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…
Category: Understanding Marketing
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…
The Value Of Conventions In Visualizations
I must confess to having a mixed attitude to ‘the way things are always done’. I am a big believer in trying new things. Why should we be constrained by what someone did in the past, often for completely idiosyncratic reasons? I find it quite bizarre that the UK and US use miles etc.. These…
The Pain of Paying
An interesting topic in consumer behavior is that people experience ‘pain’ when paying for something. One can think of this as a good thing. We obviously do find joy from gaining the stuff that paying acquires. If, therefore, we didn’t feel any pain when paying we would all end up spending too much. Thus, there…
Creating Stories With Data Visualizations
Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic has a useful book — Storytelling with Data. This contains lots of good advice on Creating Stories With Data Visualizations and generally improving data visualization. She tries to ensure the reader does not lazily follow the first thing a software (e.g., Excel) recommends. This is important, she gives many examples in the…
Velocity Graphs, Multi-Channel Distribution and Managing Distribution
My first blog as a University of Georgia professor (written in summer 2020). The blog post features an excellent new book on multi-channel distribution. This by my professor when I was at Darden, Paul Farris, and Kusum Ailawadi, another star academic. (She is at Tuck). Thinking Through Your Multi-Channel Distirbution The authors tackle multi-channel distribution….
