Professor of Marketing and Decision Sciences
BA, MMath, MSc (University of Cambridge), PhD (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
My research interests span managerial decision making, consumer behaviour and experimental economics. I’m interested in how individuals and firms make decisions as they interact with each other, and what economic and psychological factors influence those decisions. Specific topics I examine include prosocial behaviour, pricing, search behaviour and sustainability. My research has appeared in major journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Science, Management Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Marketing, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and Games and Economic Behavior.
Professional experience
Vincent is on the Editorial Review Board of the journal Production & Operations Management and is an Associate Editor of the journal Information Systems Research’s Special Issue on Analytical Creativity. He is also a member of the Research Impact Fund Committee at the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, and has been appointed a Guest Fellow at Lui Che Woo College, University of Macau. He was a member of the Senior Leadership Team at Cambridge Judge Business School in 2023-2024 and was also the Vice Dean for Programmes and Research (2021-2023), Director (Associate Dean) of Programmes (2019-2021), and Deputy Director of Teaching (2016-2019) at the Business School.
Previously he was an award-winning case writer at the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Asian Business Cases (now Asia Case Research Centre), producing over 20 business cases which have been used worldwide. His consulting work includes a study of online/offline retail prices and price comparison websites, as well as a consumer survey study on the functioning of the market for Internet access, both commissioned by the European Commission. Vincent is Chair of the Trustees at the Cambridge Museum of Technology, and he has also worked as a columnist, journalist, editor, and freelance writer/broadcaster in the Hong Kong media specialising in classical music and the arts.
Previous appointments
Vincent was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology prior to joining Cambridge Judge Business School. He was also a University of Macau Distinguished Visiting Scholar in 2023.
Publications
Selected publications
- KC, R.P., Mak, V. and Ofek, E. (2023) “Before or after? The effects of payment decision timing in pay-what-you-want contexts.” Journal of Marketing, 87(4): 618-635 (DOI: 10.1177/00222429221142234)
- Mak, V., Seale, D.A., Rapoport, A. and Gisches, E.J. (2019) “Voting rules in sequential search by committees: theory and experiments.” Management Science, 65(9): 3949-4450 (DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2018.3146)
- KC, R.P., Kunter, M. and Mak, V. (2018) “The influence of a competition on non-competitors.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 115(11): 2716-2721 (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1717301115)
- Pattaratanakun, J.A. and Mak, V. (2015) “Culture moderates biases in search decisions.” Psychological Science, 26(8): 1229-1240 (DOI: 10.1177/0956797615583979) (Research findings featured in The Conversation, Phys.org and The Telegraph)
- Schlapp, J., Oraiopoulos, N. and Mak, V. (2015) “Resource allocation decisions under imperfect evaluation and organizational dynamics.” Management Science, 61(9): 2013-2280 (DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2014.2083)
- Mak, V., Zwick, R., Rao, A.R. and Pattaratanakun, J.A. (2015) “’Pay-what-you-want’ as threshold public good provision.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 127: 30-43 (DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.11.004) (Research findings featured in The Independent, The Conversation and Wirtschafts Woche)
Journal articles
- Mak, V. and Zwick, R. (2024) “Fairness and transparency in one-to-many bargaining with complementarity: an experimental study.” Games, 15(4): 22 (DOI: 10.3390/g15040022)
- Rapoport, A., Gisches, E.J., Mak, V. and Zwick, R. (2024) “Dynamic pricing with multiple consumers and alternating offers under retailer competition: theory and experiment.” Experimental Economics, 27: 945-972 (DOI: 10.1007/s10683-024-09848-8)
- Huber, C., Dreber, A., Mak, V. et al (2023) “Competition and moral behavior: a meta-analysis of forty-five crowd-sourced experimental designs.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 120(23): e2215572120 (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2215572120)
- KC, R.P., Lauga, D.O. and Mak, V. (2023) “Hold-up induced by demand for fairness: theory and experimental evidence.” Theory and Decision, 94(4): 721-750 (DOI: 10.1007/s11238-022-09905-9)
- KC, R.P., Mak, V. and Ofek, E. (2023) “Before or after? The effects of payment decision timing in pay-what-you-want contexts.” Journal of Marketing, 87(4): 618-635 (DOI: 10.1177/00222429221142234)
- Chark, R., Mak, V. and Muthukrishnan, A.V. (2020) “The premium as informational cue in insurance decision making.” Theory and Decision, 88(3): 369-404 (DOI: 10.1007/s11238-019-09732-5)
- Li, K.T., Tang, W., Wu, D., Huang, W., Wu, F., Lee, A., Feng, H., Pan, S.W., Han, L., Mak, V., Yang, L. and Tucker, J.D. (2019) “Pay-it-forward strategy to enhance uptake of dual gonorrhea and chlamydia testing among men who have sex with men in China: a pragmatic, quasi-experimental study.” The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 19(1): 76-82 (DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30556-5)
- Mak, V., Seale, D.A., Rapoport, A. and Gisches, E.J. (2019) “Voting rules in sequential search by committees: theory and experiments.” Management Science, 65(9): 3949-4450 (DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2018.3146)
- Rapoport, A., Qi, H., Mak, V. and Gisches, E.J. (2019) “When a few undermine the whole: a class of social dilemmas in ridesharing.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 166: 125-137 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2019.08.015)
- KC, R.P., Kunter, M. and Mak, V. (2018) “The influence of a competition on non-competitors.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 115(11): 2716-2721 (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1717301115)
Working papers
- Rapoport, A. and Mak, V. (2019) “Strategic interactions in transportation networks.” In: Donohue, K., Katok, E. and Leider, S. (eds.) The handbook of behavioral operations. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, pp.557-585
- Zwick, R. and Mak, V. (2012) “Gaming with fairness: some conjectures on behavior in alternating offer bargaining experiments.” In: Bolton, G.E. and Croson, R.T.A. (eds.) The Oxford handbook of economic conflict resolution. New York: Oxford University Press, pp.91-107
Case studies
- Chan, W.C.S., Mak, V. and Molian, D. (2024) “Leading the flock: scaling up Merino Brothers, Hong Kong.” Cambridge Judge Business School Case: 524-0061-1.
Awards and honours
- Cambridge Judge Business School Teaching Award, 2019
- Faculty Activity Award (for contributions on research, teaching, and service), Cambridge Judge Business School, 2017/18
- 3rd Prize, Innovation Management Best Paper Award, for the paper “Resource allocation decisions under imperfect evaluation and organizational dynamics” (with Jochen Schlapp and Nektarios Oraiopoulos), Strascheg Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SIIE), EBS Business School, 2015
- National Research Article Award (Business Administration Category – Merit) for the paper “Culture moderates biases in search decisions” (with Jake A. Pattaratanakun), National Institute of Development Administration of Thailand, 2015
- Program Committee Member, Asia-Pacific Association for Consumer Research Conference, 2015
- Overseas Research Attachment Award, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2008
- First runner-up, the Seventh Asia-Pacific Case Writing Competition, 2002
News and insights
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved beyond being just a tool for efficiency. It’s now a game-changer in how businesses approach innovation.
AI and technology
How AI can help tackle obesity
Digital techniques including AI can help aging societies change behaviour and reduce costs to combat obesity and diabetes, says research co-authored at Cambridge Judge.
Apple’s launch of the VisionPro headset highlights the 4 Ps of marketing – product, price, place and promotion – while a Cambridge Judge alumnus has taken a different approach to wearable technology.
Media coverage
Radio Cambridge 105 | 8 February 2023
Cambridge Judge Business School study into pay what you want
Vincent Mak, Professor of Marketing and Decision Sciences at Cambridge Judge Business School, has been interviewed from Radio Cambridge105, about his recent study regarding the pay-what-you-want models. “The study identifies a link between value of the offering and the obligation thus felt by the recipient, and this affects the amount of the payment,” says Vincent.
Poets & Quants | 22 November 2022
Major global ranking celebrates ‘world leading’ Cambridge Judge
Cambridge Judge Business School’s #1 ranking in the Research Excellence Framework in the UK was featured in a comprehensive article in leading business-school publication Poets & Quants. The publication interviewed Dean Mauro Guillén and Vice-Dean Vincent Mak about the School’s top ranking in the Business and Management Studies category of the REF, which is done every seven years by the UK’s higher education funding bodies.
BBC: You and Yours | 10 October 2022
Easylife fine; bogus bags; pay as you can
Vincent Mak, Professor of Marketing and Decision Sciences at Cambridge Judge Business School, spoke on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme (min. 38) about Pay As You Can.