Research: When Geopolitical Risk Rises, Innovation Stalls

Harvard Business Review  online

2022-03-03

Vivek Astvansh, Wesley Deng, and Adnan Habib The impact of geopolitical conflict on global trade and security is clear. But how do rising geopolitical risk levels affect corporate innovation? The authors cross-referenced data from 4,625 U.S. companies over 32 years with a global index of geopolitical risk to quantify the link between geopolitics and innovation. At a high level, their analysis suggests that geopolitical risk has a substantial stifling effect on private sector innovation, in particular for companies with substantial exposure to foreign markets, and that that negative impact can persist for three to five years after the initial conflict. In light of these findings, the authors offer strategies to help companies minimize the impact of geopolitical risk on their own innovation, but argue that ultimately, the only way to address the underlying issue is for political and business leaders (alongside other key players, such as lawmakers and media platforms) to work together to reduce global tensions and build a more peaceful — and innovative — future.

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8 Tips to Build a Winning Customer Experience Strategy

CMSWire  online

2021-12-01

A company’s CX strategy should include consistency and reliability in customer service, said Vivek Astvansh, assistant professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. “Reliability refers to customers having the same experience, regardless of the day and the time, whether they are in physical store or the webstore, whether they are in pre-purchase or post-purchase stage, whether they are interacting with a live agent or a bot, etc.,” Astvansh said.

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How To Get C-Suite Buy-in on Your Customer Experience Initiatives

CMSWire  online

2021-09-03

Several marketing experts pointed to the need to focus on ROI in making any such presentation to the C-Suite. A solid calculation on the expenses and expected returns are essential. “Provide a concrete and vivid example of the CX problem you are solving, convert the problem into dollars, state your solution, convert the solution into dollars and list other measures of benefits and costs, shared Vivek Astvansh, assistant professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

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Why Marketers Are Thinking Globally and Acting Locally

CMSWire  online

2021-08-04

“Global is aspirational, local is relatable. That is, consumers prefer global when they seek to realize an aspiration,” said Vivek Astvansh, assistant professor of marketing at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. “Global is less relatable, but less likely to be aspirational. Unfortunately, brands and companies often forget this distinction, using global for relatability and local for aspiration.”

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Customer Experience M&A Activity Zeroes in on AI

CMSWire  online

2021-07-23

"Recent mergers and acquisitions in the digital CX business suggests that customer-centric companies are seeking to improve the automation in their first line of customer interactions,” added Vivek Astvansh, assistant professor of marketing at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. “This realization leverages the emergence of machine learning and conversational artificial intelligence. Feeding this M&A are technology startups that are developing proprietary machine learning programs that train themselves using the voluminous and fast-changing data that a company has about each customer.”

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Think Beyond the Chatbot for Great Customer Experience on Social Media

CMSWire  online

2021-07-21

Customers expect a “chat.” They want private and instant responses and effective resolutions, said Vivek Astvansh, assistant professor of marketing at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. “While a chatbot on social media platforms is useful for triage, customers may prefer to be redirected to a person who can listen, convey warmth, and converse in personalized 'customerspeak' rather than canned business jargon.”

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Not All Customer Feedback Models Are High-Tech

CMSWire  online

2021-03-12

Historically, companies have relied on surveys using open-ended and multiple choice questions to get customer feedback, with some larger companies using focus groups or one-on-one interviews, said Vivek Astvansh, assistant professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

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Customer surveys have taken over the world. Not everyone rates them a 10

Los Angeles Times  online

2020-02-23

Vivek Astvansh, an assistant professor at the Kelly School of Business at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, said part of the key is to shift the responsibility for the survey away from the person making the sale to avoid questions of survey-gaming and even potential bribery.

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Grant for Workshop

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency $25,000

Co-PI on a grant awarded to the Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute) for a workshop scheduled for February 25, 2022 and titled “The ERI-EPA Region 5 Workshop on Business / Local Government Collaboration for Climate Change Preparedness”

Accelerate Research Award

Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS) $58,500

February 2016 to January 2017

Accelerate Research Award

Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS) $30,000

For my research project (effect of wellness program on firms financial performance) under the larger Sun Life-Ivey Canadian Wellness ROI Study. Dec 2014 to Nov 2015

Scholarship

Trudeau Foundation $60,000

Nominated by the Western University for the Trudeau Foundation (national) scholarship.

Plan for Excellence Doctoral Fellowship

Western University, Ivey Business School $35,572

2014 through 2018 for academic research excellence.

Marketing Department Scholarship

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin School of Business $6,000

$6,000 for the period from May 2013 to Aug 2013, and $3,000 for the period from May 2014 to Aug 2014.

Marketing Department Scholarship

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin School of Business $11,000

$11,000 for the period each from Aug 2012 to May 2013, and from Aug 2013 to May 2014.

Winning with Packaging: When Does Repackaging Elevate Sales?

2022 After years of losses, the packaging industry became profitable in 2013 and is expected to be valued at US$1.05 trillion by 2024, with a 2.8% annual growth rate. This growth is fueled by frequent launch of new packages for established brands. Although a new package could enhance sales by offering novelty and benefits, it could also disrupt consumers who value routines and act out of habits. Given these opposing arguments, whether and to what extent repackaging affects sales becomes an empirical question of economic importance. We estimate a dynamic linear model by using a sample of new packages introduced in the U.S. CPG industry to answer this question. Results highlight risks and opportunities for managers. Specifically, we find that (1) minor improvements to existing packages are more effective than entirely new packaging approaches; (2) while a new package’s experience-enhancing and sustainability benefits are effective to increase sales, giving a distinctive look via repackaging is ineffective; and (3) premium (vs. budget) brands and brands in less (vs. more) vertically differentiated categories benefit more from repackaging. The findings help inform brand managers regarding whether, why, and when packaging boosts sales and reinvigorate policy makers’ calls for sustainable and convenient packaging solutions.

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The Recall Decision Exposed: Auto Recall Timing and Process Dataset

2022 Problem Definition. There is a concerted effort across multiple academic disciplines to understand the recall decision-making process. Specifically, what steps does a manufacturer take following a product defect discovery and resulting in the product recall decision? This effort has often been limited to case studies within a particular manufacturer largely due to the absence of consistent and comparable data across firms. Methodology/Results. This data paper provides a foundation for future research on recall decisions by processing and coding textual disclosures on 2,120 recalls initiated in the United States by 27 automobile manufacturers from 2009-2018. For each recall, the data set provides the time the firm took to make the recall decision by comparing the defect awareness date to the recall decision date, whether the recall is associated with a supplier, the number of events in the recall decision-making process, and the date and description of each event. Managerial Implications. Not only can this data enhance product recall research by providing key recall decision-making variables unavailable in related research, an additional indication of the value of our data set also comes from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the automobile regulator in the United States. We held discussions with a senior leader at the NHTSA’s Recall Management Division related to this data set. This discussion revealed that the NHTSA does not have these data in an analyzable form and that they would be interested in using our data set for its reports, such as the NHTSA’s biennial reports to the U.S. Congress. This signal suggests that regulators, as well as researchers, practitioners, and other safety advocates may find our data set useful.

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Differential Effects of Received Trade Credit and Provided Trade Credit on Firm Value

2021 With over half a trillion dollars in trade credit flowing between firms in the United States, it is critically important for managers to understand how the trade credit that their firm receives and provides affect its value. Trade credit is a strategic investment in supply chain relationships that allows the recipient to make payment later rather than at the time of the sale. A firm provides trade credit to its downstream business customers and also receives trade credit from its upstream suppliers. Although research has shown that provided trade credit builds a firm's shareholder value, it has not examined what effect, if any, received trade credit has on the firm's value. As a result, one might assume that received trade credit affects firm value in the same manner as provided trade credit. We argue otherwise and show that received trade credit and provided trade credit have differential effects on firm value. Received trade credit has a negative direct effect and a positive indirect effect (through profit), whereas provided trade credit has a positive direct effect and a negative indirect effect. The difference in direct effects hinges on the disparate nature of dependence in the supply chain. Provided trade credit increases customers' dependence on the firm, building the firm's value. In contrast, received trade credit increases the firm's dependence on its suppliers, destroying the firm's value. Empirical results using a sample of 2804 firms from 1986 to 2017 provide robust support for the hypotheses. They show that managers risk overestimating the value of a 1 SD increase in received (provided) trade credit by $284.74 ($74.95) million, on average, if they do not consider both the direct and indirect effects it has on their firm's value.

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