Faculty

Meg Warren Named UConn MBA Director

Posted on by Claire Hall

Meg Warren, of South Windsor, has been appointed director of the Full-time MBA Program at UConn’s School of Business.

Warren has been an integral part of the success of the program, which is now ranked among the Top 25 public MBA programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The typical graduate of the program begins work with a base salary of more than $101,000. The program, which has approximately 100 students from Connecticut and across the world, is located in downtown Hartford at 100 Constitution Plaza.Continue Reading

On the Brink: Predicting Business Failure with Mobile Location-based Checkins.

Posted on by Nancy White

Decision Support Systems, 2015.

Joseph Pancras (Marketing). Co-authors: Ram Gopal (OPIM), Ramesh Shankar (OPIM), Lei Wang (Penn State University)

Consumers are increasingly using mobile services for engaging with firms in the offline world both directly through purchases and loyalty points redemptions, and indirectly through mobile gamification portals related to the retail outlet. One major such portal is Foursquare, the location-based service provider, which has been gaining popularity in the last few years. Continue Reading

Ackerman Faculty Scholars Announced

Posted on by Claire Hall

Five faculty members from the School of Business have been named Ackerman Scholars for academic years 2015-2017. They are: John Phillips of Accounting, Rex Santerre of Finance, Greg Reilly of Management, Girish Punj of Marketing and Bob Day of Operations and Information Management (OPIM).

Continuing from last year, for academic year 2015-2016, are: Qing Cao and Gary Powell of Management and Xue Bai, Jose Cruz and Suresh Nair of OPIM.

The Ackerman Scholar award recognizes significant and continuing all-round academic productivity among the faculty of the School, said Sulin Ba, associate dean of academic and research support. It is awarded to faculty who are not already supported by endowed chair, professorship, scholarship or fellowship appointments. The award is supported by the Ackerman Fund, the School of Business and the departments.

 

Managing Customer Acquisition Risk Using Co-operative Databases.

Posted on by Nancy White

Journal of Interactive Marketing, Volume 29, February 2015, Pages 39-56.

Authors: Hongju Liu and Joseph Pancras (Marketing). Co-author: Malcolm Houtz (Alliant Inc)

Firms typically have detailed information only about their own customers. In order to gain a broader view of customers across firms, several firms may pool their data together and engage an intermediary called a co-operative database firm to manage and analyze the pooled data to provide better targeting solutions for the firms. In this paper Professors Liu and Pancras study these interesting intermediaries by developing a framework for firms to manage customer acquisition risk using co-operative databases.Continue Reading

Investigating the Impact of Customer Stochasticity on Firm Price Discrimination Strategies using a New Bayesian Mixture Scale Heterogeneity Model

Posted on by Nancy White

Marketing Letters, 2015, 1-16.

Joseph Pancras (Marketing) and Dipak K. Dey (Statistics) Co-author: Xia Wang (University of Cincinnati)

Targeted marketing is increasingly popular among new media firms and accurate targeting requires well-calibrated statistical models which will identify customer preferences from their previous historical transactions so as to customize an offering to their needs. A typical example of such targeted marketing is customized pricing, where a price sensitive customer is given a coupon with a higher face value, while a less price sensitive or brand loyal customer may be given a lower face value or no coupon at all. Continue Reading

Thrive or Falter?

Posted on by Claire Hall

emotional intelligence

UConn Professor Finds that ‘Emotional Intelligence’ May Determine Whether Young Managers Succeed

UConn Management Professor Yuntao Dong and two of her colleagues believe they may have uncovered possible reasons why some young managers thrive in challenging new jobs, while others become frustrated and discouraged.

In an article published on the Harvard Business Review web site, Dong and her colleagues revealed the findings of their research that analyzed the “emotional intelligence” of 214 study participants. While all were highly intelligent, some of them were identified as having a better ability to deal with frustration, uncertainty and other challenges associated with new, demanding tasks.Continue Reading

An Empirical Model of Drug Detailing: Dynamic Competition and Policy Implications

Posted on by Nancy White

Management Science, forthcoming

Hongju Liu. Co-authors: Qiang Liu, Sachin Gupta, and Sriram Venkataraman

Although the pharmaceutical industry is mainly driven by innovation, it spends an enormous amount of money on marketing. Among various marketing vehicles, detailing – personal selling through representatives – accounts for the single largest expenditure. The vast amount of detailing spending in the pharmaceutical industry has drawn the attention of the public and of policy makers. As a result, the practice of detailing in the marketing of prescription drugs is undergoing significant changes. Continue Reading

How Competitor Brand Names Affect Within-Brand Choices

Posted on by Nancy White

Marketing Letters (forthcoming)

Kunter Gunasti and Berna Devezer

In a recent research forthcoming at Marketing Letters, Dr. Gunasti and his co-author show that consumer choices among different models of a brand name can be affected by exposure to a competitor brand name that forms an incidental trend with the numbers in the focal brand names. For instance, a consumer shopping for a Mercedes and trying to choose between a Mercedes C330 vs. C340 can be exposed to a competitor brand such as a BMW 320i, which increases the chances that he will leave the store with the higher number focal brand Mercedes C340. Although the competitor brand is not even available to choose and it is not considered, its mere presence seems to affect consumers’ focal choices.Continue Reading

A Day of Celebration

Posted on by Claire Hall

Robert Shiller, 2015 Commencement Speaker

Nobel-Prize Winning Professor Tells Business Graduates to Do Well, Do Good

The business world can sometimes seem like a vicious place, but as UConn School of Business graduates begin their professional careers, they should stay faithful to their moral compass and never lose sight of the well-being of the communities they serve.

That was the advice offered by graduation speaker Robert J. Shiller, the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. He is also the Sterling Professor of Economics and a professor and fellow in finance at Yale University.

Shiller spoke Sunday May 10 to an enthusiastic crowd of undergraduates, parents and friends under the dome of Gampel Pavilion. UConn President Susan Herbst and members of the Board of Trustees were also present. This year nearly 700 undergraduates received their bachelors’ degrees in business.Continue Reading