Rate My Professor Tom van Laer

Tom van Laer is Associate Professor of Narratology in the Discipline of Marketing at the University of Sydney Business School. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Marketing from Maastricht University, completing his doctorate between 2007 and 2011. Prior to his appointment at the University of Sydney, van Laer held the position of Senior Lecturer and later Reader (Associate Professor) in Marketing at Cass Business School, City University of London. He also served as Assistant Professor of Consumer Research in the Department of Marketing at ESCP Europe Business School. At the University of Sydney, he additionally acted as Deputy Head of the Discipline of Marketing.

Van Laer's research specializations center on narratology, storytelling, narrative transportation, persuasive language and verbal persuasion in marketing, social media influences on consumer behaviour and word-of-mouth, extraordinary experiences including pilgrimages, live-action role-playing, and consumer reviews, as well as ethical implications of narratives and analytical versus narrative processing. Employing advanced methods such as multimethod meta-analyses, automated text analysis, discourse analysis of reviews, EEG neuroimaging studies on attention, working memory, emotion, and imagination, and experimental investigations, his work elucidates how narratives shape consumer persuasion and decision-making. Key publications include 'The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model: A Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Consumers’ Narrative Transportation' (Journal of Consumer Research, 2014), 'Need for Narrative' (Journal of Marketing Management, 2018), 'Storytelling in the Digital Era: A Meta-Analysis of Relevant Moderators of the Narrative Transportation Effect' (Journal of Business Research, 2019), 'What Happens in Vegas Stays on TripAdvisor? A Theory and Technique to Understand Narrativity in Consumer Reviews' (Journal of Consumer Research, 2019), 'There and Back Again: Bleed from Extraordinary Experiences' (Journal of Consumer Research, 2022), and 'Verbal Persuasion in Marketing: A Multimethod Meta-Analysis of Analytical and Narrative Processing' (Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2025). Van Laer has received the University of Sydney Academic Staff Prize for outstanding contribution to Teaching and Learning, conference research awards from the Association for Consumer Research including Best Competitive Paper, and was a finalist for the 2025 Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science Sheth Medal. He has contributed expert commentary to University of Sydney publications on topics such as the power of stories to help or hinder progress, vaccine passports addressing hesitancy, soap operas enabling social change, and the energy sector's responsibilization of consumers in the climate crisis.