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“I’m Moral But I Won’t Help You” – The Distinct Roles of Empathy and Justice in Donations

Posted on by Melissa Ferrigno

Journal of Consumer Research, (forthcoming)

William T. Ross, Jr. Co-Authors: Saerom Lee, Karen Page Winterich

Americans tend to think of donating to charitable causes as a moral, prosocial behavior, but understanding what makes people donate is not well understood. Professor Bill Ross and his colleagues examine how moral identity, defined as “how important being a moral person is” affects prosocial behaviors. Usually having a strong moral identity increases how much prosocial behavior the person engages in. However, sometimes individuals with a strong moral identity make lower donations to charitable causes. Four studies demonstrate that someone high in moral identity gives less when those whom they would be helping, the recipients, are seen by the potential donor as personally responsible for their plight, for example if they have AIDS because they shared hypodermic needles while taking illegal drugs.

Further analyses reveal that empathy and justice underlie these effects. Specifically, people high in moral identity increase donations to recipients who they view as not responsible for their plight out of empathy and decrease donations to recipients who they see as responsible for their plight because of justice concerns. Additionally and interestingly, people who are high in moral identity will donate to recipients who are responsible for their plight if donors are made aware of their own immorality, as it causes them have greater fellow-feeling, or empathy, for these recipients. Study results indicate that moral identity, empathy, and justice in communication programs are likely to affect donations.

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

Posted on by Nancy White

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

Posted on by Melissa Ferrigno

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

Posted on by Melissa Ferrigno

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

Posted on by Melissa Ferrigno
  • 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

Posted on by Melissa Ferrigno

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

Posted on by Melissa Ferrigno

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.

From Contest to Success: Following iQ Startups

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Something that gives me* an immense amount of enjoyment is the advising that I do with student start-ups from the UConn Innovation Quest program. This program is a contest with real cash awards as well as a six week incubator program that puts the student teams directly in touch with start-up experts as well as investors. Just having a cool or innovative idea isn’t enough to compete. The purpose of the iQ program is to create real businesses that have the potential to generate revenue, jobs and growth.

The UConn program is run by Richard Dino, a professor from the School of Business with an endless amount of enthusiasm and encouragement. Keith Fox ’80, an alumnus of UConn, provides iQ support from the national program level. In addition to Rich and Keith, there are twenty or more individuals both inside and outside the University who provide mentoring and other program support.

There are many success stories that have emerged out of the program, but here is a handful of the companies with whom I have regularly stayed in touch. Congratulations to all of these business founders who are now working on their companies full-time!

Macroscopic Solutions

“Whoa, that is cool…” is what I typically hear when I show people images produced from the Macropod. No one can deny that the high resolution photos rank high on coolness.

Macroscopic Solutions, founded by Connecticut-based Mark Smith ’13 MS (CLAS), provides high-resolution imaging products for scientific researchers. Although their primary focus is to enhance scientific discovery, their product is also very popular among manufacturers, fabricators, machinists and mechanical engineers for quality, control and failure testing. Along with Mark, the team includes Daniel Saftner, Annette Evans and Jake Bellaire.

The Macropod is an automated photomacrography system that can rapidly capture and assemble multiple images. The images are post-processed so that only the areas in focus will appear in the final image. The result is an ultra-high-resolution, color image that is completely in focus and rivals that of a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).

The technology used in the Macropod was invented while Mark Smith was still in high school. Through his program of donating one Macropod to a school for every 10 that they sell, Mark is giving back by encouraging kids to pursue careers in STEM-related fields.

The Macropod is currently available and Mark is busy selling his product by attending trade shows and providing demos to organizations in a number of scientific and research-oriented industries.

I suppose it is no surprise that I share a bond with other fellow entrepreneurs like Mark that emerged from the UConn Department of Geology and Geophysics (now known as the Center of Integrative Geosciences).

Macroscopic Solutions can be found at www.macroscopicsolutions.com and an amazing treasure trove of images can be found here.

Dashride

After a successful launch to six universities to help college students find a safe ride home after a night of partying, Dashride made a brilliant pivot of their business concept: their technology is now a software platform that allows independent taxi and limo companies to compete with the big on-demand taxi and ride-share services.

Founded by Nadav Ulman ’12 (CLAS) and Tom Bachant ’13 (ENG), Dashride is following a start-up pattern that involves building a solid product while courting the angel and VC investor community. They have successfully completed a round of angel funding (I am among those initial investors) and are close to closing a seed round that will net them close to $1MM in working capital.

Dashride’s platform allows independent taxi and limo companies to take advantage of the ever-expanding rideshare industry. They accomplish this by providing a SaaS-based platform with minimal up-front investment. They currently have 5 employees and are based in New York City.

Dashride was recently featured in the New York Times business section in an article highlighting tech companies who are enabling small businesses to compete in larger markets. You can read that New York Times article here.

Smpl Bio

Another company that successfully emerged from the first iQ program at UConn was Smpl Bio, founded by James Lindsay ’07 (ENG), ’09 MS and Ed Hemphill. Their company simplifies the process of biomarker selection for scientific researchers through the design and use of their proprietary algorithms.

Biomarkers are used in the bio-medical world to infer the existence of a particular disease, infection or condition. The Smpl Bio team is developing a software platform to allow researchers world-wide to more quickly identify biomarkers for the diseases or conditions that are being studied. The ability to quickly identify the existence of a condition or disease has obvious benefits in terms of speed to treatment.

The team has successfully raised funds through the Connecticut Innovations Challenge Grant program as well as the University of Connecticut Third Bridge Grant. With those funds they have expanded the full-time team to include three new programmers who are doing web development and scientific programming.

James tells me that they are planning on bringing on a full-time technical sales person and veteran bio-science CEO by year end. They also have an impressive and experienced team of scientists and business advisors backing them up.

They are currently finishing up their scalable, cloud-based solution. They are targeting a Q1 2015 date for the general availability of their platform both in the US and internationally.

More Businesses On Their Way!

The 2014 iQ program recently wrapped up and I’m optimistic about the potential success of that next round of new, emerging businesses. I’m also looking forward to the next round of entrepreneurs and their ideas this coming fall!

*This article was written by Rick Kollmeyer ’82 (CLAS), alumni mentor for the UConn Innovation Quest program, and first appeared on the Blue Edge Labs blog on August 12.