Why do people punish others when it costs them to do so? This is one of the most important questions in social life. We tend to do the right thing when we are confident that we can’t cheat without being punished by bystanders. This helps hold society together. People who punish despite there being no…
Faking Market Share
I enjoyed Peter Thiel’s Zero to One which he wrote with Blake Masters. Thiel seems more interesting than most business leaders. The book spews out ideas in a slightly haphazard, but never boring, fashion. (To be clear I’m pretty sure I disagree with him on an awful lot of issues, but still think it is…
Social Influence And German Soccer Referees
One of the most interesting aspects of social life is how crowds influence us. We may even end up doing something that isn’t in our best interests. To examine this Thomas Dohmen looked at social influence and German soccer referees. Referees Want To Be Impartial Dohmen suggests, reasonably enough, that referees really do want to…
Consumer Reactions To Shipping Charges
Shipping charges are a vital consideration for online marketers. They are most interested in understanding consumer reactions to shipping charges. Consumer Reactions To Shipping Charges Academic marketers haven’t done as much work on the topic as one might expect. As Lewis, Singh, and Fay note, “Shipping charges are an important but under-researched element of the…
Writing And The Curse of Knowledge
This post looks at the problem of writing and the curse of knowledge. How what we know can limit our effectiveness in communicating. Following Rules Can Be Helpful But Don’t Get Too Excited Sometimes it seems impossible to learn languages because there is often no logical reason for the rules that apply. What is worse,…
Risk, Uncertainty and Monty Hall
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…
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…
