Harvard Business Review: “How to Make Your Loyalty Program Pay Off,” 10/28/21
Wayne Taylor, assistant professor of marketing, analyzed purchase data from more than 10,000 customers at a top U.S. retailer. In an article co-authored with his research partner, the pair explain how they identified customer segments considered highly profitable and determined the metric of location was more profitable than past spending. “We fed extensive data on both spending and physical locations of customers, stores and competitors into a simple machine-learning model … the model found that small differences in location could make a big difference in ROI, highlighting how automated tools can segment customers in ways that may not seem intuitive, but which can be incredibly impactful to the bottom line.”

National Public Radio: Marketplace: “What Will Inflation Look Like One Year from Now?” 12/9/21
Harvey Rosenblum, professor of practice in finance and former executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, weighs in as part of a story regarding the economic outlook for the end of 2022, beginning of 2023. He offers the opinion that the major factor driving inflation now and for the next several years will be “the willingness to print money … and lean on central banks to finance government deficits.”

Yahoo Finance TV: “Fed Doubles Pace of Taper to $3B Per Month,” 12/15/21
Michael Cox, executive in residence at the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom and former chief economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, is interviewed live about the Fed’s latest policy announcement and the implications of inflation. He contends that too much money was pumped into the economy over the past two years: “I’m not sure [the taper is] aggressive enough. I think the Fed may have gone too far during COVID.”

KDFW-TV, FOX 4: “Texas Public Utility Commission Approves More Changes to Power Grid, but Some Remain Concerned,” 12/16/21
Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute, contributes to a story addressing the increase in electricity prices across Texas. High natural gas costs are partly behind the electricity rise, but, he says, “I think we can certainly attribute some of the price increases we have seen to the preparations that are being asked of providers of electricity in response to the storm last February. I would anticipate more to come.”

Business Insider: “Working Parents Feel Torn Between Personal and Work Identities,” 12/18/21
Marcus Butts, associate professor and management and organizations department chair, is quoted in an article about parental identity threat and loss of work productivity. Parental identity threat is the sense that career demands challenge an employee’s role as a parent. Butts’ research suggests employers should “understand the psychological challenges working parents face and try to reduce feelings of shame among those employees.” Further, he says, “managers can send the message that work and parenting aren’t in conflict by offering lots of schedule flexibility.”

Fortune Magazine: “War Games Prepare MBA Students for Strategic Battles,” 05/05/22
David Jacobson and Arjan Singh, adjunct professors, talk about the advantage their three-day “war games” experience gives Cox MBA students who will soon face an uncertain world of market and business challenges. The virtual learning experience, which divides students into teams to outmaneuver one another through a given challenge, grew out of talks with corporate partners who hire MBAs. “When we talked about what their needs are, in their own way, they all said the same thing: ‘We can hire lots of good MBA students who have gone through lots of good MBA programs, but what’s missing is the ability to engage uncertainty.’”

The Dallas Morning News: “Is Inflation Leading to Smaller Toilet Paper Rolls or Less Toothpaste in the Tube,” 05/12/22
Sreekumar Bhaskaran, associate professor of Information Technology and Operations Management, advises that in an era of inflation and labor shortages, some manufacturers are relying on so-called shrinkflation to keep costs from rising. Shrinkflation is when makers of consumer staples downsize a product to save on costs, rather than risk shopper backlash by upping the price. Many consumers may not notice the shrinkage since the price remains the same, but inflation and shrinkflation could lead to changes in buying habits, Bhaskaran warns, with shoppers opting for lower-priced products or reducing their consumption. He says, “It also prevents you from being able to reach the consumer in the future because their consumption patterns have dramatically, drastically changed.”

Read about Bhaskaran’s research.

The Wall Street Journal: “A High Percentage of Consumers Really Don’t Understand Percentages,” 05/27/22
Matthew Fisher and Milica Mormann, assistant professors of marketing, received coverage for a co-authored paper showing that consumers often miscalculate percentages in marketing claims, thus leaving money on the table. “It seems participants often revert to a more common use of percentages that express relative size of the whole,” says Fisher, who explains that one reason for the miscalculation is that distinguishing between relative size (“102% of”) and relative change (“102% more” or “102% less”) often hinges on a single word. “People tend to be really bad at understanding percentages,” says Mormann, adding that people are better able to understand phrases like twice as much or multiples. “Using 2.3 times rather than 130% is a way more effective way to communicate.”

Read more about Fisher and Mormann’s research on the “off-by-100%” bias.