Tom Flanagan’s Winning Power is an impressive piece of writing. This is because it combines academic research with practical knowledge of campaigning. Flanagan worked for a variety of “Conservative” parties. This is in addition to being a professor which has given him great experience to draw upon in helping with understanding Canadian electioneering. Positioning And…
Author: neilbendle
Neil is an Associate Professor Marketing at the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia. He investigates the measurement of marketing performance, the accounting/marketing interface, and the impact of non-standard decision making in commercial and political markets.
Neil is the Chair of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board advisors. He is co-author of Marketing Metrics: The Manager’s Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance (3rd edition) Wharton School Press and is co-author of a cartoon book: Behavioural Economics for Kids.
The Gauntlet Of Attacks On Behavioral Economics
Richard Thaler‘s Misbehaving may be one of my favorite academic books. The author packed the book with interesting thoughts, covers numerous important ideas, and even is amusingly candid about his colleagues. Over the coming months, I’ll occasionally cover his key points (see here and here). In this post I’ll discuss “the gauntlet”; a list of predictable…
Being Wiser Through Less Happy Talk
Sunstein and Hastie in Wiser have produced a useful book. They discuss being wiser through less happy talk. Group Decision-Making Many elements of their text will be familiar to those who read popular decision-making books. That said, the ideas are well explained and practically applicable. The added interest is that Sunstein served in the Obama…
Confusion About Individual Rationality and Market Outcomes
Amongst marketing scholars there is a lot of confusion regarding individual rationality and market outcomes. There is also plenty of blame to go around for the confusion. Marketing’s Two Groups Who Politely Ignore One Another In marketing we have bifurcated into two groups. Psychologically trained scholars often suggest that economically trained scholars all believe in…
Fitting Marketing Messages To The Circumstances
Fitting marketing messages to the circumstances is a critical skill. There isn’t a perfect message irrespective of context. People Hate Marketing As a marketing professor, it is always fun to hear how people hate marketing. Sometimes people: A) simply only really hate bad marketing. B) don’t appreciate that marketing is broader than selling/advertising/communications. Of course,…
Judging The Performance Of Marketing Academics
I enjoy measures of academic productivity. Many of my colleagues are suspicious. To be fair, they often have reasonable concerns. Judging the performance of marketing academics is hard. Many measures are of debatable accuracy. Still, I don’t see that as a reason to give up on them. Without measures, we are left with subjectivity. The Problem…
Evolutionary Psychology And Sustainability
Academic research isn’t always immediately applicable. This is not a bad thing, part of the aim of academic research is to wander into new territory. It is not surprising if often this isn’t directly applicable today. It is interesting, however, when academics try and bring their perspectives to more practical problems. Vladas Griskevicius, Stephanie M….
Should We Get Rid Of Irrationality? Perhaps, What Is Irrationality?
Dan Ariely is a very enjoyable writer and an excellent researcher. That said I find his central theme of “irrationality” a problem. It is hard to know what people mean when they talk about irrationality. My central question is: What Is Irrationality? Advice To The Irrational In his advice book, Irrationally Yours, readers ask Ariely…
Some Excellent Advice
Dan Ariely clearly has a lot of fun writing his newspaper column. He has an edited volume of his advice, Irrationally Yours, which contains some excellent advice. Today I’ll share some of this. Next week I’ll explain why I don’t like the book’s title. Advice Columns Firstly, advice columns are challenging. As an academic, I…
Crossing Chasms and Anecdotal Evidence
Geoffrey Moore‘s book, Crossing the Chasm, has been a hugely popular book in the marketing strategy area. I can see why. Moore has a clear thesis, the examples are interesting, and the topic important. Unfortunately Crossing the Chasm has a plausible story but no more. Crossing the chasm is just an anecdote, a good anecdote…
