Dr Victoria Wells (nee James), BCom, PhD, PCUTL, PGDip SSRM

Contact Dr Victoria Wells (nee James) (email at v.k.wells@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

Victoria is senior lecturer in marketing at Durham University Business School.  Previously she was lecturer in marketing and strategy and research associate at Cardiff Business School as well as a research assistant and graduate teaching assistant at Keele University.  She has also worked in industry as an Account Executive in marketing communications. 

Victoria's research falls in the general area of consumer behaviour and consumer responses to marketing actions. More specifically her research falls into three areas: behavioural psychology applications to consumer behaviour, consumer environmental behaviour and the impact of the physical environment on consumers. Her work applying behavioural psychology to consumer behaviour started with an exploration of the relevance of behavioural economics, via matching, demand and maximisation analyses to brand choice which has since been extended to both a sub category analysis and more currently to a retail level analysis. She has also been involved in some work looking at post-reinforcement pause and temporal discounting to explain aspects of consumer behaviour. This has led to recent work looking at foraging applications in consumer behaviour initially from a behavioural ecology of consumption approach and now also from an ecology perspective. Her second area of research looks at the pro- or anti-social behaviour of consumers in relation to the environment (using both the Behavioural Perspective Model and more recently ascriptions of responsibility) and also boycotting behaviour. Her third area of research applies the servicescape concept (and within it emotions and environmental psychology approaches) to higher education learning environments.

Research Interests

• Consumer psychology
• Behavioural psychology
• Marketing
• Servicescape
• Foraging
• Environmental psychology
• Social marketing

Research Groups

• Communications Science
• Marketing

Selected Publications

Books: authored

• Foxall, G.R., Oliveira-Castro, J.M., James, V.K. & Schrezenmaier, T.C. (2007). The Behavioral Economics of Brand Choice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Books: edited

• Wells, V.K. & Foxall, G.R. (2012). Handbook of new developments in consumer behaviour. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Books: sections

• Kell, C., Fahnert, B., James, V.K., Williamson, K. & Coxall, S. (2009). Peer Review of Learning and Teaching: Cardiff University’s Approach to Peer-Assisted Scholarly Reflective Practice. In Beyond the Peer Observation of Teaching. Gosling, D. & O’Connor, K.M. SEDA (Staff and Educational Development Association). 37-45.
• Foxall, G.R. & James, V.K. (2009). The Style/Involvement Model of Consumer Innovation. In The Routledge Companion to Creativity. Rickards, T., Runco, M.A. & Moger, S. Oxford, UK and New York, USA: Routledge. 71-87.
• Foxall, G.R., Oliveira-Castro, J.M., James, V.K., Yani-de-Soriano, M. & Sigurdsson, V. (2008). Consumer Behavior Analysis and Social Marketing: The case of environmental conservation. In Marketing for Social Change: Perspectives and Experiences. Krishna, S.J. Hyderabad, India: Icfai University Press.

Journal papers: academic

• Wells, V., Greenwell, F., Covey, J., Rosenthal, H. E. S., Adcock, M. & Gregory-Smith, D. (2013). An exploratory investigation of barriers and enablers affecting investment in renewable companies and technologies in the UK. Interface Focus 3(1): 20120039.
• Wells, V.K. (2012). Foraging: an ecology model of consumer behaviour?. Marketing Theory 12(2): 21-40.
• Oliveira-Castro, J.M., Foxall, G.R., Yan, J. & Wells, V.K. (2011). A behavioral-economic analysis of the essential value of brands. Behavioral Processes 87(1): 106-114.
• Wells, V.K., Ponting, C. & Peattie, K. (2011). Behaviour and Climate Change: Consumer Perceptions of Responsibility. Journal of Marketing Management 27(7-8): 808-833.
• Foxall, G., Yan, J., Oliveira-Castro, J. & Wells, V.K. (2011). Brand-related and situational influences on demand elasticity. Journal of Business Research 66(1): 73-81.
• Foxall, G.R, Doyle, J.R, Yani-de-Soriano, M, & Wells, V.K (2011). Contexts and Individual Differences as Influences on Consumers’ Delay Discounting. The Psychological Record 61(4): 599-612.
• Foxall, G.R., Doyle, J.R., Yani-de-Soriano, M. & Wells, V.K. (2011). Domain Specificity versus individual differences as influences on consumers’ delay discounting. The Psychological Record 61. Forthcoming.
• Wells, V.K. & Foxall, G.R. (2011). Editorial: Consumer Behaviour Analysis and Services. The Service Industries Journal 31(15): 2507-2513.
• James, V.K (2010). A Socio-Cultural Approach to Exploring Consumer Boycott Intelligence: A Commentary Essay. Journal of Business Research 63(4): 363-365.
• Oliveira-Castro, J.M., Foxall, G.R. & Wells, V.K. (2010). Consumer brand choice: Money allocation as a function of brand reinforcing attributes. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (Special Issue: Consumer behavior analysis) 30(2): 161-175.
• Hantula, D.A. & Wells, V.K. (2010). Editorial/Introduction: Outside the Organization: The Analysis of Consumer Behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. Special Issue: Consumer behavior analysis 30(2): 87-91.
• Wells, V.K., Chang, S.W., Oliveira-Castro, J.M. & Pallister, J. (2010). Market segmentation in behavioral perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (Special Issue: Consumer behavior analysis) 30(2): 176-198.
• Oliveira-Castro, J.M., James, V.K. & Foxall, G.R. (2010). Post-reinforcement pause in grocery shopping: comparing interpurchase times across products and consumers. Psychological Record 55(4): 483-500.
• Foxall, G.R., James, V.K., Oliveira-Castro, J.M. & Ribier, S (2010). Product Substitutability and the Matching Law. The Psychological Record 60: 185-216.
• Foxall, G.R., Wells, V.K., Chang, S.W. & Oliveira-Castro, J.M. (2010). Substitutability and independence: matching analyses of brands and products. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (Special Issue: Consumer behavior analysis) 30(2): 145-160.
• Oliveria-Castro, J.M., Foxall, G.R., James, V.K., Roberta, H.B.F., Pohl, M.B., Dias, B. & Chang, S.W. (2008). Consumer-based brand equity and brand performance. Service Industries Journal 28(4): 445-461.
• Oliveira-Castro, J.M., Foxall, G.R. & James, V.K. (2008). Individual Differences in Price Responsiveness within and across Food Brands. Service Industries Journal 28(6): 733-753.
• Foxall, G.R., Oliveira-Castro, J.M., James, V.K., Yani-de Soriano, M. & Sigurdsson, V. (2006). Consumer Behavior Analysis and Social Marketing: The Case of Environmental Conservation. Behavior and Social Issues 15(1): 101-124.
• Foxall, G.R., Oliveira-Castro, J.M., James, V.K. & Schrezenmaier, T.C. (2006). Consumer Behavior Analysis: The case of brand choice. Revista Psicologia: Organizecoes e Trabalho 6(1): 50-78.
• Romero, S., Foxall, G.R., Schrezenmaier, T., Oliveira-Castro, J. & James, V.K. (2006). Deviations from matching in Consumer Choice. European Journal of Behavior Analysis 7(1): 15-39.

Journal papers: online

• Foxall, G.R., Oliveira-Castro, J.M., James, V.K. & Schrezenmaier, T.C. (2007). Consumer Behaviour Analysis and Consumer Brand Choice. Management Online Review (More)
• Foxall, G.R., Oliveira-Castro, J.M., James, V.K. & Schrezenmaier, T.C. (2007). Consumer Behaviour Analysis and the Behavioural Perspective Model. Management Online Review (More)

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Supervises

• Mr Andrew Dean
• Mr Abdulelah Abed-althagafi