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One out of two mobile apps released is a clone of an existing app. However, new research in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research shows the success of the original app is not always adversely affected by these clone apps. The study found that whether the copycat app increases or decreases the number of downloads of the original is dependent upon the quality of the copy.

If you were given datasets with genetic information and yields from trials of different experimental maize hybrids, along with information on soil conditions and recorded weather of a U.S. growing region, how will you predict the performance of these hybrids? And what if the genetic information dataset included an average of 12,000 genetic markers or unique DNA sequences to identify each hybrid? Those were the questions that the CIAT data analytics team needed to address as part of an international competition organized by agribusiness giant Syngenta in partnership with INFORMS, the largest international society of operations research, management science, and analytics practitioners.

For every two mobile apps released, one is a clone of an existing app. However, new research published in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research shows the success of the original app is not always adversely affected by the creation of clone apps. In fact, the study, which was conducted by Carnegie Mellon University researchers, found that whether the copycat app increases or decreases the number of downloads of the original is dependent upon the quality of the copy.

A common assumption in digital marketing is that individuals who are mindful of what’s trending on social media and propagate these trends, will be responsive to social media advertising and marketing, thus sharing branded messages with their network on a wide scale. As a result, firms increasingly try to mesh their brand or product with an emerging trend to get the attention of those who propagate these trends. The study will be published in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science.