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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

‘Coaching to Overcome Fear’

Posted on by Claire Hall

Assaiante

Paul Assaiante, the Trinity College men’s squash coach, spoke to 150 business leaders about ‘coaching to overcome fear’ at a luncheon May 7 at The Hartford Club in Hartford. The event was sponsored by the financial planning firm of Bradley, Foster & Sargent Inc. in association with Trinity College and the UConn School of Business. Assaiante led the men’s squash team to its 19th consecutive championship this year. The team holds the longest winning streak of any college team in any sport in history under Coach Assaiante’s leadership.

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

New MBA Case Study Tackles Trillion Dollar Changes in Mutual Fund Distribution Channels

Posted on by Nancy White

cash flow

Mutual funds are a core element of retirement and investment plans, representing roughly $1 of every $5 held in the bank or financial accounts of US households. In April, MBA students in Professor Mary Caravella’s MBA Marketing classes analyzed how mutual fund products from the roughly 800 fund companies in the industry currently reach the roughly 57 million households who own them, and then debated how one market leader, Capital Group/American Funds, should address some potential profound market forces affecting their retail go-to-market strategy. Continue Reading

MSBAPM Among Top 2015 Predictive Analytics Programs

Posted on by Anna Radziwillowicz

Predictive Analytics Today – According to a McKinsey Global Institute report, by 2018, the United States alone could face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep analytical skills as well as 1.5 million managers and analysts with data science knowledge for the analysis of big data to make effective decisions. UConn’s MS in Business Analytics and Project Management (MSBAPM) is among Predictive Analytics Today‘s top (unranked) Predictive Analytics and Data Analytics programs, which provide training both in management and data analytics.

Smart Pricing Strategies for Generating Higher Conversions

Posted on by Melissa Ferrigno

Marketing Profs – Consumers are sensitive to the text size of discounted prices on price tags and product advertisements,  according to researchers Keith Coulter and Robin Coulter from Clark University and the University of Connecticut, respectively. They found that consumers perceive price to be significantly lower when the reduced price is printed in a smaller font than that of the original price.