In Philip Dick’s “A Minority Report,” Tom Cruise walks through a mall where his character’s name is called out by a screen and he is addressed for an ultra-targeted Guinness ad.Continue Reading
Joseph Pancras
A Message from the Associate Dean of Research
Fall 2017 Research eNewsletter
Hello to friends and colleagues across the country and around the world!
The beginning of a new academic year is filled with energy and excitement, both for our students and our faculty. This year that momentum is augmented by a team of new faculty members who bring both extensive research accomplishments and a love of teaching to UConn. Continue Reading
UConn Hosts CIBER Case Challenge
Unique Competition Requires Strong Knowledge; Fosters Quick Team Bonding, Personal Growth
The UConn Center for International Business and Education Research (CIBER) held its 14th Annual Case Challenge in October and the event included business case brainstorming, forging new friendships and a day trip to Boston. Continue Reading
If You Slash the Price, They Will Come!

Professor Joseph Pancras Identifies Best Sale Items to Lure Customers Away From Other Grocery Stores
If you want to increase grocery store sales, offer a discount on beer. And then place a tempting display of salty snacks right next to it—at full price.
That’s some of the well-researched advice that marketing professor Joseph Pancras and his colleagues offer grocery store executives in a newly published article in the Journal of Retailing. Continue Reading
Do Deep Promotional Discounts Work? New Study Sheds Light on Strategy
University of Arkansas – Many retailers employ discounts to attract customers, but it can be difficult for businesses to know what effect these discounts have on overall store performance, and few studies have analyzed store-level data to know for sure whether this strategy works.
Deep Discounts Work for Supermarkets
University at Buffalo – For grocery retailers, the tried-and-true strategy of deep discount promotions is a successful one, according to a new study from the University at Buffalo School of Management.
Walmart to Close 269 Stores, 154 of them in the U.S.
On the Brink: Predicting Business Failure with Mobile Location-based Checkins.
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
Managing Customer Acquisition Risk Using Co-operative Databases.
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
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