INFORMS Releases

CATONSVILLE, MD, March 15, 2016 – When it comes to getting a loan – even for those without a credit history – it helps to have financially responsible friends on one’s social network, according to a new study forthcoming in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science.

CATONSVILLE, MD, April 28, 2015 - A new study published in Marketing Science reveals that double-digit revenue growth accrues to firms that create brand-specific own online communities. The study, titled “Social Dollars: The Economic Impact of Customer Participation in a Firm-Sponsored Online Customer Community,” was conducted by professors Puneet Manchanda at the University of Michigan, Grant Packard at Wilfrid Laurier University, and Adithya Pattabhiramaiah at Georgia Tech.

CATONSVILLE, MD, March 20, 2015 - A new study finds that most firms do not use a Skimming or Penetration Strategy to price new products. The study will be published in Marketing Science, and is titled, “Skimming or Penetration? Strategic Dynamic Pricing for New Products”. The research was conducted by Martin Spann, professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (Germany), Marc Fischer, professor at the University of Cologne (Germany) and the University of Technology Sydney (Australia), and Gerard J. Tellis, professor at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.

CATONSVILLE, MD, February 3, 2015 - Marketing managers traditionally segment customers by three summary measures: recency – how long since their last visit, frequency – how often they visit, and monetary value – how much they spend on a visit (also known as the RFM model).   An upcoming Marketing Science paper by Yao Zhang, Eric Bradlow and Dylan Small shows that in contrast to this traditional segmentation, one based on “binge consumption” is worth more in the long run. Binge consumption is characterized by bursts of heavy buying interspersed by little or no buying. The authors call this pattern of consumption “clumpiness.”

CATONSVILLE, MD, January 31, 2015 – Retailers selling home appliances and electronics goods typically make 15-20 percent profit from these products but realize more than 200 percent profit from selling extended warranties for these products. A new study that appears in the January issue of Marketing Science, a publication of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), finds that even though selling warranties through independent firms will lower extended warranty prices, the consumers may actually be worse off.