Big data's role in sectors from marketing analytics to social media is one of the key themes to be examined at this week's Summer Institute in Competitive Strategy (SICS), sponsored by the Institute for Business Innovation and hosted at Berkeley-Haas for the 12th year.
The annual conference, held at Haas July 21–25, attracts 100 leading scholars from around the world to present their findings on a wide range of competitive strategy topics.
"This is one of the premier academic events of the year, and we are proud to continue to host it at Berkeley-Haas for the 12th time," said Professor Miguel Villas-Boas, the J. Gary Shansby Chair in Marketing Strategy and one of the organizers of the conference.
"The ready availability of huge data sets has opened new possibilities for academics to dig more deeply into marketing and competitive strategy than has ever been possible," he added. "This has greatly enriched the research in this realm."
Examples of papers to be presented include a study on how companies in consumer-rich industries can increase the return of their marketing dollars based on data from casino visitors. Another study examines the effect the mere threat of Walmart’s debut into a new market can have on other retailers.
In addition, Haas Professor John Morgan's "Entrepreneurship and Loss-Aversion in a Winner-Take-All-Society" illustrates how much an entrepreneur is willing to sacrifice to increase the chances of success.
How the music and entertainment industries handle competitive strategy is the theme at Thursday's Media Day, sponsored by the Media Program at Columbia University. Papers on banking, retail, and marketing will also be presented at the conference. This year, Harvard University marketing professor Elie Ofek and Yale University marketing professor K. Sudhir co-chair the event.
For more information, contact [email protected] or 510-642-4041. Find the conference agenda at http://groups.haas.berkeley.edu/marketing/sics/index.html.