I find Gerd Gigerenzer’s grouchy attacks on other scholars entertaining and so I enjoyed his new book, Risk Savvy. In this he discusses risk, uncertainty and Monty Hall. Risk, Uncertainty and Monty Hall In Risk Savvy Gigerenzer brings a new perspective to the Monty Hall problem. Monty was a gameshow host famous for having a great prize…
Category: Management Theory
Market Driving (And Being Just Really Good)
Some firms don’t seem to follow the market. Instead, they chart their own course. They are market driving. Who Drives The Market? The classic example of such a firm might be Apple. It looks to many that Apple is able to influence tastes in the market rather than just serve the consumers’ tastes. Whether this…
What Getting A Cab In The Rain Tells Us
In 1997 a collection of the great and the good on the behavioral side of economics investigated a seemingly minor question. What getting a cab in the rain tells us. Cleverly they used this minor question to consider the assumptions of traditional economics. The four authors, Colin Camerer, Linda Babcock, George Loewenstein, and Richard Thaler,…
Models Of Marketing Strategy
In North American academic marketing the area of strategy research seems to be losing its place. [Written in 2015 some are a bit more positive now]. We need to ensure strategic thinking is rigorous. Critically, it also need to be seenas rigorous by managers and fellow academics. One way to do this is by forming…
Consumer Value And Breakage
You may well be ending the festive season with some gift cards. Some cards you might never imagine yourself using. Even well targeted gift cards can sometimes not be fully used. A balance might remain after the recipient buys what they want, or the card might get lost. To a retailer one of the potential…
Gift Giving
Gift giving has been studied by a variety of marketing researchers. Some researchers use survey methods to understand how consumers think about gifts and why they make the choices they do. Others try and analyze secondary data. They look at retailers’ point of sale systems to capture details of gift sales. Today, therefore, in the…
Reference Dependence In Primary Elections
Reference Dependence involves comparing outcomes to what we are focused on rather than an absolute scale. Thus higher pay after a cut may make us less happy than lower pay after a raise. Comparison to the reference, here past earnings, helps explain behavior. What then can we deduce about reference dependence in primary elections? Reference…
Using Marketing Analytics
Two of my MBA professors, Paul Farris and Ron Wilcox, along with a newer Darden professor Raj Venkatesan, have a new book. This examines using marketing analytics through cases. (Raj also runs the marketing analytics initiative at Darden). Numbers-Based Marketing The cases describe scenarios relevant to numbers-based marketing. For example, they allow readers to see the…
Competitor Orientation And The Evolution of Business Markets
My first major article was on Competitor Orientation And The Evolution of Business Markets. I think it is a fun one. Even though it took years and years to publish. Some may have agreed. it was fun That said, it is a bit mathy at times. Aiming To, Is Not Maximizing Profits When people envisage…
The Tragedy of Common Sense Morality
Joshua Greene uses the Tragedy of Common Sense Morality as a central theme in his book — Moral Tribes. His suggests that our brains are actually surprisingly well adapted to solve the tragedy of the commons. In the tragedy of the commons, our personal incentives to behave uncooperatively cause disaster for everyone. Greene calls this…
