Meet our faculty

Satoko Suzuki received her MBA and DBA from Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University. She has held faculty positions at the Graduate School of Management, Kyoto University; Kyoto Sangyo University; Waseda University; Waseda Business School; and University of Brawijaya, Indonesia.

Prior to joining academia, Professor Suzuki had worked in the industry including product management at Nihon L’Oreal and consulting at Boston Consulting Group. She continues to bridge academia and practice; she is active in providing consulting and training on marketing and design thinking to companies. She serves as an external board member including Lawson, Inc. (until 2024), Stanley Electric Co., Ltd. and M3, Inc. She is also a frequent contributor and commentator for Japanese and global news media, both print and broadcast. She is a regular commentator for FNN Live News α, Fuji Television and Digital Nikkei.

Professor Suzuki’s current research interests cover various themes in marketing and consumer behavior. She has been invited to various academic conferences to present research, and has been actively providing advice to central and local governments.

Professor Suzuki is also active in academic research. Her representative papers include:

• "When a smile does no good: Creativity reduction among avoidance- versus approach-oriented individuals in dyadic interactions” in International Journal of Innovation Management (won Best Presentation Award at the 78th Annual Convention of the Japanese Psychological Association and featured as a newspaper article in Mainichi Shimbun, June 22, 2016)
• "Emotional fortification: Indulgent consumption and emotion reappraisal and their implications for well-being” in Journal of Consumer Behaviour (Top 10% Most Downloaded Papers 2018-2019)
• "Consumer evaluation of healthy, unpleasant-tasting food and the post-taste effect of positive information” in Food Quality and Preference (won Honorable Mention Award at the Japan Society for Commodity Science 2020)
• "Re-examination of the role of media in the meaning-construction system: Creation of meaning by media” (Japanese) in Studies on Commodities (won Honorable Mention Award at the Japan Society for Commodity Science 2015)
• "The diffusion of innovation and legitimation process: The case of ‘jibun e no gohoubi’ [self-reward] consumption” (Japanese) in Hitotsubashi Business Review (won Best Paper Award at the Hitotsubashi University IIR Summer School 2011)