Lucia Reisch

Presentation

Since 2006, I am a professor for consumer behaviour and consumer policy at Copenhagen Business School, Department of Intercultural Communication and Management. Since 2011, I also hold a permanent Guest Professorship at the Zeppelin University of Friedrichshafen (Germany) and, as of August 1st 2017, an appointment as honorary Leibniz Chair, jointly awarded by the German Leibniz Association and the Leibniz Institute of Prevention Research and Epidemiology (BIPS). An economist and social scientist by training, I hold a doctorate degree in economics from University of Hohenheim / Stuttgart (Germany).

My main research focus is on behavioural economics, sustainable consumption (in particular; energy, food and health, fashion), intercultural consumer behaviour, consumers and new technologies, consumer policy, and corporate sustainability. I am currently involved in several EU research projects on consumer behaviour and policy (FP7) as well as in German and Swedish research projects. In January 2014, I started three new FP7 EU Projects on sustainable consumption and policy.

For more than a decade, I have been engaged in policy consultancy, e.g. as a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development and the Ethics Commission for Safe Energy Supply, both advising the German Chancellery. I am also a member of the Bioeconomy Council and as of 2015, the new Advisory Council on Consumer Policy in Germany (Sachverständigenrat Verbraucher), both consulting the German federal government. In 2012, I was elected to become one of the 400 lifelong members of Germany''s Academy of Technical Sciences.

I am also Editor in Chief of the Journal of Consumer Policy(Springer Publ).

Click here to view a short version of my CV.

Click here for an overview of my current and past research projects.

My current projects

I.Family
In the year 2000 nutrition-related diseases caused a combined loss of healthy years of well over 56 million; and that is in Europe alone. The problem of is clear, there is something amiss with the daily diet behavior and food choices of European citizens everywhere. It is with this problem in mind that I.Family project (a follow-up to the IDEFICS project) seeks to compare families who developed or maintained a healthy diet with those whose diet developed in an unfavourable direction. In so doing allowing for a comparative study focused on the impact of biological, behavioural, social and environmental factors on dietary behaviour over time.

 > I.Family website

EU-InnovatE
With the overall goal of uncovering the obstacles and prospects that exist in Europe for a sustainable green economy the EU-InnovatE project strives to uncover the underlying factors, challenges and opportunities linked with the transition towards a sustainable society from an economic, social and environmental point of view. Co-financed by the European Union the project endeavors to tackle this area of concern by focusing on how user-centred and user-driven Integration, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship can positively influence our transition towards a greener economy. Not only because user-driven change remains an area of largely untapped potential, but also because it at the moment remains a mostly unexplored research area.

> EU-Innovate website

Global Value
The Global Value project aims to develop a comprehensive and innovative framework for assessing the impact that Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have on issues like sustainable development, human rights, transparency and anti-corruption. The project will shed light on institutional arrangements; analyse systems of governance for responsible business practices; explore responsible competitiveness; assess the complementarity of public and private sector activities; and derive recommendations for decision makers in business, policy and NGOs.

> Global Value website

Nudge It
The prevalence of overweight and obesity across Europe has increased dramatically in the last thirty years, particularly among children. The full consequences of this epidemic have yet to unfold, with an expected increase in a range of both physical ailments and mental health conditions including anxiety and depression. These are accompanied by huge social, health service and economic costs: they affect individuals in the midst of their working lives, impoverishing families through time lost at work and impaired employment prospects. Stress, compounded by social stigma and prejudice in workplace, educational and health care contexts, adds to the pressures on families and employment, and can enhance the vicious cycle of weight‐gain through “comfort eating". In order to help tackle this issues the Nudge-It project aims to better understand decision-making in food choice and to build predictive models to contribute to improving public health policy.

> Nudge-It website

Primary research areas

• Consumer research
• Consumer policy
• Sustainable consumption
• Public health and consumers
• Behavioural economics

Supervision

I am currently supervising PhDs from CBS (DK), St. Gallen (CH), the European University in Budapest (HUN), and Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen. All PhDs are closely linked to ongoing or former research projects.