Year: 2014


The Relationship between Consumer Characteristics and Willingness to Pay for General Online Content: Implications for Content Providers Considering Subscription-based Business Models

Marketing Letters (forthcoming)

Girish N. Punj.

“People hate, hate, hate to subscribe to things on the Internet” (Bill Gates, 2005)

Over the past decade, there has been a substantial increase in the demand for online content, but there has been little change in consumers’ willingness to pay for it.Continue Reading


The Impact of Local Knowledge on Banking

Journal of Financial Services Research (forthcoming)

Robert Bird. Co-author: John Knopf

Do geographic factors influence the performance and behavior of modern banks? Advances in technology and global information sharing have seemingly made geographic characteristics irrelevant, but a bank with geographic advantages can have a positive impact on bank performance. A key factor influencing the geographic literature is the concept of local knowledge, i.e., information that influences bank decision making but is not readily transmittable beyond a limited geographic boundary. Banks possessing local knowledge can offer products and services to qualified local borrowers that other less informed banks might overlook, including for example a more diverse portfolio of products and services to start-ups and small businesses.

Using a combination of bank performance data, and differences in state laws allowing employers to require and enforce non-compete agreements, Professor Bird and his co-author find that strong not-to-compete laws restricting employee mobility in a state negatively impact the incidence of new bank charters while benefiting incumbent employers. Restrictions on the mobility of local knowledge decrease labor expenses because workers lack the bargaining power of being able to take a job with a local rival. Results indicate that increases in labor restrictions are positively correlated with profitability for established banks.  Thus, geographically-specific human capital remains an important differentiating factor that influences bank behavior and competition counter to standard theoretical accounts that might imply otherwise.


Targeted Social Transparency as Global Corporate Strategy

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business (forthcoming)

Stephen Park.

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are subject to a variety of U.S. laws that require public disclosure of their global activities, including adverse social and environmental impacts. In this article, Professor Stephen Park examines the recent emergence of mandatory disclosure requirements under U.S. federal securities law that require MNEs to disclose certain social impacts in order to address geographically-defined and/or issue-specific public policy objectives, collectively referred to as “targeted social transparency” (or “TST”). Compared to other social transparency laws, TST regimes target a set of intertwined social risks specific to an individual country, region, or industry.Continue Reading


2014 Marketing Faculty Awards

  • Nicholas Lurie, associate professor of marketing, received the School of Business 2014 Best Paper Award for his Journal of Marketing Research article, “Temporal Contiguity and Negativity Bias in the Impact of Online Word of Mouth,” co-authored with Zoey Chen, University of Miami.
  • Bill Ross, Voya Financial Global Chair and professor of marketing,  and coauthors Hang Thu Nguyen, Michigan State University, and Joseph Golec, University of Connecticut, received the Best Paper Award in the Branding Track at the 2014 American Marketing Association Winter Educators Conference for their paper titled, Acquisition Value Creation: The Role of Marketing Relationships in Uncertain Environments.
  • Girish Punj, professor of marketing, received the School of Business Graduate Teaching Award.

Marketing News and Notes

Adam B. Camara ’03 is the co-founder of the national internet marketing firm, Network for Solutions.

Betsey B. Gainey ’97 is the 2014 winner of Hartford Business Journal’s 40 under 40. Gainey is currently the vice president and director of client services at Cronin and Company, the largest full-service independent marketing communications agency in Connecticut.

Gregg B. Schuster ’05 MBA will resign as the First Selectman in Colchester, Connecticut to take on the challenge of managing a town in transition in Pocono Township, Pennsylvania.

Rita J. Ugianskis-Fishman ’88, ’95 MBA has been named vice president and general manager of The ASI Show. Ugianskis-Fishman was most recently managing director of Penton’s Waste Industry Group and is an accomplished trade show executive.


“Display: Marketing as Art” – A Collaboration with the School of Fine Arts

Marketing as Art Photo, Contemporary Art Galleries

Display: Marketing as Art,” an exhibition at the Contemporary Art Galleries in Spring 2014, featured the works of artists Martin Basher of New Zealand, Gabriele Beveridge of London, Dike Blair of New York, Josephine Meckseper of Germany, and Mika Tajima of Los Angeles. Barry Rosenberg, curator of CAG, transformed the gallery into an open space revealing the glass windows along the street-side of the gallery, “I wanted to take advantage of the reflected image, recreating retail space,” Rosenberg says. “Each use sculpture or work of art individually, but also together. The floor is painted red. It’s all about high-end design and product.” The artists’ works offered a fresh look at Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” and illustrate, engage, and challenge the visual language of commercialism.

On April 14, 2014, Barry Rosenberg hosted a symposium with Martin Basher, Dike Blair, and Mika Tajima presenting their work and Robin Coulter, professor of marketing, sharing observations of art, commercialization, and marketing. The Marketing Department was a sponsor of the exhibition.

‘Paradise Sale,’ a work by Martin Basher of New Zealand, is a mixed media work that includes Plexiglas, aluminum, and fluorescent lights. Located outdoors, at night it reveals a painting of a sunset beach.



“Newman’s Own” Awards Totaling $200,000 Presented to Five Military Care Initiatives

 

PR Web – General Martin E. Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided remarks at the 15th annual Newman’s Own Award Ceremony at the Pentagon on Wednesday, as awards totaling $200,000 were presented to five non-profit organizations for their innovative programs to improve military quality of life.