Utpal M. Dholakia
Utpal Dholakia is a management researcher. On his 2006 paper in the Journal of Marketing Research he is listed as Assistant Professor of Management at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, Rice University. The paper applied self-determination theory to customer relationships in the field.
Who they are
Dholakia studies consumer behaviour and marketing. The 2006 paper is the work this site draws on.
This page records only what the papers and their published records state. Biography beyond the cited work is not given here.
Key papers
How customer self-determination influences relational marketing outcomes: evidence from longitudinal field studies (2006). Dholakia separated customers who had joined a firm on their own initiative from those the firm had induced to join. The self-determined customers showed more of the relationship behaviour firms want and reported more motivation to buy. A reminder coupon that customers saw as controlling had negative effects on them, while automatic enrolment in a rewards programme, which they read as recognition, had positive effects. Customers who had been induced to join were less influenced by either.
Key ideas
The central idea is that the same marketing action lands differently depending on how a customer came to the firm. Customers who chose freely respond badly to being steered and well to being recognised. That is the autonomy need from self-determination theory, seen in purchase data rather than in a laboratory.
Sources
- Dholakia, U. M. (2006). How customer self-determination influences relational marketing outcomes: evidence from longitudinal field studies. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(1), 109-120. doi:10.1509/jmkr.43.1.109