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…
Category: Understanding Marketing
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…
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…
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…
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…
Rankings Matter For Good Or Ill
The copious detail in Ellen Hazelkorn‘s Rankings and the Reshaping of Higher Education makes it a useful read. A challenge with her approach is that she is able to give an excellent snapshot of higher education in 2011. Sadly, as things have moved on this leaves some bits dated. Still, I would think the key…
Universities Don’t Seem Completely Toxic To Me
If you like your angst with lashings of the phrase neoliberalism John Smyth’s book, The Toxic University, is for you. The title with its references to Zombie and Rock Stars is fun. Unfortunately, you get the impression that the title is where the fun ends. Smyth makes a number of criticisms of universities and many…
American Higher Education’s Uncertain Future
Moving to the US I thought I should get up to date with US higher education. Daniel Johnson’s book, on American Higher Education’s Uncertain Future, is a critique of where we are. I was expecting criticism of government funding levels, lack of appreciation of the benefits of academic thought, and maybe students themselves. It isn’t…
Stockpiling in Loyalty Programs
For several reasons I have spent a lot of time in the last few months thinking about loyalty points. There is one puzzle that has been noted by a number of scholars and practitioners. People often keep hold of their loyalty points; not using them when they could have used them to save money. A…
What Can The Marketing-Finance Interface Tell Us About Witchcraft Trials?
Edeling, Srinivasan, and Hanssens have a useful new review paper on the Marketing-Finance Interface. The Value Of Review Papers Review papers, such as this, play a vital role in helping frame the field. They give Ph.D. students a way to get up to speed on prior contributions. Review papers also give more seasoned academics a…
