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Sarit Moldovan, Associate Professor

Contact Info

The Open University of Israel Department of Management and Economics One University Road P.O.B. 808 Ra’anana 4353701, Israel
Office:972-9-7781934 Email:saritmo@openu.ac.il

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Areas of Interest
  • Word of mouth communications
  • Resistance to innovation
  • Consumer types (early adopters, opinion leaders)
  • Diffusion of innovations
  • Complexity in marketing

Sarit Moldovan is an Associate Professor at the Open University of Israel, Department of Management and Economics. 
She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Business Administration, an MBA, and a Ph.D. in Marketing. Her research interests focus on diffusion of innovations and word of mouth communications, on consumer types that are central to the diffusion process (e.g. opinion leaders and early adopters), and on resistance to innovations. In her research, Sarit combines behavioral/experiential methods with computer simulations and big data analysis.  

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2002-2007
PhD, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Business Administration– Marketing
Summa cum Laude
1999-2002
MBA, Tel Aviv University 
Marketing and Strategy-Entrepreneurship concentrations
Magna cum Laude
1995-1998
BA, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Psychology and Business Administration
Magna cum Laude
2019-
Associate Professor, Department of Management and Economics, The Open University of Israel​
2015-2019
Senior lecturer, Department of Management and Economics, The Open University of Israel
2011-2015
Senior lecturer, Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion
2007-2010
Lecturer, Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion
2006-2007
Post-Doc Visiting Scholar, Columbia Business School
2005-2006
Adjunct Lecturer, Tel Aviv University
2019
Finalist, the 2019 Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp Award for Long-Term Impact (for the paper: “The NPV of bad news”)​
2018
Finalist, Best Paper Award for 2017 by International Journal of Research in Marketing (for the paper: “Opinion Leadership in Small Groups”)​
2018
Runner-up of the 2018 Early Career Contributor to the Journal of Consumer Psychology (for Meyrav Shoham).
2013
Best lecturer award at the Technion MBA program.
2012
Google Online Marketing Challenge, regional winner Middle East/Africa (won a MacBook), and winner of the Social Impact Award
2012
Finalist, Best Paper Award for 2011 by International Journal of Research in Marketing
2008
Best Paper Award for 2007 by International Journal of Research in Marketing
2007
Alex Berger Award for excellent PhD dissertation
2005
The Corson Scholarship for advanced studies
2005
The Gal-Ed Grant
2004
Best Paper Award for 2004 by Technological Forecasting and Social Change
2004
Winner of the Marketing Science Institute’s Alden G. Clayton Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Competition
2003
The Richard Sigel Award for Marketing Research (for Master’s thesis)
2002
The Complexity Center Scholarship for full PhD support

2015:  The Israel Science Foundation (ISF) individual research grant
 Research Title: “The Positive Effect of Negative irrelevant information.”

2010:  The Israel Science Foundation (ISF) individual research grant
 Research Title: “How Advertising Leads to Word-of-Mouth.”

2009:  The German-Israeli Foundation (GIF) young scientist grant 
 Research Title: “Social percolation: The role of early adopters.”

2008:  The Israel Foundations Trustees young scientist grant 
Research Title: “Opinion leadership as a multi-dimensional trait: From the individual to the macro level.” This grant was waived due to my receiving the GIF grant.

Sarit Moldovan has published in top Marketing journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and the International Journal of Research in Marketing 

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Moldovan, Sarit, Yael Steinhart, and Donald R. Lehmann (2019). “Propagators, Creativity, and Informativeness: What Helps Ads Go Viral.” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 47(August), 102-114.​ 

 

 

Shoham, Meyrav, Sarit Moldovan, and Yael Steinhart, “Mind the Gap: How Smaller Numerical Differences Can Increase Product Attractiveness,” Journal of Consumer Research, 45(4), 761-774.​

 

 

Shoham, Meyrav, Sarit Moldovan, and Yael Steinhart (2017), “Positively Useless: Irrelevant Negative Information Enhances Positive Impressions,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 27 (2), 147-159.  

 

 

Moldovan, Sarit, Eitan Muller, Yossi Richter, and Elad Yom-Tov (2017), “Opinion Leadership in Small Groups.” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34 (2), 536-552. 

 

 

Moldovan, Sarit, Yael Steinhart, and Shlomit Ofen (2015), “Share and Scare: The Communication Dilemma of Early Adopters as a Function of their Need for Uniqueness,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25 (1) 1-14.  

 

 

Moldovan, Sarit, Jacob Goldenberg, and Amitava Chattopadhyay (2011), “The Different Roles of Product Originality and Usefulness in Generating Word of Mouth,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 28 (2), 109-119.

 

 

Goldenberg, Jacob, Barak Libai, Sarit Moldovan and Eitan Muller (2007), “The NPV of Bad News,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 24 (3), 186-200.  

 

 

Moldovan, Sarit, Jacob Goldenberg, and Amitava Chattopadhyay (2006), “What Drives Word-of-Mouth? The Roles of Product Originality and Usefulness,” MSI working papers series, report number 06-111. 

 

 

Moldovan Sarit and Jacob Goldenberg (2004), “Cellular Automata Modeling of Resistance to Innovations: Effects and Solutions,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 71 (5), 425-442.  

 

 

Erez, Tom, Sarit Moldovan, and Sorin Solomon (2007), “Social Anti-Percolation, Resistance, and Negative Word-of-Mouth,” in Jean-Philippe Rennard (ed.), Handbook of Research on Nature-Inspired Computing for Economics and Management. New York, NY: IGI Global.
Number of Google scholar citations (of all versions): 14

Secrets to success: Unwillingness to recommend professional courses in order to keep a competitive edge. With Yael Steinhart

Early adopters: Opinion leaders or opinion keepers.

Opinion Leadership as a Multi-Dimensional Trait. With Shaul Oreg and Hen Givol

 

 

Perception of Innovation: How to Attract Non-Early Adopters to Adopt Earlier. With Ruth Zwick and Liat Hadar

 

 

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  • 10350 Marketing Research (BA)
  • 13013 Issues in Consumer Behavior (MBA)
  • 10281 Marketing Management (BA)
  • 13302 Creative Thinking in Business (MBA). A filmed course and a study guide. In preparation.
  • 10281 Marketing Management (BA). A book translation and study guide. In preparation. 
  • 2007-2015: Marketing management (MBA), The Technion
  • 2007-2015: Marketing research (MBA), The Technion
  • 2009:  Creativity in Marketing (BA), The Technion
  • 2004-2005: Creativity in Marketing (MBA), Tel Aviv University

  • Meyrav Shoham: PhD in Behavioral Sciences and Management
    Thesis: “Exploring the impact of irrelevant information in online reviews”
    Co-supervisor: Yael Steinhart, Tel Aviv University
    Placement: Bar Ilan University 
    Graduated: June 2017

  • Hen Givol:  MSc in Behavioral Sciences and Management
    Thesis: “Opinion Leadership as a multi-dimensional trait”
    Placement: HR in Ministry of Public Security
    Graduated: August 2013

  • Yair Giwnewer:  MSc in Behavioral Sciences and Management
    Thesis: “The Need for Uniqueness (NFU) of Early Adopters”
    Placement: Human Factors Engineer (HFE), Intel Israel
    Graduated: June 2013

  • Leah Rekhter:  MSc in Behavioral Sciences and Management
    Thesis: “The Role of Source Homophily and Source Expertise on Attitude Towards Experience Versus Search Goods”
    Placement: Market Research Analyst, StoreNext
    Graduated: August 2012

  • Shlomit Ofen:  MSc in Behavioral Sciences and Management
    Thesis: “Exploring the Possible Early Adopters' Internal Conflict Caused by the Need for Uniqueness”
    Co-supervisor: Yael Steinhart, Haifa University
    Placement: User Experience expert and project manager, UI Interface Design
    Graduated: January 2010