Business PhD Spotlight: Lance Gregory

Before starting his PhD, Lance Gregory spent several years working in sales. This experience gave him a firsthand look at the many ways marketers and salespeople shape consumer decisions and sparked a question that would eventually become central to his research: How can marketers communicate in ways that help consumers make better decisions?

Gregory’s research examines this question by focusing on two fundamental features of communication: what we say, and  when we say it.

“My research reveals that seemingly small details — from saying “thank you” after a sale to making a decision more quickly — can meaningfully shape how people think and behave,” says Gregory, PhD candidate in marketing.

What we say matters

Gregory’s primary research stream examines how the language marketers use shapes consumers’ attitudes, judgments, and behaviour. For example, in the first essay of his dissertation, he investigates a phrase that is almost universally viewed as positive: “thank you.” But Gregory’s research suggests that, in marketplace exchanges, gratitude can sometimes carry an unintended message.

Across a series of studies, he finds that when a seller expresses gratitude after a transaction, consumers can interpret the gratitude as a signal that the seller benefited more from the exchange. This inference, in turn, can lead consumers to believe that they received a worse deal.

The second essay of Gregory’s dissertation turns to another familiar situation: what companies say when something goes wrong. Drawing on field data from more than 57,000 consumer–firm interactions, Gregory examines how businesses respond to dissatisfied customers. While companies commonly begin recovery messages with an apology, Gregory’s research suggests that an apology may skip an important first step: explicitly recognizing that a problem occurred.

His work introduces acknowledgments — statements such as “that’s not okay” or “that’s unacceptable” — as a distinct approach to service recovery. He finds that messages beginning with an acknowledgment can elicit more favorable consumer responses than those beginning with an apology.

When we say it matters

A second stream of Gregory’s research examines another fundamental feature of communication: timing. In a 2024 paper published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, Gregory and his co-authors examine how quickly organizations make job offers. Their research shows that people generally prefer offers made sooner rather than later, but that what counts as “fast” depends on context. The same waiting period can be interpreted differently depending on the reference points people have in mind.

In another recent publication in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, Gregory investigates how response time influences social conformity. This research shows that people are more likely to conform to a group when the group reaches its decision quickly, in part because fast responses signal confidence. Interestingly, this effect depends on who — or what — is responding. Quick decisions exert a stronger influence when they come from humans rather than robots, suggesting that consumers interpret the timing of human and artificial agents in fundamentally different ways.

“Together, my research highlights a simple but consequential idea: communication is about more than the literal meaning of words. By uncovering these subtle signals, my work aims to help marketers better understand how everyday communication shapes consumer judgment and decision making,” says Gregory.

For Gregory, the Alberta School of Business was a natural fit for his doctoral studies. He was drawn to the marketing department’s reputation, its strong group of consumer behaviour researchers, and, most importantly, the overlap between his research interests and those of the faculty. That alignment has given him the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with scholars working on many of the same questions that sparked his interest in research.

Lance Gregory joined the Alberta School of Business in 2022 as a marketing PhD student. His supervisor is professor Sarah G. Moore.