Lion's Share: The Research Cast

MKTG 556 | Session 5 | Lower Connectivity is Better: The Effects of Network Structure on Redundancy of Ideas and Customer Innovativeness in Interdependent Ideation Tasks - 2016

ANDREW T. STEPHEN, PETER PAL ZUBCSEK, and JACOB GOLDENBERG

Introduction:

The authors explore the marketing approach of interdependent ideation, where companies encourage customers to generate ideas on online platforms that showcase others' contributions. They contend that while connectivity promotes inspiration, the structure of the network, especially clustering among contributors, diminishes innovativeness by creating redundancy. Through five experiments, they show that lower connectivity boosts originality, and the negative impact of clustering is lessened when individuals do not depend on peers' ideas for inspiration.

MKTG 556 | Session 5 | A Theory of Product-Form Strategy: When to Market Know-How, Components, or Systems? - 2023

Kellilynn M. Frias, Mrinal Ghosh, Narayan Janakiraman, Dale F. Duhan, and Robert F. Lusch

Introduction:

The study examines how firms decide whether to commercialize their technology as know-how, components, or systems. This decision, known as product-form strategy (PFS), has been largely overlooked despite its importance for both entrepreneurial and established companies. The authors utilize four different studies—qualitative interviews, angel investor proposals, Shark Tank transcripts, and experiments with investors—to develop and test theories about what influences PFS. Their primary goal is to create a theory explaining how challenges in technological integration, safeguarding, and marketing capabilities affect commercialization choices.

Highlighting Research Smarter: A Color-Coded System for Reading Papers

Ever feel overwhelmed by a stack of dense research papers? In this episode, we share my color-coded highlighting system that turns pages of text into a clear, visual map. From marking research questions in green to spotlighting results and big takeaways in pink, we'll walk you through how we organize both qualitative and quantitative studies. You'll learn how each color helps make reading more intuitive, insightful, and, dare I say, enjoyable.

For additional reference, here is how you can grab a one-page cheat sheet to start building your own system today. The Color-Coded System

MKTG 556 | Session 4 | Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey - 2016

Katherine N. Lemon & Peter C. Verhoef

Introduction:

Understanding customer experience and the customer journey over time is essential for firms. Customers now engage with companies through numerous touch points across multiple channels and media, and their experiences are increasingly social. These shifts require firms to coordinate various business functions and external partners to create and deliver positive customer experiences. In this article, the authors seek to deepen the understanding of customer experience and the customer journey in this era of more complex customer behavior. To accomplish this, they review existing definitions and conceptualizations of customer experience as a construct and offer a historical perspective on its origins within marketing. Then, they synthesize current knowledge about customer experience, customer journeys, and customer experience management. Finally, they highlight critical areas for future research on this important topic.

ACCTG 502 | Session 4 | Zombie Board: Board Tenure and Firm Performance - 2018

STERLING HUANG AND GILLES HILARY

Introduction:

We demonstrate that board tenure has an inverted U‐shaped relationship with firm value and accounting performance. The quality of corporate decisions, such as M&A, financial reporting, and CEO compensation, also shows a quadratic relationship with board tenure. Our findings support the interpretation that directors' on‐the‐job learning enhances firm value up to a certain point, beyond which entrenchment begins to dominate and firm performance declines. To address endogeneity concerns, we analyze a sample of firms where an outside director experienced a sudden death, and find that such deaths, which shift board tenure away from (or toward) the empirically observed optimal level in the cross-section, are linked to negative (or positive) announcement returns. The quality of corporate decisions also exhibits an inverted U‐shaped pattern in a sample of firms impacted by the death of a director.

ACCTG 502 | Session 4 | The Deterrent Effect of Employee Whistleblowing on Firms' Financial Misreporting and Tax Aggressiveness

Jaron H. Wilde

Introduciton:

U.S. laws provide explicit whistleblower protections and direct regulators to adopt ambitious programs to reward whistleblowing. However, there is limited evidence on whether employee whistleblowing deters financial misreporting and tax aggressiveness. Using a sample of employee whistleblower cases obtained from the U.S. government, I provide evidence that firms subject to whistleblowing allegations exhibit significant decreases in financial misreporting and tax aggressiveness, compared with control firms. I find that this deterrent effect persists for at least two years beyond the year of the allegation.

ACCTG 502 | Session 4 | Audit Committee, Board of Director Characteristics, and Earnings Management

April Klein

Introduction:

This study investigates whether characteristics of the audit committee and board relate to earnings management by the firm. A negative relationship is observed between audit committee independence and abnormal accruals. Similarly, a negative relationship exists between board independence and abnormal accruals. Reductions in the independence of either the board or the audit committee are associated with significant increases in abnormal accruals. The strongest effects are seen when either the board or the audit committee consists mainly of outside directors. These findings indicate that boards designed to be more independent from the CEO are more effective at monitoring the company's financial reporting process. r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

MKTG 556 | Session 4 | Online Influencer Marketing

Fine F. Leung · Flora F. Gu · Robert W. Palmatier

Introduction:

Online influencer marketing (OIM) has become a vital part of brands' marketing strategies; however, many marketers lack a clear understanding of its scope, effectiveness, and potential risks. To address this gap, this article first explains the background of the phenomenon, defines OIM, and outlines its unique features to establish the conceptual boundaries of the new concept. Based on insights from interviews with practitioners and consumers, and aligned with social capital theory, the authors suggest that OIM involves leveraging influencer resources—such as follower networks, personal positioning, communication content, and follower trust—to boost a firm's marketing communication effectiveness. Six original propositions highlight the benefits and possible threats of OIM, which may encourage further development of an OIM theory. Finally, this article presents key strategies for managing OIM effectively and identifies important gaps between research and practice, proposing directions for future studies.

MKTG 556 | Session 4 | A Meta-Analysis of Brand Extension Success: The Effects of Parent Brand Equity and Extension Fit - 2023

Chenming Peng, Tammo H.A. Bijmolt , Franziska Völckner , and Hong Zhao

Introduction:

Given the high failure rates of brand extensions, understanding the key factors that drive successful brand extensions is essential for marketers and researchers. Previous studies have suggested that parent brand equity and extension fit are main success factors, but findings have been inconsistent. Using signaling theory, categorization theory, and a large dataset of 2,134 effect sizes from research conducted between 1990 and 2020, the authors perform a meta-analysis to generate general insights. The results indicate that both parent brand equity and extension fit positively impact extension success. However, these two drivers have various dimensions that influence their effects differently. For instance, among the fit dimensions, usage fit has the weakest impact. While overall, there is a positive interaction between the two drivers, examining their specific dimensions reveals differences. For example, brand familiarity shows a lower interaction effect with extension fit compared to other aspects of parent brand equity. Additionally, the authors analyze five groups of moderators: contextual factors (such as parent brand, extension, communication, and consumer factors) and research method factors. They offer practical advice for managing and researching brand extension strategies.

MKTG 556 | Session 4 | Revenue Generation Through Influencer Marketing

Maximilian Beichert, Andreas Bayerl , Jacob Goldenberg, and Andreas Lanz

Introduction:

Direct-to-consumer firms increasingly see influencer marketing as an effective way to seed products. However, a key managerial question remains unresolved: whether to target influencers with low or high followership to generate immediate revenue. In this article, the authors aim to answer this question by examining the entire influencer marketing funnel for the first time—ranging from followers on user-generated content networks (e.g., Instagram) to reached followers, engagement, and actual revenue—while also considering the costs of paid endorsements. The findings indicate that targeting low-followership influencers significantly outperforms high-followership influencers across three return on investment metrics. A mediation analysis shows that engagement explains the negative relationship between influencer followership levels and ROI. This aligns with social capital theory, suggesting that higher followership levels reduce engagement between influencers and their followers. These conclusions are based on secondary sales data from 1,881,533 purchases and three comprehensive field studies involving hundreds of paid influencer endorsements, confirming the robustness of the results.