This past spring, the Marketing area of the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics‘ Department of Business Administration hosted leading researchers in marketing disciplines at their annual Marketing Camp at the Courtyard Marriott. Headed and organized by Assistant Professor of Marketing Dee Muir, this event had been on hiatus due to Covid-19. Since 2016, this camp has brought well-respected marketing professors, as well as professors from other disciplines, together to connect and exchange ideas and experiences.
“We designed the Camp format to allow Lerner faculty and guest speakers to network with their peers,” Muir said. “Over three days, scholars from various universities shared their research, which was at various stages of development. Participants and presenters were able to ask questions and offer input.
“This event allows our faculty to gain exposure to some of the leading minds in marketing,” Muir continued.
The event also provided the opportunity to connect with faculty as a part of the tenure-track process.
UD’s Lerner College welcomed four speakers, Andrew Ching of the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, Eric Schwartz of the University of Michigan, John McCoy from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Naomi Mandel from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. These academics prepared and presented specialized presentations in their respective research:
- Ching’s research focuses on developing new empirical structural models and estimation methods to understand the forward-looking, strategic, learning and bounded rational behavior of consumers and firms. He has applied these techniques to study the demand for prescription drugs, nursing homes, new technology adoption decisions, choice of payment methods, information spillover, late-mover advantages, video games demand, stockpiling, online support groups, and integrated marketing communication.
- Schwartz’s expertise focuses on predicting customer behavior, understanding its drivers, and examining how firms actively manage their customer relationships through interactive marketing. His research in customer analytics stretches managerial applications, including online display advertising, email marketing, video consumption, and word-of-mouth.
- McCoy’s research addresses the processes underlying human judgment and decision making and applying our knowledge of such processes to problems in marketing. Much of his current work focuses on better ways to aggregate judgments from multiple individuals, including in situations where the majority may be wrong, and the truth may be unverifiable.
- Mandel’s research examines consumer identity, food decision-making, materialism and compensatory consumption. Additional research examines how activating high-level concepts in an individual’s memory, including self-conceptions or feelings about mortality, can influence preference and choice.
Mandel, an assistant professor of marketing, presented her ongoing research on the phenomenon of politically motivated fake reviews. Mandel’s findings explored whether falsified reviews were tactics that, both, conservatives and liberals utilized as well as the potential difference of morality between the groups.
“All the marketing faculty in attendance spoke of how much they enjoyed the four presentations, the stimulating conversation and discussion, and getting to know each of the speakers better and in person,” Muir said.
Andrew Ching, professor of marketing from John Hopkins University and guest speaker said, “I received a lot of very helpful feedback and comments on my presentation. I was very happy to learn what other colleagues were doing and getting to know them!”
UD’s Professor of Marketing Stewart Shapiro said, “I left with a better understanding of what other people are working on. I do not have much opportunity to see what people at other universities are working on. It helps with networking and now I know all these faculty.”
“The day provided us with an opportunity to listen to four insightful speakers’ talks, and to enjoy their conversation. I take it upon myself to speak on behalf of everyone from the Lerner marketing family when I say how happy we felt to return to some semblance of normalcy, not only because we ourselves relished the chance to see each other, but also because we were eager to meet with other marketers from all over the country,” Muir shared.