Tess Kwon: BS and MS, Seoul National University; PhD, University of Tennessee; PhD, University of Pittsburgh School of Business; currently Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Hong Kong
Peggy Liu: BS, Yale University; PhD, Duke University; currently Ben L. Fryrear Endowed Chair and Professor of Marketing at the University of Pittsburgh School of Business
We discovered something that will resonate with anyone who has ever wondered why it feels so difficult to let go of products in a shared household; it takes two to say goodbye.
What were your key findings?
TK: We found that consumers are relatively comfortable buying household items on their own, but when it comes to disposal, they prefer to involve their partners. This happens because consumers worry about stepping on their partner’s rights when making disposal decisions. So even if it’s something they bought themselves, they start wondering how much their partner would value the item, which leads them to prefer involving their partner.
But we also found that this pattern disappears in three situations: when the item is something only they can use (like their personal clothing), when they are thinking about involving people outside their household, or when the item was expensive relative to the household’s typical spending. Importantly, this tendency can be a barrier to decluttering. If their partner isn’t around when consumers are considering disposing of items, they might just postpone the whole decision entirely.
How do the findings of your research contribute to your field?
TK: Most prior work looked at decision-making at a single point in time, often focusing on purchase situations. What’s interesting about our research is that whether consumers involve their household partner in product decisions is not consistent – it systematically differs depending on whether they’re buying something or getting rid of it. This systematic difference adds a new layer to how we understand joint decision-making and the customer journey, highlighting that the stage of the customer journey consumers are in – acquisition versus disposal – shapes how decisions are made.
How do your research findings contribute to society (locally, regionally, nationally, globally)?
TK: This research has practical implications for both consumers and organizations. For organizations trying to promote donation, resale, or product upgrades, timing matters. Outreach may be more effective when household members are likely to be together (like weekends or evenings), so they can make these disposal decisions jointly.
For households, some simple strategies could help tackle the challenge of clutter. Consumers can set disposal rules ahead of time, such as allowing each partner to get rid of items they primarily use or creating designated “staging areas” where items can sit briefly before leaving the home. This gives both partners a chance to weigh in without long delays. At a broader level, this research helps explain why many of our homes get overfilled with stuff. It’s not just personal attachment that stands in the way – it’s that our consideration of our partner comes into play when disposing of items.
How did you see your dissertation grow into this collaborative paper? Why did you decide to set out on this research topic?
TK: Peggy and I started working together as soon as I entered the PhD program at Pitt because of our shared interest in social dynamics and consumer well-being. The idea for this project came up during our weekly meetings, when we were talking about everyday decisions in our own lives. We became curious about why disposal decisions often feel more difficult than purchase decisions and, given that many consumers live with household partners, whether these decisions are consistently made together or if the pattern changes depending on the type of decision. We felt these questions were something many people could relate to, and it became the starting point of our research.
We invited Kelly Haws from Vanderbilt to join us, given her expertise in social and disposal behavior, and having her on board has been wonderful. It was incredibly rewarding to watch the idea grow from an informal conversation into a published paper, and I feel lucky to have learned from and worked with such an amazing team. This project also became part of my dissertation alongside two other projects, which together offer a novel perspective on how consumers select into social contexts by identifying factors that shape consumers’ decisions to engage in consumption behavior on their own versus with others.
Aside from your research, what is the most exciting advancement in your field right now?
PL: I conduct research on consumer behavior within the marketing field. I think there are numerous exciting advancements in our field right now, so I will highlight just two. The first thing I will highlight is that I think there is so much interest among PhD students and early career researchers on issues of consumer and societal well-being and how, as academic researchers, we can study research questions that are relevant not only to marketing practitioners but also to improving consumer and societal well-being. There is an initiative that I am involved in called “Better Marketing for a Better World,” which is working towards this general aim. The second thing I will highlight is that I think there are exciting opportunities as well as challenges in terms of thinking deeply about what recent AI advances mean for researchers studying consumer behavior topics, as well as what these advances mean for PhD-level training.
Final Thoughts
PL: I would like to highlight the importance of PhD-level education, which is about pushing the boundaries of what we know and uncovering new knowledge via theoretically and empirically rigorous work. The University of Pittsburgh School of Business has a distinguished history of producing PhD graduates who subsequently conduct research and teach at top business schools worldwide.
Their full research article is published in the Journal of Marketing Research. Kwon won three awards for her dissertation: SCP Schumann Dissertation Proposal Competition Winner (2022), John A. Howard/AMA Doctoral Dissertation Award Honorable Mention (2024), and AMS Mary Kay Doctoral Dissertation Award Finalist (2025).