Want a review of the (perfect?) mess that is US higher education? The State of US Higher Educations David Labaree assesses the state of US higher education in his interesting book — A Perfect Mess. I enjoyed his take on higher ed. It seemed like he had an appreciation for the complexities of it. He…
Category: Academic Marketing
Constructing Academic Research Questions
How academics come up with research questions is an interesting and important topic (at least to academics). Sandberg and Alvesson study the creation of Academic Research Questions. They look at how academics in organizational studies describe the way they came up with research questions . The journals reviewed were major journals: Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Management…
Academics As Thinkers, Managers As Doers
In an interesting interview Gary Bridge, Managing Director of Snow Creek Advisors, shared his thoughts on the managerial/academic divide. He is pretty critical about academia but I think he is largely right. What does he have to say about academics as thinkers, managers as doers? Thinkers, Doers & Academic Gamesmanship Bridge starts with the comforting thought…
Academics Need To Seriously Engage With The World
There are few things in the world more frustrating than people who list problems but offer no meaningful solutions. Such people often seem to be drawn to academia. I think academics need to seriously engage with the world. Citicism But No Solutions This brings us to Lawrence Busch’s Knowledge for Sale. Busch makes many good…
Not Very Thoughtful Thought Leadership
I love terrible visuals, especially when they are used by consultants. Alex Usher (@http://higheredstrategy.com/) is brutal in criticizing a recent Deloitte report doing “big thinking” about the future of the workforce. (Post written in 2017). The report seems to be a great example of not very thoughtful thought leadership. Not Very Thoughtful Thought Leadership Usher…
Marketing In The World Of Big Data
Arvind Sathi’s book Engaging Customers Using Big Data has a number of interesting points about big data. What does he tell us about marketing in the world of big data? Marketing In The World Of Big Data Sathi is keen to point out that marketers now drive many technological needs in firms. The chief marketing…
Marketing Standing On Its Own Feet
People like to ask “where are we all going?”. Marketing academics are no different. A recent editorial in JAMS (a major marketing journal) examines the future of marketing. Overall, I agreed with the author, Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, on most things in this article. (Although I hated his book Time To Lead with a passion, see here and…
Cool Result: What Next?
Adam Alter’s Drunk Tank Pink is a fun book. It follows in a long tradition of behavioral books — some by psychologists, some by marketers — that describe interesting quirks found in academic research. Much of Alter’s focus is on the subtle influence of color on us. Unfortunately some of the influences seem too subtle…
Meta-Analysis: Combining Many Results into One
How marketing impacts firm value is an important question facing for-profit businesses. In an ambitious paper Conchar, Crask and Zinkhan (2005) examined this. they did a meta-analysis: combining many results into one. Meta-Analysis Seem Like Hard Work The hard work involved in this paper is impressive. The authors looked at 88 studies of advertising and…
Learning From A Case Study Of Harvard Business School
I see much value in opinionated books, they are great at starting conversations. Bearing that in mind I will say that I enjoyed Duff McDonald’s The Golden Passport. He describes the history of Harvard Business School (HBS) and he isn’t afraid to give his thoughts. What then can we learn from a case study of…
