University
• Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching (based on vote by graduating MBA class) (2010)

Recent Courses

• BANA 6260 - Consumer Behavior
• NCCB 5030 - Marketing

Academic Degrees

• PhD Stern School of Business, New York University, 2006
• MBA Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, 1994
• BEng National Institute of Technology, 1992