Angelika Dimoka’s job is to get inside your head.
As the director of the Center for Neural Decision Making at the Fox School of Business, Dimoka finds how you make the choices you do—and she does not need to ask you.
Instead, she looks to the human body for answers.
A trained biomedical engineer and neuroscientist, Dimoka came to the Fox School in 2008 to study how people make decisions. From air traffic controllers to victims of traumatic brain injuries to average consumers, Dimoka and her colleagues investigate—and predict—our everyday choices.
Getting inside your head
In 2008, Dimoka established the Center for Neural Decision Making, the first neuroscience center located within a business school, and currently the largest such center in the country.
“[The Center’s goal] is to provide a more objective understanding of the driving forces of a subject’s decision making,” says Dimoka, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Marketing. In the past, researchers have had to rely on self-reported data, asking consumers why they choose this product or made that decision. This, however, left room for error, as perhaps the consumer could not—or would not—divulge the true reason for their decision.
Today, with state-of-the-art tools like eye tracking machines, heart rate monitors, and MRI scanners, the Center’s research eliminates the subjective bias of decision-making research. “We don’t have to ask the subject anymore,” says Dimoka. “We can observe their physiological state.”
Dimoka and her colleagues, Vinod Venkatraman and Crystal Reeck, assistant professors of marketing, use these tools to study the body’s responses in experiments like the ability to recall print ads versus digital ads.
“With eye trackers, we can observe where the subject is looking at any given point,” says Dimoka, allowing the researcher to understand exactly what information the subject is taking in at what time. Heart rate monitors, skin conductors, and breathing monitors analyze the person’s emotional state—whether you sweat more, breath heavier, or have a faster heartbeat when making a decision.
What the brain reveals
The Center also has a new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, brought to campus this fall in partnership with the College of Liberal Art’s Department of Psychology and with support from the National Science Foundation. “The fMRI scanners show us the brain’s functionality,” Dimoka says. “We can put people in the scanner and observe how their brains function when they make decisions.”
The areas of the brain that activate during different activities can reveal how consumers take in information and make decisions. Consider what happens when a person looks at a physical advertisement versus a digital advertisement. In a series of experiments funded by the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Postal Service, Dimoka and her colleagues studied subjects’ brains as they reviewed ads in both print and online formats.
“The area of the brain associated with memory, the hippocampus, showed higher levels of activation for ads that subjects had seen before in a physical format,” says Dimoka, “as opposed to digital ads.” By using the brain scanning tools, the researchers found that print is still sticky, even in today’s digital age.
The third phase of the experiments are currently underway. Dimoka says this new round will further investigate generational differences and brand awareness.
Are there any differences between the purchasing decisions of Millennials and Baby Boomers when looking at online versus print ads? “We did find some preliminary results [from earlier experiments] that were quite interesting,” Dimoka says, “and the opposite of what you would expect.” The full results will be published later this summer.
Real-world impact
The Center investigates all kinds of decision making—including consumer, financial, and privacy decisions—that can have real impact on average people and companies. The impact of their work extends from marketing to fields like management information systems and finance.
For example, Crystal Reeck, assistant professor of marketing, found that how you review your choices during the decision making process can impact your ability to be patient. She is currently working on a study that involves how people disclose private information.
Companies are also affected by the Center’s work. “By looking at the brain of how 30 subjects were responding,” says Dimoka, “we can predict how millions of consumers in the United States would decide.”
“That’s the magic, the power of these tools.”
Learn more about Fox School Research.
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What was it like to be a woman earning a doctorate degree forty years ago? Dr. Gloria Thomas, PhD ’80, has firsthand experience.
Today, Dr. Thomas is an accomplished researcher, a dedicated professor, and an esteemed administrator at Baruch College.
But in 1980, she was a trendsetter for women at the Fox School of Business.
As the first woman to obtain a doctorate from the Fox School, Thomas received her PhD in marketing, a field that is now predominantly women, but was all men during her tenure at Temple. “Women were very uncommon in business PhDs, even marketing, when I was in school,” she recalled. “And I rarely saw women at conferences.”
Dr. Thomas is currently a professor of marketing and the Director of the Zicklin Undergraduate Honors Program at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, City University of New York. Thomas praises her experience at Temple University for the appreciation she has developed towards public institutions.
“Temple has taught me to believe in public education,” Thomas professed. “I went to Baruch right from Temple and we have really smart students from all over the world with parents who don’t speak English or have any money.” After years of private schools, Thomas’ experience at the Fox School helped her appreciate the value of diversity in education. “Cultural exposure makes public institutions more valuable and it gives students opportunities they normally wouldn’t have,” she said.
With undergraduate degrees in math and art history, Thomas pursued a doctorate in marketing. Following graduation, she went straight to Baruch, where her roles included professor, associate dean, and director of the doctoral program. She currently serves as director of the business honors program.
“My current role is my most favorite,” Thomas said. “Many students at large public schools don’t get the attention they would at a private school, but I make sure to give that attention in my honors program.”
Thomas credits her mother, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s law school in the 1940s, for her then unconventional educational choices. “I grew up thinking everyone was equal. I never thought that [by going to business school] I was going into a man’s profession,” Thomas said.
That ‘man’s profession’ has changed. Today, 50-percent of PhD students are women at the Fox School, compared to 45-percent for all business-focused doctoral programs in the United States, according to the Council of Graduates Schools’ 2017 report.
Thomas did not let any obstacles get in her way of her goals. “It never occurred to me that women couldn’t do whatever they wanted to,” she recounted. “In reality, many women [at that time] didn’t even know they had options.”
“It never occurred to me that I didn’t.”
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For high school seniors, this time of year can create anxiety—and a flood of questions.
“What will college be like?”
“What are the first steps once I arrive?”
“How do I network? Or land an internship?”
Next week, nearly 100 seniors from Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School will have the answers to all of these questions (and more) after visiting Temple University.
The students will engage in a networking social event called “Project: Career,” where they will meet with marketing students and faculty from Temple’s Fox School of Business, and dozens of local business leaders.
“The event is like the speed-dating equivalent of networking,” said Drew Allmond, assistant professor of marketing at the Fox School. “Cristo Rey’s students will shake hands, introduce themselves, and exchange business cards with our students, faculty, and area business professionals. They will share their career goals, and Fox’s marketing students will offer tips on navigating college, building networks, and beyond.”
This is the second year of the workshop between Temple’s business school and Cristo Rey, a private high school located in the city’s Germantown section. Cristo Rey combines traditional academic schoolwork with professional work experience. Each student, from grades 9 through 12, works a real job for real wages five days each month. This affords Cristo Rey students the professional development opportunities they need at the next level, and substantially reduces the students’ tuition expenses at the school.
“The impact extends beyond that,” Allmond said. “Our students get the chance to act as mentors, instead of as the ones being mentored. And Cristo Rey’s students earn valuable networking skills that transfer to the next level—college.”
What: “Project: Career” student networking event
Where: Temple University’s Fox School of Business—Alter Hall (1801 Liacouras Walk)
When: Friday, Jan. 26, 2018 (2:30-4 p.m.)
Who: Seniors from Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School will receive professional-development coaching from students and faculty at Temple’s Fox School, and dozens of local industry professionals.
Day-of contact: Drew Allmond, assistant professor of marketing at Temple’s Fox School of Business, will be available for interviews on the day of the event, and can be reached at 215-806-0287. Joanna Wusinich, Cristo Rey’s director of work-study programs, also will be available.
For more information and to schedule an interview, contact Christopher A. Vito, Associate Director of Communications and Media Relations, at cvito@temple.edu or (215) 204-4115.
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The talented, diverse, and driven Class of 2021 at the Fox School of Business are poised to become the next generation of innovators and business disruptors. They arrive highly-accomplished and are excited to hone their skills with the help of our top-tier faculty, market-driven curriculum, and professional development opportunities.
In fall 2017, the Fox School redesigned the Bachelor of Business Administration Core Curriculum to weave critical thinking, communication, and quantitative reasoning skills into the fabric of core business knowledge. The redesign team continues to work with students, alumni, faculty, staff, and employers to integrate these skills across the curriculum to better position Fox undergraduates for success post-graduation. These four freshmen are among the first to participate in the enhanced curriculum.
Watch the video below and read on to learn more about these four freshmen who are ready to change the world.
Nasir Mack
- Hometown: Philadelphia
- Age: 18
- Major: Business Management
- Career goals: CEO, creative director, project manager
- Hobbies: Public speaking, reading, writing
- Hidden talent: Making music, playing violin
Meredith Orme
- Hometown: Royersford, Pa.
- Age: 18
- Major: Business (declaring Accounting)
- Career goals: Grad school, then Certified Public Accountant
- Hobby: Competitive horse rider
- Hidden talents: “I can bake pretty well and I love to make handmade gifts!”
LJ Troilo
- Hometown: Havertown, Pa.
- Age: 19
- Major: Entrepreneurship, Marketing
- Career goals: Serial entrepreneur, thought leader
- Current businesses: Symbie (social networking app) and eThree (sales engagement platform)
- Claim to fame: Joined rapper Travis Scott onstage at concert and knew every word
Robert Zurzolo
- Hometown: Medford, N.J.
- Age: 19
- Major: Finance, Entrepreneurship
- Career goals: Wealth management sales or investment banking firm in mergers and acquisitions
- Dream: “To retire from the financial field after 15 to 20 years and work as a high school math teacher in my hometown.”
- Current business: Has run landscaping company, Robert Z Properties LLC, since freshman year of high school
- Hobby: “I love to travel. I went to Switzerland this fall and Italy this summer.”
- Hidden talents: Good cook and ping pong player
Learn more about Fox School undergraduate programs.
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Project Management Program Prepares Professionals for Certification
November 28, 2017 //
The Fox School’s Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management (MSCM) not only offers high-quality academic programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level, but also offers non-credit opportunities for industry professionals. MSCM collaborates with the Project Management Institute (PMI), Delaware Valley Chapter (PMI-DVC) to expand Fox’s opportunities for professionals by offering the Project Management Professional (PMP) Prep Program.
PMP Prep is a two-course sequence of foundations and exam preparation courses dedicated to preparing project management professionals to study and sit for the Project Management Professional (PMP) ® certification.
MSCM offers this program during the fall and spring semesters at the Temple University Center City campus in small class settings during the evenings to accommodate demands of working professionals. All instructors are members of PMI-DVC and certified PMPs with extensive real-world project management experience. We are offering this non-credit executive education program for the third year, and it continues to enroll an increasing number of prospective PMP candidates each semester.
Speaking on the impact of a PMP certification, Michael Chapman, director of training for PMI-Delaware Valley Chapter, said, “I have always been impressed with the universal recognition of the Project Management Professional (PMP) ® certification and the respect that it is afforded worldwide. Individuals who pursue the PMP certification demonstrate their commitment to professionalism and their dedication to their careers.”
Those interested in learning more about this program can contact Dr. Mark Gershon, professor of operations management in MSCM, at mgershon@temple.edu.
Learn more about the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management.
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A Letter from the Chairman
November 20, 2017 //
This past year has been very exciting with the outstanding achievements of our students and faculty. Student enrollment and quality of the students continue to increase. The Fox School actively assesses and updates our BBA and MBA curricula to meet the demands of the marketplace; notably, we have incorporated more analytics and project-based assignments across our programs to best prepare the students for career launch. This fall, the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management (MSCM) launched a joint MS program initiative with Temple University’s Klein College of Media Communications. We continue to collaborate on innovative interdisciplinary programs and initiatives with other departments and schools across the university.
MSCM expanded our co-curricular opportunities for undergraduate student development with integration of the Fox Leadership Development Program (FLDP); this program encourages a culture of student engagement, achievement and leadership outside of the classroom. MSCM formally created “badge” achievements for our practice-focused offerings in Consumer Insights, Sales Force Effectiveness and Supply Chain Management to track student interest and career focus. MSCM offers the Quant Camp badge each semester to students that want to enhance their skills in SPSS software. We also collaborate with our Student Professional Organizations (SPOs) to offer badges, such as a Professional Sales Organization (PSO) Sales Certificate badge.
MSCM’s Student Professional Organizations (SPOs) continue their reputation of growth and success. Temple University’s American Marketing Association (TU-AMA) placed 3rd in the International AMA Collegiate Case Competition and named a Top 5 chapter globally. TU-AMA and MSCM hosted Fox Marketing Week in October to raise awareness of the marketing program offerings, highlight potential career paths, visit local companies, and provide student networking opportunities with executives and industry professionals. TU-AMA also hosted their regional AMA collegiate conference in October; over 170 attendees from local and regional university participated.
Temple University Supply Chain Association (TU-SCA) students are active in national and regional industry conferences and competitive events. TU-SCA students have represented MSCM at industry events, received scholarships, participated in case competitions, and hosted industry professional organization meetings at Alter Hall. MSCM and TU-SCA hosted the annual SCM Career Expo in October that featured over 25 firms recruiting our students and drew over 100 student attendees.
The Sales Education Foundation ranked Temple University as a 2017 Top University for Professional Sales Education. Professional Sales Organization (PSO) students continue to excel in their national and regional sales competitions, building on that reputation. Students placed 2nd and 5th in the Speed Selling Competition at the International Collegiate Sales Competition at Florida State University this fall.
Dr. Subodha Kumar joined MSCM as a full professor of Supply Chain Management. MSCM also hired Tim Young as an instructor in Management Science Operations Management.
Our centers in Big Data in Mobile Analytics, Neural Decision Making, and the Consumer Sensory Innovation Lab continue to produce innovative research. Dr. Xueming Luo’s Global Center for Big Data in Mobile Analytics has actively supported research in top journals and is co-hosting a conference on digital, mobile marketing, and social media analytics with NYU in December. Dr. Luo will also bring the 40th Annual INFORMS ISMS Marketing Science Conference to Temple University in 2018.
The Neural Decision Making Center, directed by Dr. Angelika Dimoka, co-organized an international symposium: Interdisciplinary Symposium on Decision Making held at Stanford University with over one hundred participants.
Dr. Vinod Venkatraman and Dr. Angelika Dimoka (with Dr. Pavlou) received a grant for $160,000 to study the effect of age on branding. Dr. Crystal Reeck also received a $32,194 grant to study social reward and aging. MSCM faculty have published articles in several journals, such as Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, Management Science, Journal of Production and Operations Management, Journal of Business Research, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Product and Information Management, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Neuro Science and the MIT Sloan Management Review. A fourth year Ph.D. student, Ning Ye, won an ACR Sheth Foundation Award in October.
We are very excited about continuing the momentum of MSCM programs in 2017–2018 with additional research faculty and new Ph.D. students.
Michael F. Smith
Chairman, Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department
What’s Next for Social Media Influencer Marketing?
November 20, 2017 //
Bloomberg claimed that in 2016, $255 million is spent each month on social media influencer marketing. The influencer trend has continued to increase since then, as brands pay celebrities both big and small (or, as they’re now called, micro-influencers and nano-influencers) to share photos, stories, GIFS, selfies, and reviews through their own social media accounts about how much they love their products.
Social media analytics, including the impact and evolution of influencer marketing, is one of the main research areas of Dr. Subodha Kumar, a professor of marketing and supply chain management who came to the Fox School of Business this year after previous teaching engagements at the University of Washington and Texas A&M.
Kumar, the deputy editor of the Production and Operations Management Journal, is also spearheading a new PhD concentration in supply chain management and is the director of the Fox School’s new Center for Data Analytics. His other research interests include healthcare analytics, cybersecurity, web and mobile advertising, and supply chain analytics.
Given the current buzz around influencer marketing, we spoke to Kumar about where he sees the trend heading in the future. Here’s what we learned.
Social media influencers are still a relatively new phenomenon, but what have been some of the big changes over the last year?
Until last year, somebody might tweet, “I really like Pepsi,” and it wasn’t clear if they were just giving their opinion or if it was an ad. Now there’s a federal rule that it has to be tagged as an ad; if you’re taking money it has to be clear. Companies, like Coke and Pepsi, are finding big people to tweet about their product, so when we think of big influencers, we think of Michael Jordan or someone similar, but it’s not always someone that big. You can also find people who have a lot of followers, and who may impact views, but those influencers who are relatively unknown outside of a specific community might be very relevant to the target consumer. Companies choose influencers based on many factors, like how many people follow them, how much their opinions are valued, and who follows them. The overall goal of influencer marketing is transferring the influence into dollar values.
Do you think it was a good move to make it a rule that paid influencer shares be tagged as ads?
In my opinion, it’s a must. I think it’s important, otherwise you get into problems like those faced by Amazon, which gives products for review to customers who have high reviewer followings. The rules keep changing, but they’re trying to make the role and connection of the influencer to the product more obvious. People value opinions of influencers, so it has to be made clear. We collect a lot of data from Twitter to study how this all works. I’m now trying to get data to determine how people’s perceptions of campaigns have changed since it has been required to state that an influencer tweet is an ad.
Where do you think the influencer model will go next?
One thing that will eventually change is that companies will have to decide and determine more influencer factors. Right now, it’s pretty straightforward: The company locates an influencer and pays the influencer to share X number of tweets. But soon, more attention will have to be paid to sequence and frequency. Which ad you see first is very important. If you go to a company website, for instance, the order in which you experience an ad is planned to have the best outcome. That’s not happening now with Twitter influencers, but we’ll see more of it.
Also, more attention will be paid to identifying combinations of influencers. Now, influencers are normally hired as individuals. But there will be more synergy over time, so if there are three influencers sharing, what’s the best sequence for them to share in? Some influencers will have common followers, so the tweet needs to be timed to come from the influencer the people value more, first. We’re looking into this now, but it’s a complicated situation. The influencer model is still in its infancy, but it’s becoming more refined. It will keep going in new, more interesting directions, and we’ll continue developing more sophisticated ways to research it.
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How Can Marketers Adapt Content to the Future?
November 20, 2017 //
On Friday, October 27, 2017, Temple University American Marketing Association (TU-AMA) hosted the 5th Annual Regional Marketing Conference, where the theme was “Adapting Content to the Future.” The sold-out event was attended by over 170 people, including collegiate members of AMA from the College of New Jersey, West Chester University, Pennsylvania State University, Virginia Tech, and Lehigh University. Also in attendance were industry professionals from Burlington, Merck, SideCar, Horizon Media, Publicis Groupe, Kantar Health, AmerisourceBergen, Mangoes, and Ipsos, many of whom were Temple alumni.
Fara Warner, vice president of custom content at The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), was the keynote speaker. Her presentation addressed the changing demands of media toward millennials and how content needs to be delivered to adapt to evolving preferences.
WSJ also collaborated with TU-AMA to offer a case competition. Seventeen teams submitted a written case memo, and the top eight teams were selected to present to WSJ professionals. A TU-AMA team of sophomore Anastasia Postolati, freshman Emily Allocco, and freshman Anjali Sachdeva won the case competition with their recommendation to implement a student blogging page, “The Wall,” designed for college students to interact on WSJ through publishing stories and commenting on news articles with other millennials. The team also recommended the adoption of “Street Team,” a WSJ student ambassador program on college campuses. The winning team will travel to New York City to work for a day with WSJ professionals to create the ideas presented in their case.
Speakers from Vox Media, the Brownstein Group, and Chatterblast Media also presented, focusing on the ever-changing growth and demand of digital marketing and provided guidance for millennials to adapt to these changes to succeed in the field. A brief Q&A followed each presentation to engage attendees eager to discuss these ideas.
The conference provides a unique opportunity each year for students to network with professionals, students from other AMA chapters, and Fox alumni. The Fox School’s Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management and TU-AMA will host the 6th annual conference again next October.
Students were enthusiastic and pleased with this year’s conference. Here are some of their comments:
“It was awesome to hear from a wide array of professionals from different fields and stages in their career. Zach Khan, from Vox Media, talked about his ‘go-get-em’ mentality and it was inspiring to hear as an upperclassman who is looking for future careers.” – Elliot Barbell (Junior, Marketing major, Digital Marketing minor)
“I liked the variety topics talked about by the speakers. Matthew Ray [from Chatterblast] was hilarious yet informative and relatable at the same time. It was fun to watch him throw an entertaining twist to marketing.” – Amna Mahmood (sophomore, kinesiology major)
“From a film perspective, the conference helped out with networking and allowed a great atmosphere for learning from very experienced professionals.” – Steven Aronow (sophomore, marketing/media and production major)
“It was interesting to hear from professionals in the industry about the new ways they’re marketing to different demographics. Specifically, how The Wall Street Journal is attempting to target the younger demographic.” – Patrick Lavelle (junior, marketing major)
TU-AMA graciously thanks their conference sponsors for their support: DVIRC, Harmelin Media, Mikey Robbins, Pita Chip, Saxbys, Temple Book Store, Under Armour, WaWa, WSI, The Wall Street Journal, and of course, the Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department.
Learn more about the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management.
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Fox to Host 40th Annual INFORM ISMS Marketing Science Conference
November 20, 2017 //
Dr. Xueming Luo, Charles Gilliland Distinguished Chair, director of the Global Center for Big Data and Mobile Analytics, and professor of marketing at the Fox School of Business, has been named by INFORMS as the conference organizer for the 40th Annual INFORMS ISMS Marketing Science Conference. It will be held June 13–16, 2018, at the Fox School. This annual event brings together leading marketing scholars, practitioners, and policy makers from around the globe with a shared interest in rigorous scientific research on marketing problems.
The conference falls under the auspices of the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science (ISMS) sub-branch, a society of scholars devoted to researching market phenomena at the interface of firms and consumers, and disseminating that knowledge to students, managers, public officials, and society at large.
The conference will be held at Alter Hall, home of the Fox School, which features state-of-the-art technology and ample room for concurrent sessions. This conference momentum is building and may become the largest academic conference that Temple University has ever hosted.
“We are very fortunate to host this prestigious conference,” says Dr. Luo. “It is the flagship annual event in the quantitative marketing areas with expected attendants of around 1,000 marketing professors and PhD students from the best business schools around the world, as well as industry executives and experts. It promises to further boost our Temple and Fox brand reputation and impact in the country and worldwide.”
Call for papers and registration dates are now open. Please visit the conference website for more information.
Learn more about the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management.
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Dr. Howard Weiss to Retire After 42 Years at Fox
November 20, 2017 //
Howard J. Weiss, a Fox School of Business professor of operations management in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, will be retiring at the end of the academic year after 42 years of teaching, research, and service excellence.
“I’m going to relax, read more, winter in Florida, spend more time with my wife, travel to see my children and grandchildren more often, and continue to maintain my educational software packages with Pearson Publishing,” says Weiss about his retirement plans.
Weiss grew up in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia; he attended Philadelphia public schools, including Central High School (227). In 1972, he completed his undergraduate studies in applied mathematics and computer science at Washington University in St. Louis. In his senior year, he was torn between becoming a professor or a lawyer. He ultimately chose the former, and after completing his MS and PhD in industrial engineering and management science at Northwestern University, he took his first teaching position at Western Illinois University.
“It was out in the middle of cornfields,” he recalls of Western Illinois. “I’d previously been in Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Chicago, so it was a pleasant change to be able to leave our doors unlocked. But my wife and I ultimately wanted to live in a larger and more progressive city.”
The next year, in 1976, he took a job at Temple University, in what was then the Department of Management. His research, which has been published in leading journals, shed new light on waiting lines, inventory, and scheduling. In 1988, his first educational software package and textbook were released. He has since updated the software package, and developed new software for Pearson. “It’s exciting,” he says, “to know that my software has been used globally by so many students.”
Weiss has helped lead the Fox School through many critical evolutions over the last four decades; in 2006, to recognize his efforts and impact, he received Fox’s highest honor, the annual Musser Award for Service, and in 2013 he received the Temple University Outstanding Faculty Service Award. Weiss was a member of the steering committee that established the Online MBA program and, always one to integrate technology into the classroom, was one of the very first people to incorporate computers and Excel into the classroom and to teach an online course at Fox. He recently was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fox School. He also has served his professional organizations in multiple capacities, including editorial positions for several leading journals.
He served as the academic director of the Executive MBA program for 14 years, and academic director of the Part-Time MBA program for eight years. “I always envisioned myself as a quant person, so to have that kind of leadership and administrative opportunity was very rewarding,” says Weiss. “I’m very grateful to the dean for that.”
In addition to his many papers directly related to his field of operations management, Weiss has published several articles about professional sports. He has written on ice hockey, bias of schedules and playoff seeding, and ranking the greatest sports records of all time. Weiss, a big fan of both Philadelphia and Temple athletics, has had this most recent research noted in Sports Illustrated and The Wall Street Journal.
Weiss is part of a larger Temple family. His daughter, Lisa, received her undergraduate degree from Temple in religion. His wife, Lucia, received her degree in women’s studies from Temple and has recently retired as an associate professor of family medicine from the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine. Professors Weiss have been generous donors to the Fox School and to Temple over the years, including funding an endowed annual prize in women’s studies for graduating seniors. (Alas, his son, Ernie, has his degrees from non-Temple institutions.)
One of the things Weiss—who taught many different courses on operations management and quantitative methods—will miss the most after 42 years at the Fox School is his classroom interactions with students.
“We have some incredible, wonderful students at Fox,” he says. “It has always been a big thrill to see students’ eyes light up when they learn something new or relate what I teach in the classroom to their jobs. Today I gave a quiz and asked the students something I hadn’t taught before. I wasn’t expecting everybody to get it right, but it was really pleasing to see students come up with an idea on their own and try their best. That’s what I’ll miss most about teaching. In addition, I have had the most wonderful colleagues in the department, school, and university that anyone could ask for. They will be sorely missed.”
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Even in today’s digital age, a printed advertisement is more likely to stick with a consumer than its online counterpart.
Mixed-media marketing campaigns are much more likely to succeed when they incorporate a print medium, according to researchers from Temple University’s Fox School of Business.
Neuromarketing research by three Fox School professors explored which combination of digital and print media left the strongest imprint on the brain. A grant from the United States Postal Service Office of the Inspector General (USPS OIG) helped finance the study.
The laboratory component of their study asked participants to view the same combination of advertisements on two occasions over a two-week period. The study relied on traditional, self-reported measures and the recording of brain activity through a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner.
When test subjects submitted to self-reported measures, the researchers found that the participants who had seen advertisements in only one format (whether twice in print or twice in digital, as opposed to one of each) were best at recalling the ads and their content.
According to data procured from the fMRI portion of the study, there was evidence that the same format shown twice, particularly with the physical format, produced associations with higher memory. Lastly, greater activation in brain areas that have been associated with desirability or subjective value was found for products advertised twice in the physical format, denoting greater engagement of these regions in the computations of the underlying subjective value and desirability.
“The primary finding for us was that sequencing, the order in which a test subject saw the ads, does not seem to matter as much as the presence of a physical component,” said Dr. Angelika Dimoka, Associate Professor of Marketing and Management Information Systems. “Under these circumstances, we noticed a stronger activation of the memory center of the brain. This is known as the hippocampus, which is located in the medial temporal lobe.”
Dimoka completed the study with Dr. Paul A. Pavlou, the Milton F. Stauffer Professor of Marketing and Management Information Systems, and Dr. Vinod Venkatraman, Assistant Professor of Marketing. Dimoka and Venkatraman serve as Director and Associate Director, respectively, of Temple’s Center for Neural Decision Making.
The research team’s findings complemented their May 2015 study. This previous study, also commissioned by the USPS OIG, sought a better understanding of consumer decision making through human response to physical, printed media and its digital counterpart. (In that study, printed ads generated a greater neural response than did digital ads.)
“Our newer study differed, in that we examined whether sequencing would play a role,” said Pavlou, who also serves as the Fox School’s Senior Associate Dean of Research, Doctoral Programs, and Strategic Initiatives. “In the end, it did not matter whether a physical ad was viewed before or after a digital ad had been viewed, so long as a physical ad was included somewhere within the combination.”
Fox marketing students collaborate with local high school to offer professional-development training
At Temple University’s Fox School of Business, students know that networking is crucial to professional success. That’s why they are helping local high school students perfect their personal elevator pitches.
Students from Temple’s chapter of the American Marketing Association (Temple AMA) are collaborating this semester with Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School, a private high school located in North Philadelphia, to work with its students on professional development.
In January, the Fox School hosted juniors and seniors from Cristo Rey to share tips on personal and professional presentation skills and communication skills in a formal environment. Temple AMA members plan on visiting Cristo Rey’s North Philadelphia campus in May 2017, when its members plan to speak to the student body at large.
The initial activity was part of “Project: Career,” a networking initiative between the Fox School and Cristo Rey. Cristo Rey combines academic curriculum with professional work experience. Each student, in grades 9 through 12, works a real job for real wages five days each month. This affords Cristo Rey’s students the professional development opportunities they will need at the next level, and substantially reduces their tuition at the school.
Cristo Rey’s ideals align well with those of Temple AMA, said Mina Kwong, the student organization’s Director of Social Impact.
“Our mission is to transform students’ lives,” said Kwong, 20. “We provide students with opportunities to enhance their marketing skills, knowledge and personal networks. We want to do that through community service and social impact.”
At the Project: Career event, Cristo Rey’s students received mentorship from Fox School marketing majors on their college experiences, and their academic careers within the program.
“Our students really enjoyed the event,” said Joanna Wusinich, Director of the Work-Study Program at Cristo Rey. “They saw it as an opportunity to get their feet wet and get comfortable networking. All of our students have four years worth of internship experience under their belts, so I think they took a lot of pride in being able to talk about their work history.”
Wusinich said she first learned about Temple AMA two years ago, and the two groups have been working together ever since. The goal for each, she said, is to foster growth through collaboration.
“We wanted to bring Cristo Rey’s students to our business setting and open up their eyes,” Kwong said. “That’s something that is valuable for them, in learning about us. It’s a learning opportunity for us, as well. It’s so eye-opening to see that their students have lots of internship experience. It’s really inspiring.”
Cristo Rey’s graduating seniors in the class of 2016 achieved a 100-percent college acceptance rate, which according to Wusinich demonstrates the school’s biggest impact in the determination of its students.
“The confidence of our seniors—I know that is directly related to the willingness of Temple’s students to coach them and prep them for the event,” said Wusinich. “The Temple American Marketing Association has really stood out for its professionalism and level of maturity, and serves as a strong example and as role models for our students.”
Temple AMA only recently established the Social Impact Committee headed by Kwong. She said its involvement with Cristo Rey is just the beginning of what could be achieved by the organization and in its future collaborations. The group is actively looking for more opportunities through which it can have a positive impact in Philadelphia.
“We’re very grateful for the partnership with Temple AMA,” said Wusinich. “It’s been a pleasure working with them and we’re looking forward to growing and building this relationship with them.”
Fox Marketing student lands major investment for business plan
February 20, 2017 //
Starting a company – or receiving a six-figure investment for it – is not something that many 23-year-olds can say they’ve accomplished. But Lei Zhao, a senior at the Fox School of Business, has done both.
After founding HeyHome Education Consulting Company in 2016, Zhao is beginning to pave her professional path.
HeyHome seeks to connect high school students in her native China to safe environments and host families in the United States, an idea at which she arrived after relating to other students who were expressing difficulties with their host families. Unlike other consulting companies, HeyHome’s mission involves making weekly visits to assess living situations, to ensure that students are enjoying their stays, and addressing the learning quality in U.S. schools.
“I wanted to extend my horizons because it’s a totally different culture here,” said Zhao, who studies Marketing. “I love to talk to different people and know their experiences so that I can learn from them and build my strength. I talked with my professors about the potential solution of all the issues I was hearing about, and went from there.”
After placing second in the Chunhuibei Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, held by the Consulate of China, Zhao’s determination led to meetings with possible investors to further the development of the company. With a $100,000 investment, Zhao plans to build HeyHome’s website and complete greater marketing research to build a firm customer base.
“I learned a lot from talking to so many investors and politicians,” said Zhao, a native of Beijing. “There were a lot of things that I didn’t know, such as the restrictions of starting a company. I talked to different investors about their offers, adjusted all of them, and chose the best one.”
Next, Zhao will take part in Temple University’s Be Your Own Boss Bowl, but afterward the possibilities are endless. While the company is still relatively new, she hopes in the near future to meet with more investors, establish a successful online community for HeyHome, and eventually service Japan and Korea.
Zhao’s dreams extend to her culinary skills, too. She has a popular online cooking show, “Starfish Kitchen.” She considers cooking one of her hobbies, and she is always inviting trying new recipes. She’d even welcome the chance to bring her show to a U.S. audience.
But all in due time.
“There’s no hurry,” Zhao said. “You have to finish every step perfectly; otherwise it’s going to affect your next step, and the step after that. Do what’s best first and then build long-term.”
A professor from Temple University’s Fox School of Business has been named one of the most-productive authors in marketing research in the world.
Dr. Xueming Luo is recognized in two separate lists within the American Marketing Association (AMA) 2016 Marketing Research Productivity lists. He ranks No. 11 globally for research publications in the two premier journals – the Journal of Marketing (JM) and the Journal of Marketing Research (JMR). Also, he ranks No. 28 in the world for publications to the four premier marketing journals – JM, JMR, the Journal of Consumer Research, and Marketing Science.
Published in January 2017, the AMA lists acknowledge the top individual contributors to the world’s premier marketing journals over a 10-year period, from 2007-2016.
“I am humbled and honored to have been recognized by the American Marketing Association,” said Luo, the Charles Gilliland Distinguished Chair Professor of Marketing. “These four premier journals together are the most influential and hold the highest standards in the entire marketing discipline, and across all streams of research in consumer behavior and quantitative marketing.”
Luo’s research centers on mobile consumer analytics; big data marketing strategies; and social media, marketing models with machine learning, and networks. He serves as founder and director of the Fox School’s Global Center on Big Data and Mobile Analytics, a leading center in the cross-disciplinary domain of big data for business strategies and consumer insights.
He previously has been ranked No. 1 nationally among preeminent scholars in his discipline regarding citations in the top-five marketing journals, from 2006-2010. And from 2011-2015, he ranked among the 20 most-productive authors of research in Premier AMA journals.
Five of the Fox School’s nine academic departments are nationally ranked for overall research productivity. In the 2015-16 academic year, Fox faculty published more than 40 A journal publications, secured more than $5 million in grant funding, and increased new grant funding by nearly $1 million.
When Rob Lawton and the rest of his team arrived in Flint, Mich., with 60,000 water bottles in two trucks, a line of 20 to 30 trucks quickly began to pile up – a sign of how desperate the need was for fresh water in that region of the country.
After the state of Michigan in April 2014 switched the city of Flint’s water supply from Lake Huron and the Detroit River to water from the Flint River, many residents started calling attention to the water’s strange smell, taste, and color. It was later determined that Flint River water was highly corrosive and had caused lead from outdated pipe systems to leak unhealthy elements like lead into the citizens’ water supply. Until pipes could be replaced, citizens were told to drink, bathe, and cook only using bottled water.
That’s why Lawton, a 2013 Marketing alumnus of Temple University’s Fox School of Business, and others like him led a group effort to bring aid relief to Flint.
Lawton received a phone call in January from his friend Nehemiah Davis, the founder of nonprofit organization The Nehemiah Davis Foundation, which works on creating community outreach programs like food drives, back-to-school drives, and more. Davis knew Lawton frequently used large commercial trucks in his line of work as the owner of audio-visual production company Mid-Atlantic FX.
“(Ingram) said, ‘If we go through with this idea, will you be able to get us some trucks?’” said Lawton, who was happy to oblige.
Before departing Jan. 24 on the nine-hour drive from Philadelphia to Flint, Lawton and others turned to social media to spread word that they’d be collecting donations of bottled water. The response was so great, Lawton said, that he needed to add a second truck for the drive. (A tow truck company, in particular, Lawton remembered, arrived with a seven-truck fleet to deliver pallets of water bottles.)
“It was really amazing the amount of support that we received and we were able to effectively enrich the lives of others who are going through this terrible experience,” Lawton said.
Upon arrival in Flint, the team began unloading water onto the street. Each person received two cases, unless he or she had a greater need and represented more than one family. They first delivered to Flint’s lower-income communities, where access to fresh water drop-off zones was reduced to firehouses and municipal buildings.
A documentary to be titled “#Philly2Flint,” created by fellow team member Melissa Robbins, inspired a social media campaign. Soon after, other travelers to Flint shared their experiences with similar hashtags.
Lawton said he will always remember the reaction of the community members to his team’s bottled water delivery.
“There was this one lady,” Lawton said. “We just started loading water bottles in her car and she had this smile that was ear to ear. It was heartwarming. All I have to do is turn on my faucet for something that made her so appreciative. And at that moment, I could tell she really needed it. I’ll never forget that. “