News

New study from our team shows how measuring “thresholds for change” can improve social change interventions

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 06:34:48 GMT

Researchers from our team (Tanase, Algesheimer, Mariani) have shown that it is possible to measure how much social support individuals need before they adopt a new behaviour — their personal "threshold for change".

UZH Canteens Go Meat-Free on Mondays: First Results

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:01:05 GMT

In February 2025, the University of Zurich (UZH) introduced a "No Butcher" policy in its canteens, replacing one of its main meat menus with a vegetarian alternative every Monday. A new study evaluating the initiative's first six months offers an encouraging picture.

Marketing for Social Impact Group at the 2026 ISMS Marketing Science Conference

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:04:00 GMT

We are delighted to announce that members of the Marketing for Social Impact Group will present their current research at the 2026 INFORMS Society for Marketing Science (ISMS) Marketing Science Conference, taking place June 11–13 at Nova SBE in Lisbon, Portugal.

New research shows how altruism benefits students through social networks

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 07:38:12 GMT

The new research paper "Prosocial environments promote individual success: evidence from a school network panel study" authored by Isabel J. Raabe, Alexander Ehlert, René Algesheimer, and Heiko Rauhut explores the benefits of altruism.

NZZ features our team’s research on CO2 emission forecasting

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 16:06:35 GMT

ACL 2025

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 14:58:11 GMT

Maria Poiaganova attended the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics in Vienna.

IC2S2 2025

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 08:55:38 GMT

Prof. Dr. René Algesheimer, Dr. Manuel S. Mariani, Dr. Radu Tanase, Mingmin Feng, Luca Lazzaro, and Maria Poiaganova attended the 11th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2) in Norrköping, Sweden.

Debora Costa successfully defended her doctoral dissertation

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 12:45:06 GMT

Debora Costa earned a PhD in Business Administration at the Chair of Marketing for Social Impact, URPP Social Networks.

Katherine Rother wins EMAC-Sheth Foundation Sustainability Research Competition for work on social media advertising and e-commerce returns

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 15:01:00 GMT

Katherine Rother was awarded the EMAC-Sheth Foundation Sustainability Research Competition for her outstanding proposal, "The Hidden Costs of Social Media Advertising: Backfire effects on product returns and environmental impact in e-commerce”.

Publication Alert: Prof. Dr. Andrea Giuffredi-Kähr’s research article in the Journal of Interactive Marketing

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 14:06:01 GMT

Nils Hossli defended his doctoral thesis

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 08:32:11 GMT

Nils Hossli successfully earned a PhD in Business Administration at the Chair for Marketing, URPP Social Networks.

Publication Alert: Dr. Manuel Mariani’s review article in Nature Communications

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:16:20 GMT

“Collective dynamics behind success” published in Nature Communications, is a collaboration with Federico Battiston (Central European University, Vienna), Emőke-Ágnes Horvát (Northwestern University), Giacomo Livan (Università degli Studi di Pavia), Federico Musciotto (University of Palermo), and Dashun Wang (Northwestern University).

Katherine Rother wins the Impact Award for her research on carbon offsets

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:16:20 GMT

Katherine Rother was awarded the Impact Award for her outstanding contributions in her work “Voluntary Carbon Offsets in Online Retailing.”

Empowering Students and Instructors with Responsible AI Tools

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:16:20 GMT

Open Innovation Teaching Fund: “Evidence-Based Framework for Responsible Generative AI Usage in Higher Education.”

AI Meets Empathy: Introducing The AI Empathy Research Initiative

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:16:20 GMT

A new research initiative hosted by the Chair of Marketing for Social Impact investigates the adoption and effect of empathic AI.

2024 ACR Annual Conference

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:16:20 GMT

URPP Social Networks attended the 2024 ACR Annual Conference in Paris.

Publication Alert: Dr. Manuel Mariani in PNAS and Scientific Reports

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:16:20 GMT

A letter and a new article co-authored by Dr. Mariani were recently published in PNAS and Scientific Reports.

UZH News: Interview with Prof. Dr. René Algesheimer

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:16:20 GMT

What prompts people in social networks to change their values and behavior in a sustainable way?

2024 AMA CBSIG Vienna Conference

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:16:20 GMT

URPP Social Networks contributed to the American Marketing Association's Consumer Behavior Special Interest Group conference.

URPP Social Networks at Sunbelt 2024

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:16:20 GMT

A delegation from the URPP Social Networks actively contributed to the Sunbelt Conference 2024 on network science.

URPP Closing Event: Speech from the Director

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:16:20 GMT

Prof. Dr. René Algesheimer, Director of the URPP Social Networks, presented at the celebration for the completion of the second series of the URPPs.