Category: Academics and Marketing
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The Pseudo Profound Statement
I have previously written about how disappointed I was by Jerry Muller’s The Tyranny of Metrics, see here and here. Today I will look at a broader problem that his book exhibits. Namely ‘The Pseudo Profound Statement’. I see this in a lot of places not just in Muller’s work. Be Careful With A Pseudo…
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Why Would You Go Test Optional?
In 2020 many universities decided to become: “test-optional” for entrance, see here. This was an interesting development. My worry is that test-optional isn’t always the benevolent response from universities that it might seem to some. I was reading about this in a chapter by Sheila Slaughter and Gary Rhoades. I would want to know more…
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The Problem Of Understanding Others
A second post on Gad Saad’s, The Parasitic Mind. I’m not sure this was his central aim but he did make me think about the problem of understanding others. Is Society Really Collapsing? I really wanted to know why he thinks society is collapsing. I have never known why people think this. It is not…
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Scientific Thinking Is Hard (Especially For Academics)
I must confess to being disappointed with Gad Saad’s The Parasitic Mind. Before purchasing the book I knew I would disagree with many of his points given his robust public profile. (For background, Saad is the sort of evolutionary psychologists your mother warned you about. Lots of sex differences in consumption). That I would disagree…
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Machine Learning And Retailing
Joseph Ryoo, Xin/Shane Wang, Praveen Kopalle and I have an article available now in the Journal of Retailing. This focuses on machine learning and retailing. It is a major question how new technology will change retail. Our work therefore tries to get a grip on this. Reviewing Machine Learning And Retailing In The Literature We…
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Are American Minds Coddled?
The Coddling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt‘s book, is a great read. It is full of interesting stories about where society, and universities in particular, are going wrong. I have a decent amount of sympathy with their arguments. It is important that we preserve free speech. The cost being that sometimes…
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A Total Q Mystery: Understanding Academic Marketing
I was disappointed to read Du and Osmonbekov‘s 2020 paper in the International Journal of Research in Marketing, see here. The authors clearly don’t mind hard work and I’m sure they have useful empirical skills. Still they aren’t young researchers making errors or rushing a paper to the market. They can do better. It is…
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The Case Against: Is Education A Waste
I have mixed feelings on Bryan Caplan‘s books (see also here). I must confess to appreciating that he tackles hard to discuss, important topics. Is education a waste is certainly one of those. I also don’t want to be the sort of person that, just because I don’t have a similar perspective to Caplan, I…
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Total Q Measures Investment Opportunities Not Firm Value
Papers in finance can sometimes get a hefty citation count boost when they get picked up in marketing. Peters and Taylor‘s 2017 paper on Total q is a nice paper. They make the very reasonable assertion that their Total q measures investment opportunities better than current Tobin’s q approximations. While I’m not a finance person…
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Do Generalists Triumph?
I am a marketing professor, who has been an accountant working in politics, and who was educated as an ancient historian. As such, it is perhaps no surprise that I am naturally drawn to the arguments in Range. In this David Epstein lays out his case for having a diverse range of skills. His argument…
