Profile
I am Professor of Customer Analytics at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam (in The Netherlands) and Academic Director of the Expert Practice on Customer Analytics at the Erasmus Center for Data Analytics.
My research focuses on how organizations can use data and AI to make better customer-centric decisions. I am particularly interested in personalization and targeting: whom to target, with which intervention, and when. Methodologically, my work draws on causal machine learning, experimentation, personalized policy design and evaluation, and algorithmic fairness. A central theme across my research is how to move beyond prediction toward decision-making—developing methods that help organizations identify which actions actually create value, while also considering their broader ethical and societal implications.
My work spans customer acquisition, development, and retention. I collaborate extensively with companies to translate methodological advances into real-world decision problems and to help organizations become more customer-centric.
My research has been published in leading journals including Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, and the International Journal of Research in Marketing. I received the IJRM Best Paper Award and have been awarded several major research grants, including a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship and Veni, Vidi, and Vici grants from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). I currently serve as Associate Editor at the International Journal of Research in Marketingand on the review boards of the Journal of Marketing Research and Marketing Science.
Beyond research, I am actively involved in academic and professional leadership. I serve as Chair of the European Marketing Academy’s CRM Special Interest Group and as Track Chair for Relationship Marketing at EMAC 2027. I am also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Ekimetrics, where I contribute to discussions on AI research, methodological innovation, and the economic and societal implications of AI.
I obtained my PhD in Business Statistics from KU Leuven, under the supervision of Christophe Croux and Marnik Dekimpe, after completing an MSc in Business Engineering at Solvay Business School. Before joining RSM, I held academic positions at Erasmus School of Economics and Tilburg University and was a visiting scholar at Harvard Business School and HEC Paris.
I also very much enjoy teaching. At RSM, I teach Customer Analytics in the MSc Business Analytics & Management and Creating Customer Value in the Executive MBA.
A substantial part of my work is developed in collaboration with organizations facing real customer analytics and AI challenges. If you are interested in exploring a research or industry collaboration, feel free to get in touch.
My CV is available here.
For more information, visit www.aurelielemmens.com
Publications
Highlighted (4)
-
Lemmens, A., Roos, J., Gabel, S., Ascarza, E., Bruno, H., Gordon, B., Israeli, A., McDonnell Feit, E., Mela, C., & Netzer, O. (2026). Personalization and Targeting: how to experiment, learn & optimize. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 43(2), 537-559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2025.07.004
-
Lemmens, A. (2025). Who Gets the Offer? Economic Objectives, Methodological Challenges and Ethical Considerations. ERIM Inaugural Addresses Research in Management Series.
-
Esterzon, E., Lemmens, A., & Van den Bergh, B. (2023). Enhancing donor agency to improve charitable giving: Strategies and heterogeneity. Journal of Marketing, 87(4), 636-655. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221148969
-
Lemmens, A., & Gupta, S. (2020). Managing churn to maximize profits. Marketing Science, 39(5), 956-973. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2020.1229
Article (16)
Academic (16)
-
Lemmens, A., Roos, J., Gabel, S., Ascarza, E., Bruno, H., Gordon, B., Israeli, A., McDonnell Feit, E., Mela, C., & Netzer, O. (2026). Personalization and Targeting: how to experiment, learn & optimize. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 43(2), 537-559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2025.07.004
-
Esterzon, E., Lemmens, A., & Van den Bergh, B. (2023). Enhancing donor agency to improve charitable giving: Strategies and heterogeneity. Journal of Marketing, 87(4), 636-655. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221148969
-
Pieters, C., Pieters, R., & Lemmens, A. (2022). Six Methods for Latent Moderation Analysis in Marketing Research: A Comparison and Guidelines. Journal of Marketing Research, 59(5), 941-962. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222437221077266
-
Lemmens, A., & Gupta, S. (2020). Managing churn to maximize profits. Marketing Science, 39(5), 956-973. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2020.1229
-
Ascarza, E., Neslin, S., Netzer, O., Anderson, Z., Fader, P., Gupta, S., Hardie, B., Lemmens, A., Libai, B., Neal, D., Provost, F., & Schrift, R. (2018). In pursuit of enhanced customer retention management. Customer Needs and Solutions, 5(1-2), 65-81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40547-017-0080-0
-
Glady, N., Lemmens, A., & Croux, C. (2015). Unveiling the relationship between the transaction timing, spending and dropout behavior of customers. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 32(1), 78-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2014.09.005
-
Verbeke, W., Bagozzi, RP., van den Berg, W., & Lemmens, A. (2013). Polymorphisms of the OXTR gene explain why sales professionals love to help customers. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 171. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00171
-
Lemmens, A., Croux, C., & Stremersch, S. (2012). Dynamics in the international market segmentation of new product growth. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 29(1), 81-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2011.06.003
-
Bijmolt, THA., Leeflang, PSH., Block, F., Eisenbeiss, M., Hardie, BGS., Lemmens, A., & Saffert, P. (2010). Analytics for customer engagement. Journal of Service Research, 13(3), 341-356. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670510375603
-
Stremersch, S., & Lemmens, A. (2009). Sales Growth of New Pharmaceuticals Across the Globe: the Role of Regulatory Regimes. Marketing Science, 28(4), 690-708. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1080.0440
-
Lemmens, A., Croux, C., & Dekimpe, MG. (2008). Measuring and Testing Granger Causality over the Spectrum: An Application to European Production Expectation Surveys. International Journal of Forecasting, 24(3), 414-431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijforecast.2008.03.004
-
Lemmens, A., Croux, C., & Dekimpe, MG. (2007). Consumer Confidence in Europe: Unity or Diversity. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 24(2), 113-127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2006.10.006
-
Gelper, S., Lemmens, A., & Croux, C. (2007). Consumer Sentiment and Consumer Spending: Decomposing the Granger Causal Relationship in the Time Domain. Applied Economics, 39(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036840500427791
-
Croux, C., Joossens, K., & Lemmens, A. (2007). Trimmed Bagging. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 52(1), 362-368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csda.2007.06.012
-
Lemmens, A., & Croux, C. (2006). Bagging and Boosting Classification Trees to Predict Churn. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(2), 276-286. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.43.2.276
-
Lemmens, A., Croux, C., & Dekimpe, MG. (2005). On the Predictive Content of Production Surveys: a Pan-European Study. International Journal of Forecasting, 21(2), 363-375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijforecast.2004.10.004
Conference proceeding (2)
Academic (2)
-
Puha, Z., Kaptein, M., & Lemmens, A. (2021). Batch Mode Active Learning for Individual Treatment Effect Estimation. In G. Di Fatta, V. Sheng, A. Cuzzocrea, C. Zaniolo, & X. Wu (Eds.), Proceedings - 20th IEEE International Conference on Data Mining Workshops, ICDMW 2020 (pp. 859-866). Article 9346484 IEEE Computer Society. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICDMW51313.2020.00123
-
Croux, C., Joossens, K., & Lemmens, A. (2004). Bagging a stacked classifier. In Proceedings in Computational Statistics (pp. 839-855)
Inaugural speech (1)
Popular (1)
-
Lemmens, A. (2025). Who Gets the Offer? Economic Objectives, Methodological Challenges and Ethical Considerations. ERIM Inaugural Addresses Research in Management Series.
Working paper (2)
Academic (2)
-
Lemmens, A., & Gupta, S. (2019). Managing churn to maximize profits. Harvard Business School. http://hdl.handle.net/1765/121652
-
Pieters, C., & Lemmens, A. (2015). Acquiring customers via word-of-mouth referrals. Marketing Science Institute.
Awards
- ERIM Open Science Award (2021)
- ERIM Open Science Award 2021 (2021)
- IJRM Best Paper Award (2013) - together with Stefan Stremersch
- IJRM Best Paper Award 2012 (2012)
Featured in the media
-
The Secret to Fundraising: Allow Donors to Choose How Their Money Is Spent
Empowering Donors: How Allowing Choice Boosts Charitable Fundraising
Tuesday, 31 January 2023 -
The right way to manage customer churn for maximum profit
An article co-written by Aurelie Lemmens of RSM that describes how companies can more than double profits from customer retention, without expending any additional money or effort.
Monday, 13 July 2020 -
The Right Way to Manage Churn for Maximum Profit
An article discussing research which was co-written by Aurelie Lemmens of RSM, the paper describes how companies can more than double profits from customer retention, without expending any additional money or effort. …
Monday, 6 July 2020
Featured on RSM Discovery
Allowing donors to choose the charitable project to which their gifts will be dedicated increase fundraising revenues by over 40%
