Andrés Gvirtz, PhD
Andrés Gvirtz is an Assistant Professor in Marketing Technology & Innovation at King‘s College London and a Research Affiliate at the King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence. He holds an Honorary Research Associate position at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge. Andrés advises several technology start-ups and routinely collaborates with companies, e.g., with Nokia Bell Labs.
He has two main research streams, with his first research stream focusing on technology, and more specifically on Generative AI as a disruptor in the personalisation space. His second research stream focuses on how we can understand and influence consumer behaviour through a combination of micro-level personality information and macro-level contextual information, at the core combining ‘who’ a consumer is, with ‘where’ a consumer is.
Before joining King’s College London, he was a supervisor for Marketing at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and taught Psychometrics at the Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, where he was nominated for the Student Led Teaching Awards. At King’s College London, he has been awarded a Research Incubator Fund, an Innovation Education Fund, a Strategic College Teaching Fund, been shortlisted for the Dean’s Awards (Teaching), and nominated for the King’s Education Awards.
Andrés holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Cambridge and was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard. At Cambridge, he was a finalist for the Cambridge Applied Research award and held the Vice-Chancellor Award (Cambridge Trust), an Economic and Social Research Council studentship (ESRC-UKRI), and was selected as a Peterhouse Scholar. Previously, he received a MPhil in Psychology (University of Cambridge) and a BA in Economics and Psychology (Clark University) as a scholar of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung) and the Gerhard C Starck Foundation.
Andrés is looking forward to hearing from interested researchers, students, and industry partners, please reach out via e-mail.
London Marketing Seminar Series
The London Marketing Seminar Series connects marketing scholars in the wider London area, with over half of all faculty in London signed-up.
The idea is that business schools across London open up their research seminars, guest talks, and mini-conferences to the wider community, leading to cross-institutional exchanges. Since being founded in December 2022, Bayes, KCL, Imperial, and LSE have already hosted over a dozen events, with regular attendance from other London schools, such as LBS, UCL, ESCP, and other UoL schools.
Any marketing researcher who is based at a London university, or regularly in London, can sign-up to share and receive information about marketing research seminars taking place in London. The mailing list is managed GDPR compliant, with all members approved, but joining and sharing announcements with the list is a simple process, you can either message me and I will add you manually, or you can follow these steps:
1. You click HERE for the link to sign-up with your name and academic e-mail address.
2. You will get an automated e-mail with a link you have to click to confirm your e-mail address (if you don’t receive it within a couple of minutes, check the spam folder).
3. A mailing list admin reviews all sign-ups and approves you within 48h (Please use your academic e-mail address, as this saves me much time when verifying every account).
4. Congrats, you are part of the e-mail list and can share information with the entire list, as well as receive the seminar announcements shared with the list.
Research
Published Journal Articles
* Authors contributed equally, @ Corresponding author, § Mentored student
Sands, S, Ferraro, C., Demsar, V., Cohen, J. & Gvirtz, A. (2024, In Press). Immersive Advertising—A Review and Research Agenda: Potential Effects of and Considerations for AR, VR, and MR Advertisements. Journal of Advertising Research.
De Miguel Velazquez, J.§, Šćepanovići, S., Gvirtz, A.@, Quercia, D. (2024, In Press). Decoding Real-World AI Ethics Incidents. IEEE Computer.
Bogucka, E., Constantinides, M., De Miguel Velazquez, J.§, Šćepanovići, S., Quercia, D., Gvirtz, A. (2024, In Press). The Atlas of AI Incidents in Mobile Computing: Visualizing the Risks and Benefits of AI Gone Mobile. Adjunct Publication of the 26th International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction.
Montecchi, M, Gvirtz, A., Plangger, K., Prendergast, G. & West, D. (2024). Marketing experts are always right…aren’t they? Disentangling the effects of expertise and decision-making processes. Psychology & Marketing.
Acar, O. A. & Gvirtz, A. (2024). GenAI Can Help Small Companies Level the Playing Field. Harvard Business Review.
Gvirtz, A. & Acar, O. A. (2023). Why Text-to-Image AI Requires a New Branding Mindset. MIT Sloan Management Review.
Gvirtz, A. (2023). How an AI-powered lion became a teaching tool. Nature.
Götz, F. M., Gvirtz, A., Galinsky, A. & Jachimowicz, J. (2021). How Personality and Policy Predict Pandemic Behavior: Understanding Sheltering-in-Place in 54 Countries at the Onset of COVID-19. American Psychologist.
Eckert, F., Gvirtz, A., Liang, J. & Peters, M. (2020). A Method to Construct Geographical Crosswalks with an Application to U.S. Counties since 1790. National Bureau of Economic Research.
Research Pipeline (R&Rs and Under Review)
Gvirtz, A.@ & Sabherwal, A. Research with Borders: Exploring the Realities of Global Research. R&R at PNAS.
He, J.§, Wallis, F., Gvirtz, A., & Rathje, S. Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Mimic Human Collective Behaviour. R&R at British Journal of Psychology.
Gvirtz, A.@*, Montecchi, M., Selby, A.§ & Götz, F. M.* Values Across the Consumer Lifespan: Age-Graded Differences at Three Hierarchical Levels and What We Can Learn from Them. Under Review.
Gvirtz, A.@, Kotzur, P., Pratto, F. & Stewart, A. Remorse for discrimination: The role of group dominance in judging crimes against marginalised groups. Under Review.
Education
University of Cambridge
Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
University of Cambridge
Clark University
Research assistantships
Yale University
Heidelberg University
Harvard University
Cornell University
Clark University
Professional Experiences
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
I have been a Y-Combinator finalist, as well as an analyst for blue-chip companies. An extended interest in aerospace led to the creation of CompactCopters, which provides B2B engineering and consulting services. A cool side project CompactCopters supported are drones dancing in a show. You can see part of the performance in Britain's Got Talent, or a making of video here.
CORPORATE ENGAGEMENTS
Past gigs include working as summer analyst / associate at:
• McKinsey & Company
• Boston Consulting Group
• UBS
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
I worked especially with finance clients, helping them realize organizational goals with the help of data analysis. Examples include using advanced analytics insights to improve debt collection by remodeling a bank’s communication strategy or automating an analysis tool diagnosing cooperation issues within functional units of organizations. In addition, I also worked as a data science researcher for the Nokia Bell Labs.
Funding
Faculty: |
|
| KING’S BUSINESS SCHOOL: Research Incubator Fund (PI) | GBP 9,653 |
| KING’S COLLEGE LONDON: Strategic College Teaching Fund (PI) | GBP 6,042 |
| KING’S BUSINESS SCHOOL: Innovative Education Fund (PI) | GBP 900 |
PhD: |
|
| ECONOMIC SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL: Doctoral Training Programme Studentship | GBP 25,011 |
| ECONOMIC SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL: Fieldwork Award | GBP 3,216 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, PETERHOUSE: PhD Studentship | GBP 42,390 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, PETERHOUSE: Bruckmann Award | GBP 1,500 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY: Research Funding | GBP 2,700 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY: Fieldwork Award | GBP 1,879 |
| CAMBRIDGE TRUST: Vice Chancellor Award (Accepted Honorary) | GBP 42,390 |
MPhil: |
|
| GERMAN NATIONAL ACADEMIC FOUNDATION: Tuition & Maintenance Award | EUR 19,350 |
| GERHARD C. STARCK FOUNDATION: Master Stipend | EUR 8,400 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY: Research Funding | GBP 900 |
B.A.: |
|
| CLARK UNIVERSITY: Highest International Student Merit Award | USD 141,000 |
| CLARK UNIVERSITY: Herman A. Witkin Memorial Fellowship for Research in Psychology | USD 1,200 |
| CLARK UNIVERSITY: Chandler Bailey Award for outstanding results in Economics | USD 1,500 |
| GERMAN NATIONAL ACADEMIC FOUNDATION: Tuition & Maintenance Awards | EUR 32,600 |
| GERHARD C. STARCK FOUNDATION: Bachelor Stipend | EUR 34,800 |
| CLAUSSEN-SIMON FOUNDATION: Study Abroad Grant | EUR 5,000 |
Interests
I am extremely grateful for the many institutions that provided mentorship and companionship throughout my education.
Most of my education was made possible through a generous scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung). I serve nowadays on the selection committee for new scholars, and during my studies served five years as scholars’ representative. If you are a current scholar thinking about an academic career, or moving to the UK, my inbox is always open!
I am the incoming chair and current member of the United Nations Committee for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), which has received consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). I started being involved with SPSP during graduate school, where I was on the student committee and organised professional development opportunities for graduate students. We also coordinated international writing groups, with over five hundred involved graduate students.
At Cambridge, I served as graduate representative for the department and the Economic and Social Research Council, making sure that graduate students’ concerns are heard at the administrative and faculty level. Among others we created graduate buddy systems to improve students’ well-being. I nowadays support Cambridge's undergraduate admission process for Psychological and Behavioural Sciences. I still feel very connected with my undergraduate, and am happy to be part of the young alumni council.
At home, you can often find me in the kitchen, where I applied to be the sous-chef after short courses at Leiths School of Food and Wine (London) and Le Cordon Bleu (Paris) - outcome still outstanding. I also enjoy photography and playing floorball, a version of indoor hockey. I had previously played for 12 years for the UCH/Floorball Club Heidelberg (Germany). I also rowed (crew) for two terms for King’s College Cambridge – but decided that I rather spend 5 am in bed.
