Cass Sunstein is a law professor who worked in the Obama White House. He dealt with matters of regulation, and has a keen interest in how (generally bad) program design and administration prevents action, e.g., sludge. He also is an expert on behavioral economics — he wrote Nudge with Richard Thaler. The idea of sludge…
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.
Understanding And Using The Customer Asset
My new book with Shane (Xin) Wang covers the use and meaning of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Being clear on the nature of the customer asset allows us to understand CLV. What Value Are We Looking At? The book starts with the basics. For example, what value are we looking at when we talk of…
Change For The Better
A new year post about change for the better. Finton O’Toole tells a personal history of Ireland. This starts with his birth in 1958 and goes to the present. He is an excellent writer and there is a lot of interesting information. In this post I’ll just look at the core themes of his country…
The Pope And The Climate Crisis
In October 2023 a new letter was added to the discussion around what we should be doing to protect the environment. The author had spoken on the topic before so in many ways it wasn’t a surprise. Still, the text is very useful and has potential to reach people who don’t always pay attention to…
Sustainable Marketing And Commerciality
My regular collaborator, Jonathan Knowles, has a new piece in the Journal of Sustainable Marketing. He tackles the idea of sustainable marketing and the role of marketers in the world of for-profit companies. What then does he have to say about sustainable marketing and commercialism? For-Profit Organizations And Social Progress Knowles starts by arguing that…
What If I’m Wrong?
The Population Bomb shared Paul Ehrlich’s predictions about the future. After his doom-laden warnings about mass starvation and the need for population control, by compulsion if necessary, Ehrlich asked, “What if I’m wrong?” What if his Malthusian thinking is a mistake? (See here for Malthus). The author was trying to make the point that it…
Population As A Disaster
Paul Ehrlich wrote The Population Bomb in 1968. I read a version printed in 1988 which had a 1978 update. It is a gloomy book that makes bold claims of famine and crises. There have certainly been problems in the last 55 years but nothing like Ehrlich predicted. It is an over-the-top book written by…
Better Business Meets Politics
I recently published an article in the Journal of Sustainable Marketing. This discussed the intersection between politics and better business. What is happening as better business meets politics? Should Business Stay Out Of Politics? There are two ways to look at this question. Firstly, there is a wider question. This can be seen as an…
History Of Sustainability
Jeremy Caradonna wrote a history of sustainability in his book, Sustainability. (I read the revised edition from 2022). This work draws linkages from early ideas of sustainability and looks at where we are now. Things have moved forward, and back, on the sustainability front. There is some interesting history. As someone who lives in Georgia,…
Benefit Corporation Versus B Corp
There are two related terms for coporations that are seeking to do good in addition to doing well. Both terms often apply to such corporations but this isn’t always the case. As such, it is useful to distinguish between them. So lets look at Benefit Corporation Versus B Corp. B Corp A B Corp is…
