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Stefan Stremersch wins EMAC Distinguished Marketing Scholar Award 2020

This annual award is designed to be the highest honor a marketing educator with extensive connections to the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) can receive. The two main criteria for the award are: (1) outstanding marketing scholarship as reflected in extensive, impactful research contributions, and (2) outstanding contributions to the European Marketing Academy. The award recognizes Stefan's impact on several research domains including innovation, diffusion of innovations, and marketing strategy, with a special interest in industries such as life sciences, automotive and high technology. Aside from these areas, Stefan is a leading expert in assessing the academic impact of published research (Scientometrics).

ECMI's Prof. dr. Stefan Stremersch is the winner of the EMAC Distinguished Marketing Scholar Award 2020

This annual award is designed to be the highest honor a marketing educator with extensive connections to the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) can receive. The two main criteria for the award are: (1) outstanding marketing scholarship as reflected in extensive, impactful research contributions, and (2) outstanding contributions to the European Marketing Academy. The award recognizes Stefan’s impact on several research domains including innovation, diffusion of innovations, and marketing strategy, with a special interest in industries such as life sciences, automotive and high technology. Aside from these areas, Stefan is a leading expert in assessing the academic impact of published research (Scientometrics).

Gear Manufacturers as Contestants in Sports Competitions: Breeding and Branding Effects

Several manufacturers make substantial investments to compete in sports contests, using the gear they develop and market. However, no systematic analysis of the breeding (i.e., innovation) and branding (i.e., marketing) returns from such investments exists. In this study, the authors conceptualize and empirically estimate the breeding and branding returns that such manufacturers obtain. The authors gather data for 30 car brands of 16 manufacturers over the period 2000–2015 regarding their participation, spending, and performance in Formula One championships, annual patent citations, and research-and-development (R

Yvonne van Everdingen, Vijay Ganesh Hariharan, Stefan Stremersch

Several manufacturers make substantial investments to compete in sports contests, using the gear they develop and market. However, no systematic analysis of the breeding (i.e., innovation) and branding (i.e., marketing) returns from such investments exists. In this study, the authors conceptualize and empirically estimate the breeding and branding returns that such manufacturers obtain. The authors gather data for 30 car brands of 16 manufacturers over the period 2000–2015 regarding their participation, spending, and performance in Formula One championships, annual patent citations, and research-and-development (R&D) budgets as well as monthly vehicle registrations, advertising expenditures, and Formula One TV viewership. The authors find that only gear manufacturers with relatively high levels of R&D spending obtain a positive and significant breeding return from competing in sports contests. While most brands obtain positive branding returns, the lower the level of advertising spending for the brand, the greater the branding returns they obtain from competing in these contests. Thus, research-intense (compared with advertising-intense) gear manufacturers have more to gain from competing in sports contests. These findings can help guide manufacturers in budget allocation decisions on sports competitions, R&D, and advertising.

Tournaments to Crowdsource Innovation: The Role of Moderator Feedback and Participation Intensity

Firms increasingly use innovation tournaments to crowdsource innovation ideas from customers. This article uncovers antecedents and consequences of customers’ participation intensity over the course of a tournament. More specifically, the authors theorize on the effects that the type and timing of moderating feedback have on tournament participants’ participation intensity, as well as the effect of the latter on idea quality. Through two longitudinal experiments using a commercial innovation tournament platform, the authors show that moderating feedback stimulates ideators’ participation intensity. They find that negative feedback increases participation intensity, as compared to no feedback and positive feedback. Moreover, negative feedback, either provided in isolation or together with positive feedback, is more effective during the early stages than in the later stages of a tournament. Using a large-scale managerial survey, the authors show that higher participation intensity leads to higher idea quality and better business performance. The effect of participation intensity on idea quality is stronger than the effect of number of ideas and as strong as the effect of number of participants on idea quality.

Nuno Camacho, Hyoryung Nam, P.K. Kannan, and Stefan Stremersch

Firms increasingly use innovation tournaments to crowdsource innovation ideas from customers. This article uncovers antecedents and consequences of customers’ participation intensity over the course of a tournament. More specifically, the authors theorize on the effects that the type and timing of moderating feedback have on tournament participants’ participation intensity, as well as the effect of the latter on idea quality. Through two longitudinal experiments using a commercial innovation tournament platform, the authors show that moderating feedback stimulates ideators’ participation intensity. They find that negative feedback increases participation intensity, as compared to no feedback and positive feedback. Moreover, negative feedback, either provided in isolation or together with positive feedback, is more effective during the early stages than in the later stages of a tournament. Using a large-scale managerial survey, the authors show that higher participation intensity leads to higher idea quality and better business performance. The effect of participation intensity on idea quality is stronger than the effect of number of ideas and as strong as the effect of number of participants on idea quality.

Advertising non-premium products as if they were premium: The impact of advertising up on advertising elasticity and brand equity

Non-premium brands occasionally emulate their premium counterparts by using ads that emphasize premium characteristics such as superior performance and exclusivity. We define this practice as “advertising up” and develop hypotheses about its short- and long-term impact on advertising elasticity and brand equity respectively. We test the hypotheses in two large-scale empirical studies using a comprehensive dataset from the automotive industry that includes, among others, the content of 2317 television ads broadcast over a period of 45 months. The results indicate that advertising up increases (decreases) short-term advertising elasticity for non-premium products with a low (high) market share. The results also show that an intensive use of advertising up over time leads to long-term improvements (reductions) in brand equity for expensive (cheap) non-premium products. Furthermore, an inconsistent use of advertising up leads to reductions in brand equity. The results imply that managers of non-premium products with a low market share can use advertising up to increase advertising effectiveness in the short run. However, advertising up will only generate long-term improvements in brand equity for expensive non-premium products. Finally, to avoid long-term reductions in brand equity, advertising up should be consistently used over time.

Ivan Guitart, Jorge Gonzalez, and Stefan Stremersch

Non-premium brands occasionally emulate their premium counterparts by using ads that emphasize premium characteristics such as superior performance and exclusivity. We define this practice as “advertising up” and develop hypotheses about its short- and long-term impact on advertising elasticity and brand equity respectively. We test the hypotheses in two large-scale empirical studies using a comprehensive dataset from the automotive industry that includes, among others, the content of 2317 television ads broadcast over a period of 45 months. The results indicate that advertising up increases (decreases) short-term advertising elasticity for non-premium products with a low (high) market share. The results also show that an intensive use of advertising up over time leads to long-term improvements (reductions) in brand equity for expensive (cheap) non-premium products. Furthermore, an inconsistent use of advertising up leads to reductions in brand equity. The results imply that managers of non-premium products with a low market share can use advertising up to increase advertising effectiveness in the short run. However, advertising up will only generate long-term improvements in brand equity for expensive non-premium products. Finally, to avoid long-term reductions in brand equity, advertising up should be consistently used over time.

Predicting the consequences of marketing policy changes: A new data enrichment method with competitive reactions

Eelco Kappe, Sriram Venkataraman, and Stefan Stremersch

This article introduces a new data enrichment method that combines revealed data on consumer demand and competitive reactions with stated data on competitive reactions to yet-to-be-enacted, unprecedented marketing policy changes. The authors extend the data enrichment literature to include stated competitive reactions, collected from subject-matter experts through a conjoint experiment. The authors apply their method to investigate hypothetical and unprecedented sales force policy changes of pharmaceutical companies. The results from the data enrichment method have high face validity and lead to various unique insights compared with using revealed data only. The authors find that only a very large sales force decrease initiated by the market leader triggers all competitors to decrease their sales force as well, leading to substantial profit increases for each firm. With respect to sales force allocation, when competitors decrease their sales force, they mainly decrease the reach of detailing across doctors, rather than decreasing the number of details to the most-visited doctors. The proposed data enrichment method provides managers with a powerful tool to, ex ante, predict the consequences of unprecedented marketing policy changes.

 

Elio Keko defends his dissertation on “Essays on Innovation Generation in Incumbent Firms”

Elio Keko defended his dissertation in the Senate Hall at Erasmus University Rotterdam on Thursday, 7 September 2017 at 15:30. His supervisor was Prof. Stefan Stremersch and his co-supervisor was Dr Nuno Camacho. Other members of the Doctoral Committee are Prof. Benedict Dellaert (Erasmus School of Economics), Prof. Patrick Van Kenhove (University of Ghent), Prof. Stefan Wuyts (Koç University), Dr Ivan Guitart (Grenoble School of Management) and Dr Yvonne van Everdingen (Rotterdam School of Management).

What to Stress, to Whom and Where? A Cross-Country Investigation of the Effects of Perceived Brand Benefits on Buying Intentions.

Ralf van der Lans, Yvonne van Everdingen and Valentyna Melnyk

This paper investigates cross-country differences in the importance of four brand benefits that are commonly stressed in international positioning strategies—quality, uniqueness, leading position,
and growing popularity—in determining brand purchase intentions. It also investigates how these effects are moderated by country characteristics, consumer characteristics, and perceptions about competing brands’ benefits, as well as whether they are stable across product categories. To achieve this, we developed a hierarchical Bayesian model that recognizes the ordinal nature of the measurement of purchase intentions and captures scale usage differences in a parsimonious way. The model is estimated using a unique multi-continent, multi-category data set across 19,682 respondents from 25 countries. In total 337 brands across six product categories (fast food, beer, designer brands, athletic shoes and apparel, mobile phones, photography) and two service categories (airlines, credit cards) were assessed. The results show that on average intrinsic benefits (i.e., quality and uniqueness), are most important in determining purchase intentions. The strengths of these effects are significantly influenced by culture and become weaker if more competing brands are perceived to possess these benefits. Companies are therefore advised to trade-off between positioning their brand along a brand benefit that appeals to a country, while ensuring that this positioning is distinct from the positioning of competing brands. If a multinational company prefers using one global strategy, then focusing on quality is recommended.

ERIM funding awarded

ECMI receives ERIM funding to conduct research on factory closure in the automobile industry and on grassroots innovation.

Benedict Dellaert and Bas Donkers receive Netspar theme grant for new project on how to help individuals make complex pension decisions

Recent developments have increased the demands placed on individuals to plan for their own retirement. While traditionally many pension arrangements were organized collectively, now individuals are asked to take a more active and integral perspective on how to provide for a financially sound old age. In response, firms such as pension funds, insurers and financial advisors are looking for effective ways to assist individuals in this complex task.

Professors Benedict Dellaert and Bas Donkers have received a theme grant worth €250,000 from Netspar to support three part-time postdocs and extensive data collection on this topic.  In the projects they will investigate promising choice architectures and online tools to match different pension trajectories more closely to different individuals’ needs. They address two key themes that are particularly relevant in the current pension context in the Netherlands. The first theme focuses on individuals’ mental integration of multiple risk components in choices between retirement plans (e.g., a state pension, an employer-based pension and a privately accrued pension). The second theme addresses individuals’ sequential choice of risk components in comprehensive retirement plans. Retirement planning takes place over the life span (e.g., when changing a job), and to cope with the risks involved, individuals can over time follow different decision strategies.

The research will be conducted in a close cooperation between researchers at the Erasmus School of Economics, the University of Alberta, University of South Carolina, and Netspar partners Achmea, APG, Robeco and Ortec Finance.

Stefan’s book “How Winners Make Choices”

Prof. dr. Stefan Stremersch has published a book titled “How Winners Make Choices”. Low economic growth, strong competition, disruptive change expose companies to difficult dilemmas. Should companies give a discount in order to survive a crisis if that undermines the position of their brands? Should firms let short-term opportunities pass by in favor of your long-term strategy? Should firms focus more on their target markets or grow more aggressively outside their original niche? This book introduces organizations that win and explains how they do so. Numerous examples strengthen their ambitions to win.

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