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If we want to improve managerial cognition, we need to capture the full spectrum of cognitive functions and the complex processes through which they unfold. I propose two very different methods (one older and low-tech, one newer and high-tech) that allow us to observe cognitive functions and processes directly in real time.

The purpose of this paper is to review recent applications of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and other neuroimaging techniques in marketing and advertising, and to present some methodological and statistical considerations that should be taken into consideration when applying fMRI to study consumers’ cognitive behavior related to marketing phenomena.

A critical approach to investigate three methodological issues related to fMRI applications in marketing is adopted. These issues deal mainly with brain activation regions, event-related fMRI and signal-to-noise ratio. Statistical issues related to fMRI data pre-processing, analyzing and reporting are also investigated.

Neuroimaging cognitive techniques have great potential in marketing and advertising. This is because, unlike conventional marketing research methods, neuroimaging data are much less susceptible to social desirability and “interviewer’s” effect. Thus, it is expected that using neuroimaging methods to investigate which areas in a consumer’s brain are activated in response to a specific marketing stimulus can provide a much more honest indicator of their cognition compared to traditional marketing research tools such as focus groups and questionnaires.

By merging disparate fields, such as marketing, neuroscience and cognitive psychology, this research presents a comprehensive critical review of how neuroscientific methods can be used to test existing marketing theories.

Since Islamic markets are growing substantially, there is an urgent need to gain a better understanding of how Muslim consumers perceive products from a religious perspective. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the brain responses of Muslim consumers to Halal and non-Halal products using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology.

The research model is a simplified version of the theory of planned behavior. The initial experiment began by asking participants to divide a set of images into two groups: Halal and non-Halal products. The fMRI experiment uses a blocked design approach to capture brain activities resulting from presenting the two groups of images to participants, and to record the strength of their attitudes toward purchasing the products.

Across all participants, the level of brain activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex increased significantly when Halal images were presented to them. The same results emerged when the Halal images showed raw and cooked meat. The variations in the results may be due to the high emotional sensitivity of Muslim consumers to using religious products.

This study uses a unique approach to monitor brain activity to confirm that consumers from specific market segments respond differently to market products based on their internal beliefs. Findings from this study provide evidence that marketing managers targeting Muslim markets should consider the sensitivity of presenting products in ways that reflect religious principles, in order to gain higher acceptance in this market segment.

Although the literature reports considerable research on Muslim consumers’ behavior, most of the previous studies utilize conventional data collection approaches to target broad segments of consumers by using traditional products. This paper is the first to track the reactions of the Muslim consumer segment to specific types of market products.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the methodology of several brain imaging techniques and in particular, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and its potential implications for market research. The aim is to enable the reader both to understand this emerging methodology and to conduct independent research in the area.

A short introduction on current neuroimaging methods used in behavioral neuroscience is provided by means of a literature review. The ensuing discussion focuses on fMRI as the currently most popular neuroimaging technique. Having described the fMRI methodology, an outline of the analysis of functional neuroimaging data follows, after which there is a discussion of some key research issues.

Although in its infancy, fMRI seems to be a useful and promising tool for market researchers. Initial studies in the field reveal that fMRI is able to shed light on subconscious processes such as affective aspects of consumer behavior.

Because brand positioning, advertising strategies and even pricing strategies are often based on constructs such as emotions, neuropsychological findings and methods should have important implications for practitioners in the field of brand management and advertising. Nonetheless, far more basic research is needed before fMRI can be adopted for marketing practice.

This paper is one of the first in the marketing literature to provide a methodological overview of fMRI and discuss the potential implications for marketing research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that underpin consumer attitude toward switching a product brand, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain activity during the decision-making process. Most of the literature shows that in the past, conventional marketing research approaches have been used to study brand switching among consumers. However, there is a lack of understanding of the importance of evaluating brain activations during the decision-making process when a consumer is selecting a brand.

The proposed model is a simplified version of consumer acceptance of technology model. This model accounts for cognitive and affect factors when choosing a product by including perceived usefulness and pleasure variables, respectively. An event-related fMRI experiment was designed and conducted using two smartphone brands.

The level of brain activation at the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) increased when participants were asked to judge images that reflect brand perceived usefulness compared with judging images that reflect brand pleasure. Similarly, the higher the perceived usefulness of the other smartphone, the greater the activation of the vmPFC during decision-making to switch to that smartphone.

This study contributes to the literature on brand switching by exploring the importance of fMRI technique in evaluating brain activities during decision-making to adopt a brand. For managers, research findings would allow them to draft better marketing and advertisement strategies that enhance consumer perception value of high technology brands and positive emotional experience.

Although the literature reports considerable research on brand switching, this is the first exploratory study to utilize fMRI to investigate consumer attitude toward switching. In addition, unlike most prior research, which uses generic products in fMRI studies, this study is utilizing high technology product to investigate the brand switching behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of destination images on tourists’ behavioral intention to select a destination for their next vacation. Most of previous studies investigated this relationship by interacting with tourists during their stay in the destination. However, this research examines the impact of destination images before tourists visit a destination, using functional technological-oriented magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) approach to track brain activation during the decision to select a destination.

The proposed model is adopted from the theory of planned behavior. Study participants divide a set of hotel destination images into two groups: attractive and non-attractive destination images. A blocked design experiment was used during fMRI scan to track brain activities resulting from presenting the two groups of images to participants, and record the strength of their intention to visit the attractive destination.

The level of brain activation at the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) increased when participants were asked to assess the attractive destination images compared with the level of activation for non-attractive ones. Also, the positive attitude toward an attractive destination led to higher intention to visit that destination.

This study enhances the authors’ understanding of how tourists analyze destination images to reach a decision on future action. It can also be used to help destination managers define an advertisement strategy that makes their destination more attractive.

Although the literature reports considerable research on destination image and its influence on tourists intention, this is the first exploratory study to use the fMRI technology to investigate tourists’ attitude toward destination images.

In light of the growing interest in neuroscience within the managerial and organizational cognition (MOC) scholarly domain at large, this chapter advances current knowledge on core neuroscience methods. It does so by building on the theoretical analysis put forward by Healey and Hodgkinson (2014, 2015), and by offering a thorough – yet accessible – methodological framework for a better understanding of key cognitive and social neuroscience methods. Classifying neuroscience methods based on their degree of resolution, functionality, and anatomical focus, the chapter outlines their features, practicalities, advantages and disadvantages. Specifically, it focuses on functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, heart rate variability, and skin conductance response. Equipped with knowledge of these methods, researchers will be able to further their understanding of the potential synergies between management and neuroscience, to better appreciate and evaluate the value of neuroscience methods, and to look at new ways to frame old and new research questions in MOC. The chapter also builds bridges between researchers and practitioners by rebalancing the hype and hopes surrounding the use of neuroscience in management theory and practice.

Halal markets are rapidly growing in terms of market size and global coverage; therefore, there is a critical demand to have a deeper understanding of the consumption behavior of Muslim consumers. This study aims to explore the influence of using the Halal logo on Muslim consumers’ attitudes toward food products using the neuroscience technology of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The theory of planned behavior represents the foundation of this research, where consumer attitudes during an fMRI experiment were evaluated based on two different groups of images: images of just the Halal logo and images of meat labeled with the Halal logo. The study used the blocked design approach to track brain responses produced from displaying the two groups of images to study participants, where brain activity represents participants’ attitudes toward selecting the products.

There were no significant variations in brain activity when participants viewed Halal and non-Halal logos; in contrast, there were significant brain changes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex region when meat images were labeled with Halal and non-Halal logos. This suggests that the Halal logo only has an influence on perception when it co-occurs with a product.

Tracking Muslim consumption patterns is important for managers to be able to establish strategies to target Muslim consumers. This study uses a unique technique to study the behavioral attitude of a rapidly growing market segment, which can help marketing managers tailor their advertisement strategies to be more effective.

Previous research on the consumption of Halal products uses conventional approaches to study the influence of the Halal logo; however, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the influence of the Halal logo on Muslim consumers’ attitudes using fMRI technology.

We develop a Bayesian approach for modeling brain activation and connectivity from functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) data. Our approach simultaneously estimates local hemodynamic response functions (HRFs) and activation parameters, as well as global effective and functional connectivity parameters. Existing methods assume identical HRFs across brain regions, which may lead to erroneous conclusions in inferring activation and connectivity patterns. Our approach addresses this limitation by estimating region-specific HRFs. Additionally, it enables neuroscientists to compare effective connectivity networks for different experimental conditions. Furthermore, the use of spike and slab priors on the connectivity parameters allows us to directly select significant effective connectivities in a given network.

We include a simulation study that demonstrates that, compared to the standard generalized linear model (GLM) approach, our model generally has higher power and lower type I error and bias than the GLM approach, and it also has the ability to capture condition-specific connectivities. We applied our approach to a dataset from a stroke study and found different effective connectivity patterns for task and rest conditions in certain brain regions of interest (ROIs).

To describe the utility of three of the main cognitive neuroscientific techniques currently in use within the neuroscience community, and how they can be applied to the emerging field of neuromarket research.

A brief development of functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography and transcranial magnetic stimulation are described, as the core principles are behind their respective use. Examples of actual data from each of the brain imaging techniques are provided to assist the neuromarketer with subsequent data for interpretation. Finally, to ensure the neuromarketer has an understanding of the experience of neuroimaging, qualitative data from a questionnaire exploring attitudes about neuroimaging techniques are included which summarize participants' experiences of having a brain scan.

Cognitive neuroscientific techniques have great utility in market research and can provide more “honest” indicators of consumer preference where traditional methods such as focus groups can be unreliable. These techniques come with complementary strengths which allow the market researcher to converge onto a specific research question. In general, participants considered brain imaging techniques to be relatively safe. However, care is urged to ensure that participants are positioned correctly in the scanner as incorrect positioning is a stressful factor during an imaging procedure that can impact data quality.

This paper is an important and comprehensive resource to the market researcher who wishes to use cognitive neuroscientific techniques.