Poets and Quants (a publication that focuses on business education) recently named me as one of the top 50 undergraduate business school professors of 2024. It was an honor to get this award and be nominated by my colleagues and students. These awards are given to individuals but they are a reflection of those around you. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have great graduate advisors at GWU, mentors at UMW, and lots of people around the world who helped me continually improve. I dedicate this award to my colleague and friend the late Gwen Hale who emphasized “don’t be a jerk”. You can read the article here.
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Using AI to predict customer acquisition
If you have ever had a passing interest in digital marketing (or marketing) you’ve heard of the marketing funnel. Consumers at the top are gaining awareness while those at the bottom are most likely to purchase. The funnel shape because there are a lot more consumers at the top than there are at the bottom. When consumers approach a professional service firms they often communicate where they are in the sales funnel. For example, a customer may tell a contractor that they want to have their kitchen redone and they want the work done by the end of next month. Another consumer may approach the firm and say that they are exploring some renovations in their kitchen. Clearly, the former customer is further down the funnel than the latter. Research that my co-author (Michel Laroche) and I are currently pursuing examines how AI can use these words to determine where the customer is in the sales funnel. Once customers are identified in different parts of the funnel, the firm can use different marketing approaches.
Should consumers be punished when a firm makes a mistake?
If a car is made incorrectly and it becomes a safety hazard who is liable for getting it fixed. The car needs to be fixed and manufacturers are responsible for making those repairs (free of charge to the consumer) but what if the consumer doesn’t want to get the car fixed. Getting your car fixed is time consuming. You have to schedule time to bring it in, wait while it’s being repaired, and in some cases have no car for days while the repairs are made. It’s not something consumers enjoy doing so many avoid having their car fixed when a recall occurs. The result is that there are potentially dangerous cars on the road because consumers don’t want to get them fixed. Should consumers be punished if they don’t bring their cars in for repairs? In Britain consumers can have their cars impounded if the repairs aren’t made, in the U.S consumers can’t be punished if they choose not to bring their cars in for repairs. In a paper I co-authored with Hair Bapuji (U Melbourne), we found that when consumers can be punished it compels firms to issue a recall faster and avoid bigger problems. The paper is forthcoming in the Journal of International Business Policy, 2024-02-09 Consumer Liability and Responsiveness – JIBP – Accepted Manuscript
Can higher prices help alleviate food insecurity?
Firstly, I completely agree that if food prices are lower then more people will be able to afford food. I do not refute this robust finding at all. I was given data on donations to food banks and found that overall, lower priced retailers (such as Aldi and Wal-Mart) would donate greater volume over the course over the year. However, when higher priced retailers (Publix or Wegmans) donate they give a greater volume of donation than a lower priced retailer. For example, if Wal-Mart gives a donation at 10am on Monday and Wegmans gives a donation at 10am on Monday then it’s likely that Wegmans will have given more. I also found that higher priced retailers would give a greater value of goods per donation (e.g. more higher priced goods). So, can higher prices help, partly yes because higher priced retailers are more likely to give greater volume of food to food banks (per donation).
Also, if you are curious. The lowest priced retailer in our sample was BJ’s Wholesale Market while the highest priced retailer was Publix (Wal-mart was the 6th cheapest out of 11 retailers). The greatest volume of donations came from Wal-Mart.
Reducing food insecurity around the world
Around the world, policies are taking direct steps to reduce food insecurity. In France, commercial food waste is banned. Denmark has a grocery store that sells imperfect foods (cans that are dented, etc.) at large discount. The following is an article from the CBC that outlines some great examples of programs and policies that try to alleviate food insecurity. https://www.cbc.ca/news/food-insecurity-solutions-1.7043468
