Inaugural “2019 George John Symposium on Embedding Governance into Marketing Thought and Action More Deeply”

Organizers:
Prof. Mrinal Ghosh, University of Arizona
Prof. Madhu Viswanathan, University of Arizona
Prof. Raghunath Rao, University of Texas – Austin

Dates: May 10- May 12, 2019

Location: Sedona, AZ

Participants:
1. George John, University of Minnesota
2. Mrinal Ghosh, University of Arizona
3. Sourav Ray, McMaster University
4. Steve Carson, University of Utah
5. Raghunath Rao, University of Texas at Austin
6. Madhu Viswanathan, University of Arizona
7. Kelli Frias, Texas Tech University
8. Xiaolin Li, University of Texas at Dallas

This conference has been organized to honor the tremendous academic achievements of Professor George John, General Mills/Paul S Gerot Chair in Marketing and Professor of Marketing at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Prof. John has displayed exemplary passion and dedication for all aspects of being a marketing educator – mentoring of doctoral students, working on innovative research and teaching projects, and continues conducting service for the marketing community and the public.

In this annual workshop, a select group of marketing scholars and faculty will interact to discuss key theoretical and methodological development in the broad domain of “Governance” and explore opportunities for collaborative research. The overarching goal is to strengthen and embed governance thinking more deeply into marketing thought and action.

The workshop is organized into four modules, each lasting 2 hours.  Each module will start with a “lead” scholar making a short presentation of a current research project/program they are involved in and solicit inputs and advice from the group on the vexing, bottle-neck issues faced in the research as well as to explore future directions of research – conceptually, substantively, and methodologically.

Workshop Schedule

Friday, May 10th

Time                              Activity

6:00pm – 8:00pm       Reception & Dinner

Saturday, May 11th

Time                          Activity/Topic                                                                                                       

8:00am – 9:45am           Bounded Rationality & Governance

1.      Behavioral Economics of Salesforce Management (30 mins): George John

George will present some ideas on incorporating advances in behavioral economics on bounded rationality into existing work on governance issues in marketing. Specifically, he will frame the issue in terms of sales activity within firms and seek collaboration on the potential for field experimentation in this area.

Discussion of modeling and empirical challenges in extending this line of inquiry (1 hr., 15 mins)

9:45am – 10:15am  Coffee Break

10:15am – noon             Field Experiments & Methodological Advancements

2.      Organizing Charitable Donations (30 mins): Raghu Rao

Raghu will present an on-going work that involved field experimentation to solicit charitable donations for a non-profit. Specifically, the experiment made use of anchors in conjunction with “Pay-as-you-wish” (PAYW) pricing. Raghu will present results and a proposed theoretical model and seek audiences’ suggestion on positioning this paper for a forthcoming special issue at Journal of Marketing.

Discussion of issues to tackle, extensions, related areas of research (1 hr., 15 mins)

Noon – 2:00pm         Lunch

2:00pm – 3:45pm           Strategy & Governance

3.      Product-Form Strategy (30 mins): Mrinal Ghosh

Mrinal will present an on-going research program with Kelli that attempts to shed light on the question:  In “what form” would a firm/venture choose to sell its technology/innovation in the marketplace?  Mrinal will briefly present the theoretical framework and results from the use of multiple methodologies – field surveys; experiments; venture-proposal data. He will seek audience response and explore collaborations in the broad area.

Discussion of issues to tackle, extensions, related areas of research (1 hr., 15 mins)

3:45pm – 4:15pm Coffee Break

4:15pm – 5:00pm    The Digital World & Governance

4.   Impact of IOT on Managing Channel Conflict (30 mins): Sourav Ray

Sourav will present an ongoing stream of work with Saeed Shekari that explores how industrial IOT impacts the nature of OEM-Supplier contracting and transaction outcomes.  The empirical part of the research is built on some field work, a case study of contract negotiations and survey.  Sourav will be looking for insights, ideas and feedback as well as collaborations, to extend this line of work. 

Discussions of issues to tackle, extensions, related areas of research (1 hr., 15 mins)

6:00pm – 8:00pm       Dinner