Social Psychology, and the related field of Consumer Behaviour, relies on laboratory experiments. This has great benefits. Lab experiments give the flexibility to investigate causation and test interesting ideas. They have been very successful. When is too much success a bad thing? Lab Experimentation Given the benefits of lab experiments Consumer Behavior scholars doing experimental work have come to dominate marketing. I’d…
Category: Understanding Marketing
Explaining Omitted Variable Bias
Charles Whelan’s Naked Statistics is an enjoyable and informative read. He does a very good job of simplifying statistics. He explains what statistical methods can do but also the problems that people get into using statistics. Here I’ll focus on him explaining Omitted Variable Bias. Whelan tackles this problem very clearly. Explaining Omitted Variable Bias Omitted variable bias sounds like…
The Problem Of Researchers Giving Advice To Managers
Translating academic research into advice for managers is a tough skill. I really don’t think we value the skill enough. We hope that researchers will effortlessly translate quality research into quality managerial advice. There seems little reason to believe this. Many otherwise excellent researchers giving advice to managers are not at their best. Researchers Giving Advice To Managers Barbara Kahn’s Global…
Researchers, Teachers, And Incentives
What do we know about researchers, teachers, and incentives? Market For Stars Roger Martin, former Dean of the Rotman School at the University of Toronto, worries about the future of business schools. I absolutely believe that if business schools don’t take action in the next five years, we are looking at a GM scenario. Some 90% of…
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…
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…
Understanding The Topics In Consumer Research
The Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) reached forty years old in 2015. To help the celebrations we conducted an analysis of the topics featured in the journal over the years. For many journals, you can use the keywords supplied by the authors. The downside of this is that authors may use fashionable words wanting to…
Who Do Consumer Researchers Study?
To celebrate its 40th anniversary the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) is publishing a couple of articles that look at what consumer behavior researchers study. The first is by Justine Rapp and Ronald Paul Hill which considers who do consumer researchers study? The second is by a team I was part of. More of which…
