Stephen J. Hoch is the Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor and Director of Wharton's Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative. Professor Hoch is internationally known for research on retail merchandising, assortment, pricing, and promotion strategy. He consults extensively with leading consumer goods manufacturers and retailers around the world, assisting them in focusing retail strategies and improving pricing and merchandising tactics via point-of-sale data.

Most recently, Professor Hoch's research offered retailers new insights into a valuable sub-species of shopper, the "cherry picker," a shopper who visits more than one store looking for the best price per unit. The study provided new details about the specific behavior and demographic characteristics of such shoppers, information that will help managers better formulate their approach to attracting discriminating shoppers.

A prolific scholar, Professor Hoch's research has been published in top-tier academic journals including the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science and the Journal of Retailing. He also serves as an Associate Editor for Management Science, the Journal of Consumer Research and other leading journals, is a past president of the Association for Consumer Research, and has won numerous academic awards.

Professor Hoch's teaching interests include courses in Marketing Management, Pricing, Consumer Behavior, Retailing and Marketing-Operations Integration, as well as teaching Competitive Marketing Strategy, Essentials of Marketing and Pricing Strategies for Wharton's Executive MBA program.