The Marketing Department hosted an interesting variety of speakers for the Spring 2016 Marketing Department Research Series. This set of speakers reflects the diverse research interests of the marketing faculty. The Marketing Department Research Series seeks to keep abreast of the latest research of leading scholars in the field as well as provide opportunities for doctoral students to interact with these scholars from around the world.  

Redefining Home: How Thoughts About Cultural Distinctiveness Affects the Malleability of In-Group Boundaries and Brand Preferences

Carlos Torelli, associate professor of marketing at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota presented on Friday, March 11, a paper titled, “Redefining Home: How Thoughts About Cultural Distinctiveness Affects the Malleability of In-Group Boundaries and Brand Preferences.”  This research examines how consumers change their attitudes toward familiar products when they perceive themselves different from others on a cultural level.  Torelli demonstrates that consumers biasedly process products from “home” even to the extent that they expand the boundaries of “home” when their cultural differences are highlighted as being unique among a group.  He then discusses the interesting implications for brand managers and consumers.

Influencing Behavior with a Question: A Review and Some New Research

David E. Sprott, professor of marketing, Washington State University, and the Carson College of Business senior associate dean, gave a research seminar on Friday, April 1, titled, “Influencing Behavior with a Question: A Review and Some New Research.”  Sprott presented a meta analysis on this interesting research stream which examines the effect of mere questioning of a topic on the future behavior of participants being questioned. Examples include increasing desirable behavior and reducing undesirable behavior such as decreasing the tendency to cheat, and increasing the tendency to recycle in the long run.

Only the Interested Learn – A Model of Proactive Learning of Product Reviews

Liye Ma, assistant professor of marketing, University of Maryland, presented on Friday, April 22, a paper titled, “Only the Interested Learn – A Model of Proactive Learning of Product Reviews.”  Ma develops a sequential learning model to analyze how consumers proactively acquire product quality information through reading online product reviews. In this model, whether a consumer reads reviews, and of which products, depend on the consumer’s information set and expectations. This research finds strong evidence of consumers consciously seeking product reviews, and different consumer segments exhibit distinct information acquisition behaviors.