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More than 100 researchers from 50 institutions had a chance to debate the latest in quantitative marketing research at a conference hosted by Chicago GSB October 22 at the Gleacher Center.
A forum for researchers from top business schools and universities across the country, the third annual Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME) Conference featured work by 10 academics. Presenters included Robert Zeithammer, assistant professor of marketing, with “Optimal Selling in Dynamic Auctions,” and Jesse Shapiro, Becker Fellow at the Chicago Price Theory Initiative, with “A ‘Memory-Jamming’ Theory of Advertising.”
Using a format that resembled Chicago faculty workshops rather than a typical academic conference, the QME event offered participants a day-long series of events, each featuring a 45-minute presentation. A question-and-answer session moderated by a faculty member gave participants a chance to challenge the research. “This is the way you sound out your new ideas. It’s very much like our workshop tradition at Chicago,” said Peter Rossi, MBA ’80, PhD ’84, Joseph T. Lewis Professor of Marketing.
Rossi, who launched the Journal of Quantitative Marketing and Economics in 2003, said the QME Conference supports and promotes the publication by drawing top talent in marketing from across the country to debate cutting-edge research. More than 40 papers were submitted for this year’s conference. The top 10 were selected by a committee headed by Pradeep Chintagunta, Robert Law Professor of Marketing, and Greg Allenby, MBA ’86, PhD ’88, Helen C. Kurtz Chair in Marketing at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.
“These were papers that had not yet been published,” Rossi said. “The QME conference provides research that you can’t find out about any other way.” He said the experience was “informal, nonhierarchical, and intense. There’s a lot of informal discussion afterward at the end of the day. That’s one of the most important parts of the conference.”
Read about Professor Zeithammer's paper on auction strategy.
Read about Professor Shapiro's paper on advertising and consumer behavior.
—Patty Houlihan