Have you ever had to hire a contractor to do some work? You know that there are numerous good and bad contractors, if you want to see the bad you should watch one of my favorite shows, “to catch a contractor”. If you’re scared of hiring a bad contractor (and most people are) then this hurts the good firms. Good firms face skeptical consumers and have to spend more on marketing to signal their quality so that a person does not mistake them for a bad firm. My colleague Andrew Crecelius (University of Missouri) and I recently examined how consumers choose a good contractor and our preliminary findings show that word-of-mouth goes a long way to influencing which firms consumers choose. The bottom line is that a firm can save money by simply doing a good job because good word-of-mouth can decrease the cost of signalling that they are a good firm. Our paper was recently accepted for presentation at the American Marketing Association Annual Conference in Las Vegas (February 2016).
Category Archives: Research
Are used goods too expensive?
Research by my co-author Cristel Russell and I examines which products retain the most value when they’re resold as used goods. Used goods are unique not just because they’ve been used by others but for used goods you often have the choice to either buy the used good or similar good that’s new. For example, I could buy a used iPad with 32GB of storage or I can buy a new version with 16GB of storage, which is more valuable? We recently presented a paper at the American Marketing Association Winter Conference in San Antonio that examined this question. A copy of this presentation is available here. Value Dynamics in the Secondary Market – Presentation AMA 2015
Which car loses value faster, a hybrid or a gas powered car?
If you guessed a hybrid you’re right, if you guessed a gas powered car you’re also right. My colleague Cristel Russell and I studied which cars depreciate the most. Cars that are hybrid extensions, meaning that they have a gas powered alternative (such as the Camry or Highlander) lose more value than their gas powered alternatives. However, cars that are stand alone green products such as the Toyota Prius or Honda Insight lose the least amount of value. How about that when you’re considering going green. If you want to read the entire study please take a look at the following article.
Should schools do more to promote League of Legends?
League of Legends is played by millions of people worldwide, if you totaled all of the people that are currently playing League of Legends it’s probably larger than any audience for a particular episode of “(blank)’s got talent” or “(blank) idol”. At least one school has recognized the importance of League of Legends by offering students scholarships in the game but there’s so much more we can learn. We can learn how people interact, how League of Legends shapes our perceptions, and how it can prepare us for careers in an increasing networked economy. If you play League of Legends or know someone that does then please complete our survey. We have over 100 responses so far but need a few more before we can run any statistics. You can lick on the following link to access the survey. Thank you in advance!
League of Legends – It’s more than a video game
I don’t normally play video games, the last video game I purchased was Tetris so that gives you an idea how involved with video games I am. One of my students from this past year (Diego Poole) introduced me to League of Legends, an online game which has millions of active players. The game can be quite complex but also quite addictive, once you get into it you can really become involved with just getting to a basic level (which I’m striving towards) but it’s not just a video game. Not only do millions of users around the world play it but there are professional leagues, tournaments with prize money, and Robert Morris University in Illinois has even created a varsity team for League of Legends players (with scholarships). If you’re wondering what all of the hype is about I encourage you to check it out yourself and when you do make sure you fill out our survey. We’re trying to study just how big this phenomenon really is.
