Dr Sonia Vilches-Montero
Senior Lecturer
Newcastle Business School (Marketing)
- Email:sonia.vilches-montero@newcastle.edu.au
- Phone: (02) 4921 8985
Career Summary
Biography
Sonia is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Program Convenor of the Bachelor in Business Program at the Newcastle Business School. Her research interests focus on consumer cognition and behaviour across a variety of marketing settings including retailing, tourism, and advertising. She teaches Marketing Management and Planning, Brand Development and Marketing and Consumer Behaviour at the postgraduate level. She also supervises PhD, DBA and Honours students within the Faculty of Business and Law.
Research Expertise
Sonia’s research interests focus on consumer behaviour and retailing. Her research assists marketers in enhancing the impact of their branding and retailing strategies. She has published her most recent research in the European Journal of Marketing, Marketing Letters, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services and the International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management. Sonia regularly presents her work at recognised international conferences such as the Association for Consumer Research (ACR), the European Marketing Academy (EMAC), the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC), International Conference on Internet Marketing and Advertising International (ICIMA), Conference on Business, Marketing and Tourism (ICBMT) and the Latin-American and European Council of Business Schools (CLADEA). She has been the recipient of several Best Paper Awards in Consumer Behaviour tracks.
Teaching Expertise
Sonia has taught a range of subjects to both undergraduate and postgraduate students in face-to-face and online delivery modes. At UoN, she specializes in the development and delivery of Marketing Management and Planning (GSBS6005), Customer Decision Making and Behaviour (GSBS6013) and Brand Development and Management (GSBS6301).
In 2019, Sonia was awarded the Vice-Chancellor Merit List for Teaching and Learning Excellence. This award was given in recognition of outstanding overall course performance in Marketing, postgraduate coursework teaching.
Additionally, she has been awarded the Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award both in 2018 and 2014 by the Faculty of Business and Law, University of Newcastle. This award is granted for outstanding teaching and learning contributions in post-graduate coursework teaching.
Before joining the University of Newcastle, Sonia worked at Bond University (Australia) and at the Catholic University of Concepcion (Chile), where she taught undergraduate and post-graduate students within the marketing discipline.
Qualifications
- PhD, Bond University
Keywords
- Brand and Product Category Management
- Consumer Decision-Making
- Marketing Management and Planning
- Marketing Research
Languages
- English (Fluent)
- Spanish (Mother)
Fields of Research
| Code | Description | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 150599 | Marketing not elsewhere classified | 75 |
| 150399 | Business and Management not elsewhere classified | 25 |
Professional Experience
UON Appointment
| Title | Organisation / Department |
|---|---|
| Senior Lecturer | University of Newcastle Newcastle Business School Australia |
Academic appointment
| Dates | Title | Organisation / Department |
|---|---|---|
| 1/01/2009 - 1/08/2012 | Senior Research and Teaching Fellow | Bond University Marketing Department Australia |
| 1/03/2000 - 1/12/2008 | Assistant Professor | Catholic University of Concepcion Marketing Department Chile |
Awards
Award
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2019 |
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Merit List for Teaching and Learning Excellence. Office of the DVC (A), The University of Newcastle, Australia |
| 2018 |
Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award. For development and use of innovative in-class learning materials and approach to teaching that enhances students’ engagement and motivation to learn within a master-degree marketing class. Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle |
| 2014 |
Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award. University of Newcastle. The award was presented for outstanding contributions to teaching and learning within the Faculty of Business' postgraduate programs University of Newcastle |
Distinction
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2014 |
Best Overall Poster Award in the Faculty of Business and Law’s Research Showcase. Unknown |
| 2009 |
Dean’s list of Academic Excellence Award in PhD Coursework Component. Bond University |
Research Award
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2014 |
Best Paper Award, 49th CLADEA Annual Conference. Barcelona, Spain. Unknown |
| 2011 |
Best Paper Award. Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) Annual Conference. Unknown |
| 2005 |
Best Paper Award. International Conference on Business, Administration and Information, BAI. Unknown |
Publications
For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.
Chapter (1 outputs)
| Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 |
Vilches-Montero S, Spence M, 'Reconstructing time: Do the parts add up to the whole?', AP Advances in Consumer Research, Academy for Consumer Research, Duluth, MN 296-298 (2012) [E3]
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Journal article (12 outputs)
| Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 |
Vilches-Montero S, Nik Hashim NMH, Pandit A, Bravo-Olavarria R, 'Using the senses to evaluate aesthetic products at the point of sale: The moderating role of consumers goals', Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 40 82-90 (2018) [C1] © 2017 Elsevier Ltd In this research, we expand our understanding of how aesthetic products induce shoppers¿ responses at the point of sale. We advance and test a more integrative... [more] © 2017 Elsevier Ltd In this research, we expand our understanding of how aesthetic products induce shoppers¿ responses at the point of sale. We advance and test a more integrative approach in which not only the sensory evaluations of the aesthetic product, but also the shoppers¿ personal goals affect their purchase responses. Study 1 uses a lab setting to reveal that shoppers¿ sensory evaluations of a new apartment elicit feelings of attachment, which mediate the effect of the apartment's aesthetic features on shoppers¿ purchase responses. Further, shoppers assess the extent to which the product will contribute to attaining personal goals, which moderates the effect of emotional attachment on purchase responses. Study 2 replicates these findings using a field-study approach. In contrast to prior research, our results show that affective processing is not the sole driver of shoppers¿ responses to aesthetic products, as its effect is moderated by cognitive evaluations of whether social status and materialistic goals will be attained through the acquisition of the aesthetic product. We discuss how both retailers and manufacturers who market aesthetic products can benefit from appealing to the personal goals of their shoppers.
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| 2018 |
Vilches-Montero S, Pandit A, Bravo-Olavarria R, Chih-Wei (Fred) C, 'What loyal women (and men) want: The role of gender and loyalty program characteristics in driving store loyalty', Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 44 64-70 (2018) [C1]
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| 2016 |
Vilches-Montero S, 'Altering the past to influence the future: the effect of mental unpacking on past evaluations and future preferences', Marketing Letters, 27 499-510 (2016) [C1] © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Consumers use affective evaluations of past hedonic experiences in their future decision-making. However, past evaluations such a... [more] © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Consumers use affective evaluations of past hedonic experiences in their future decision-making. However, past evaluations such as how enjoyable the experience was may be hard to retrieve, and consumers tend to recall what they did (i.e. the constituent activities of the prior experience) in order to reconstruct them. It is proposed here that recalling these constituent activities in a packed versus unpacked fashion will distort both the reconstruction process and its outcome. Results from two experiments show that mental unpacking interacted with experience enjoyment to alter past evaluations in two ways: if the enjoyment of the experience was high, unpacked recalls increased remembered enjoyment, but unpacking decreased remembered enjoyment if the experience enjoyment was low. Finally, mediation analysis indicated that the unpacking by enjoyment interaction distorted future preferences through the mediating role of remembered enjoyment.
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| 2016 |
Pandit A, Vilches-Montero S, 'Are reward cards just a business deal? The role of calculative versus emotional card commitment in driving store loyalty', Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 31 355-360 (2016) [C1]
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| 2015 |
Vilches-Montero SN, Spence MT, 'The effect of construal level on time perceptions, confidence in judgements and future preferences', European Journal of Marketing, 49 782-805 (2015) [C1] © Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose ¿ This paper aims to examine how activating an abstract versus concrete construal as a retrieval cue ¿ prior to providing estimates but... [more] © Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose ¿ This paper aims to examine how activating an abstract versus concrete construal as a retrieval cue ¿ prior to providing estimates but after exposure to the stimulus ¿ affects retrospective duration estimates of a hedonic experience, the kind of experience one might wish to repeat. Recent research has examined the effect of construal mindsets on prospective time perceptions (Hans and Trope, 2013) as well as the prediction of future durations (Kanten, 2011; Siddiqui et al., 2014). Design/methodology/approach ¿ Two experiments are presented to test four hypotheses. The effect of construal level on time perceptions, confidence in duration judgments and future preferences using two different construal level manipulation techniques and a range of measures for the dependent variables is demonstrated. Findings ¿ This research found that compared to a neutral experience, time perceptions of an enjoyable event are not explained by differences in the level of attention paid to the stimuli; that duration estimates elicited under abstract construals are shorter than those produced by concrete construals; and regardless of construal mindset, memory decay due to time delay appears to be at work. Hence duration estimates shorten. Moreover, abstract construals decrease confidence in duration judgments, but positively affect future preferences compared to a concrete mindset. Originality/value ¿ This paper expands current knowledge by showing that construal mindsets can be used as retrieval cues to affect evaluations of past experiences and consumers¿ experience-based future preferences.
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| 2015 |
Marinao Artigas E, Vilches-Montero S, Chasco Yrigoyen C, 'Antecedents of tourism destination reputation: The mediating role of familiarity', Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 26 147-152 (2015) [C1]
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| 2006 |
Valenzuela F, Vasquez-Parraga AZ, Llanos O, Vilches S, 'The influence of service recovery evaluation on customer post-complaint behavior', International Journal of Business and Information, 1 53-74 (2006)
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| 2005 |
Valenzuela F, Pearson D, Epworth R, Llanos O, Vilches S, 'Consumer complaining behaviour: The case of a South American country, Chile', Contemporary Management Research: an international journal, 1 3-12 (2005)
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Conference (13 outputs)
| Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 |
Baxter S, Kulczynski A, Illicic J, Vilches-Montero SN, James E, 'Kid s Tell All: Designing Healthy Eating Campaigns.', Melbourne, Australia. (2017)
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| 2017 |
Vilches-Montero SN, Zlatevska N, 'Consumers interpretation of nutrition labels', Venice, Italy (2017)
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| 2017 |
Vilches-Montero S, 'Love at First Sight? The Effect of Product Aesthetics on Consumers' Immediate Attachment to Brands', Proceedings of the International Conference on Business, Marketing and Tourism (ICBMT), 19th Annual Conference. April 18th to 19th 2017., Paris, France (2017)
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Grants and Funding
Summary
| Number of grants | 8 |
|---|---|
| Total funding | $182,589 |
Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.
20192 grants / $137,989
Attitude Formation, Similarity and Framing Effects: Identifying Explanatory Factors of Conservation Behaviours$117,989
Funding body: Hunter Water Corporation
| Funding body | Hunter Water Corporation |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Doctor Sonia Vilches-Montero, Doctor Stacey Baxter |
| Scheme | Research Consultancy |
| Role | Lead |
| Funding Start | 2019 |
| Funding Finish | 2020 |
| GNo | G1900356 |
| Type Of Funding | Other Public Sector - State |
| Category | 2OPS |
| UON | Y |
Industry Matching Grant: Explanatory and facilitating factors of water conservation behaviour in the Hunter Region$20,000
Funding body: Faculty of Business and law, The University of Newcastle
| Funding body | Faculty of Business and law, The University of Newcastle |
|---|---|
| Scheme | Priority Research Initiative |
| Role | Lead |
| Funding Start | 2019 |
| Funding Finish | 2019 |
| GNo | |
| Type Of Funding | Internal |
| Category | INTE |
| UON | N |
20162 grants / $24,600
Priority Research Initiative: Social Marketing Research Team for Youth (SMRTY)$20,000
Funding body: Faculty of Business and law, The University of Newcastle
| Funding body | Faculty of Business and law, The University of Newcastle |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Stacey Baxter (UoN), Jasmina Ilicic(Monash), Associate Professor Erica James (UoN), Alicia Kulczinsky (UoN) and Sonia Vilches-Montero (UoN) |
| Scheme | Priority Research Initiative |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2016 |
| Funding Finish | 2017 |
| GNo | |
| Type Of Funding | Internal |
| Category | INTE |
| UON | N |
T&L Seed Grant: Enriching business students’ learning environments through the implementation of BSGs$4,600
Funding body: Faculty of Business and law, The University of Newcastle
| Funding body | Faculty of Business and law, The University of Newcastle |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Sonia Vilches-Montero |
| Scheme | Teaching and Learning Seed Grant |
| Role | Lead |
| Funding Start | 2016 |
| Funding Finish | 2016 |
| GNo | |
| Type Of Funding | Internal |
| Category | INTE |
| UON | N |
20134 grants / $20,000
Socio-culturally determined “Technological Appropriation” as Driver in Adoption of New Technologies in a Diverse Developed Economy$5,000
Funding body: University of Newcastle
| Funding body | University of Newcastle |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Doctor Ameet Pandit, Dr Bidit Dey, Doctor Sonia Vilches-Montero |
| Scheme | New Staff Grant |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2013 |
| Funding Finish | 2013 |
| GNo | G1300976 |
| Type Of Funding | Internal |
| Category | INTE |
| UON | Y |
Underlying mechanisms of time perceptions in Consumer behaviour settings$5,000
Funding body: University of Newcastle
| Funding body | University of Newcastle |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Doctor Sonia Vilches-Montero, Doctor Ameet Pandit |
| Scheme | New Staff Grant |
| Role | Lead |
| Funding Start | 2013 |
| Funding Finish | 2013 |
| GNo | G1301055 |
| Type Of Funding | Internal |
| Category | INTE |
| UON | Y |
Underlying Mechanisms of Time Perceptions$5,000
Funding body: Faculty of Business and Law
| Funding body | Faculty of Business and Law |
|---|---|
| Project Team | Sonia Vilches-Montero and Ameet Pandit |
| Scheme | Faculty Research Grant |
| Role | Lead |
| Funding Start | 2013 |
| Funding Finish | 2013 |
| GNo | |
| Type Of Funding | Internal |
| Category | INTE |
| UON | N |
Socio-culturally determined “Technological Appropriation” as Driver in Adoption of New Technologies in a Diverse Developed Economy$5,000
Funding body: Faculty of Business and Law
| Funding body | Faculty of Business and Law |
|---|---|
| Project Team | SoniaVilches-Montero and Ameet Pandit |
| Scheme | Faculty Research Grant |
| Role | Investigator |
| Funding Start | 2013 |
| Funding Finish | 2013 |
| GNo | |
| Type Of Funding | Internal |
| Category | INTE |
| UON | N |
Research Supervision
Number of supervisions
Current Supervision
| Commenced | Level of Study | Research Title | Program | Supervisor Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | PhD | Factors Affecting Branding of National Products and Their Impact on Competitive Advantage: An Applied Study on Industrial Foods in KSA | PhD (Management), Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
| 2019 | PhD | Visual Merchandising | PhD (Management), Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
| 2019 | PhD | An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship Between Electronic Word of Mouth (E-WOM) Environment and Customer Behavior Intention Using Gender as Moderator | PhD (Management), Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
| 2019 | PhD | Understanding Cross Cultural Literacy and Perception Influences in Consumer Behaviour and Decision-Making Process within Multicultural Society | PhD (Management), Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
| 2018 | PhD | The Influence of Social Media Content on Chinese Tourists' Trip Planning: the Role of Customer Inspiration and Confucian Values | PhD (Management), Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
| 2018 | PhD | A marketing research approach to the effects of social media campaigns on consumer's decision making process | PhD (Management), Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
| 2018 | PhD | Consumers' assessment of and responses to high-tech products | Marketing, The University of Queensland | Co-Supervisor |
| 2016 | PhD | How do social media experiences influence behavioural responses? The role of brand concept and self-congruence. | PhD (Management), Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
Past Supervision
| Year | Level of Study | Research Title | Program | Supervisor Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Honours | An empirical study on the relationships between customers’ mindset, customers’ effort and brand personality transfer effect | Marketing, Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle | Sole Supervisor |
| 2015 | Professional Doctorate | Antecedents of consumers’ brand loyalty for high-technology products | Marketing, Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
| 2015 | Professional Doctorate | Factors that affect Hong-Kong consumers’ purchase decisions of function-oriented products | Marketing, Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
News
Winning Poster
August 21, 2014
Dr Sonia Vilches-Montero
Positions
Senior Lecturer
Newcastle Business School
Faculty of Business and Law
Casual Academic
Newcastle Business School
Faculty of Business and Law
Focus area
Marketing
Contact Details
| sonia.vilches-montero@newcastle.edu.au | |
| Phone | (02) 4921 8985 |
| Mobile | 0451460347 |
Office
| Room | X-720 |
|---|---|
| Building | NeW Space |
| Location | City Campus , |
NEWS • Aug 21.2014
Winning Poster
2014 winners of the Faculty of Business & Law Research Poster Competition at the University Gallery until 23 August 2014
Featured Publication
Memory and Consumers’ Decision-Making
Dr Sonia Vilches-Montero has won a Best Paper Award for her study focusing on memory malleability...
