Marketing


Dean Elliott’s ‘Alumni Town Hall’ to Address the Changing Role of Business Education

UConn Today – If you graduated from the School of Business a decade or more ago, you probably wouldn’t recognize some of the curriculum today.

“Our students are exploring newer areas of study, including entrepreneurship, data analytics, and financial technology, as they prepare to enter a rapidly changing workforce,’’ said Dean John A. Elliott. “This is a remarkable and exciting time at the School of Business and I’m eager to talk about what has changed and why.’’

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Voya Colloquium explores Consumer Financial Decision Making

2023 Voya Guest Speakers
John Lynch, Rafael Becerril Arreola, Rebecca Hamilton, and Robert Lawless

The Marketing Department at the UConn School of Business hosted its 11th annual Voya Financial Colloquium on the topic of “Consumer Financial Decision Making.” The event, held on Oct 13th, 2023, brought together researchers from across the country to discuss how consumers respond to a changing financial landscape, the challenges they face in navigating financial systems and how their interactions within a broader social context influence their financial decisions.

“The study of consumer financial decision making explores how consumers accumulate and use financial resources over time and is a fast-growing area of research within the field of marketing,” said UConn Marketing professor Christina Kan in opening remarks.

Professor Kan, who organized the event, went on to discuss how financial decision making is also of interest to many other disciplines, noting “Our goal for this colloquium was to look at the topic of consumer financial decision making from a variety of different perspectives, and we’re delighted to have a panel of speakers from diverse backgrounds.”

The colloquium featured four distinguished speakers – Professors John Lynch, Rafael Becerril Arreola, Rebecca Hamilton, and Robert Lawless – each of whom approached the topic from different perspectives – including marketing and law – as well as different methodologies – including experimental, econometric, and ethnographic approaches.

The colloquium fostered an energetic discourse between speakers and participants, including marketing and law faculty and doctoral students from UConn, UMass and URI.

Below are profiles of the guest speakers and an abstract of their presentations:

John Lynch, Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, delved into the complex relationship between financial knowledge, financial behavior, and financial well-being. Lynch highlighted two prevalent approaches to improving consumer financial well-being: financial education and behavioral interventions, often referred to as “nudging.” He introduced the concept of “just in time” financial education, positioning it between these two approaches.

Lynch used these concepts as a springboard for discussion on his recent research into a pressing issue – employees cashing out their 401(k) retirement savings when changing jobs. In a comprehensive study covering 162,360 terminating employees, Lynch and his coauthors found that over 40% of individuals leaked their 401(k) savings, cashing out at job separation, with employer contribution proportions influencing the likelihood of leakage. The findings underscored the unintended consequences of well-intentioned employer matches, revealing the delicate balance between supporting employees and inadvertently encouraging financial decisions that undermine long-term well-being.

Rafael Becerril Arreola, Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina, focused on the impact of product price rankings on consumer choice. His research addressed Veblen effects and counter-effects, investigating how product prices signal consumer wealth. Using a quasi-experimental approach, Becerril Arreola’s approach addresses potential identification threats. His analysis capitalized on a rich dataset on automobile rentals to demonstrate that consumer sensitivity to local rankings of selling-prices is highly heterogeneous, often negative, and comparable in magnitude to consumer sensitivity to rental fees. The study highlights the role that prices play in wealth signaling effects and suggests that conspicuous consumption may be more significant than previously estimated.

Rebecca Hamilton, the Michael G. and Robin Psaros Chair in Business Administration at Georgetown University, explored the challenges families face in responding to resource scarcity. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 30 diverse families, Hamilton developed a framework illustrating how multi-dimensional, concurrent and/or consecutive life events (such as job changes, house moves or child birth) create mismatches between available and required resources, triggering situational resource scarcity. The study identified various patterns of adjustments in consumption and resource investment over time, and how they are influenced by families’ chronic resource constraints and availability of support networks. Hamilton notes that that the flexibility afforded by multiple family members is constrained by collective goals, domains of control, tensions, and negotiations within families.

Robert Lawless, the Max L. Rowe Professor of Law at the University of Illinois, provided a thought-provoking presentation on the bankruptcy system and the experiences of individuals navigating financial distress. Using data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a long-running study of persons who file bankruptcy, Lawless highlighted the prevalence of personal bankruptcy in the U.S., noting that roughly one in ten Americans have filed bankruptcy at some point during their lives. His presentation focused on two themes. The first centered around the legal and economic consequences of filing bankruptcy and how legal services are marketed just like everything else. The second theme illustrated life in the “sweatbox,” shedding light on the financial precarity and distress that individuals endure in the years leading up to bankruptcy filing.


Marketing Students Played a Pivotal Role in Creating a Safer UConn

UConn Today – Capt. Justin Gilbert believed the new LiveSafe app offered by the UConn Police Department could be a potential lifesaver for students—if only they knew about it.

But after a semester of availability, the app had only 400 active users.

“We weren’t getting much traction,’’ Gilbert says. “And that was really frustrating because this app has really great safety features.’’

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Popular Business-Law Series Kicks Off With Discussion of College Athletes’ Rights Movement

UConn Today – The School of Business’ popular Equity Now Speaker Series resumes this fall with a discussion about the relatively new opportunity for college athletes to profit from the use of their name, image and likeness.

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U.S. News Ranks UConn Undergrad Business Program in the Top 50 Nationwide

Uconn Today – In a new report released on Monday, U.S. News & World Report ranked the undergraduate program at the UConn School of Business among the Top 50 in the nation.

The program is ranked No. 47, based on peer assessment by deans and senior faculty members at other highly-regarded colleges. UConn tied with UMass for the top public undergraduate business education in the New England.

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School of Business Welcomes Four Experienced Faculty to its Ranks

UConn Today – The School of Business has added four faculty members to its ranks, all with extensive classroom experience. The new professors include a trio of OPIM experts, who will be based in Stamford, and a former LEGO-company innovator who is joining the Marketing Department.

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Big Changes for Big Business as EU Human Rights Law Nears Enactment

UConn Today – The European Union will soon require thousands of large companies to actively look for and reduce human rights abuses and environmental damage in their supply chains. And although it’s an EU law, it will also cover foreign businesses – including American ones – that have operations in the region.

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Marketing Professor Bill Ryan is Honored with Undergrad Career Mentor Award

UConn Today – Marketing professor Bill Ryan has been selected as the recipient of the Student Nominated Undergraduate Faculty Career Mentor of the Year for the 2022-2023 academic year. The award is presented to an individual who has exceled as a career mentor.

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Business Law Professor Robert Bird Honored for Impactful, Enduring Contributions to the Discipline

UConn Today – Business law professor Robert Bird has been awarded one of the highest honors in his field by his colleagues, who recognized him for outstanding research and professional contributions to the discipline.

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Nine Named To Fulbright US Student Program For 2023-24

UConn Today – Nine UConn students have been selected as recipients of a grant through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program for the 2023-24 academic year. The program provides grants for individually designed study and research projects or for English teaching assistantships around the world. Students meet, work, live with, and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences.

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