Archive for Faculty

| October 19, 2012
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Advertising Students Gain Real-World Experience with Chevrolet

By Patrick Casey, Eller Marketing ’12

Student with Chevrolet Spark

At one point or another, most college students have uttered these nine words: “I’m never going to use this in the real world.”

But that isn’t the case for the students in Edward Ackerley’s Advertising Management class. The class is currently working with four real-world clients, the largest of which is Chevrolet. Each of these campaigns involves strategic business decisions, an actual budget, and creative freedom. While three of the campaigns are for local clients, the Chevrolet campaign is part of a national competition put on by EdVenture Partners.

Chevrolet has teamed up with EdVenture in order to give students the opportunity to work hands-on with an actual marketing campaign. Throughout the semester the students in the class are required to complete deliverables, meet with local Chevrolet partners, and plan one grand event on campus to promote Chevrolet. The company’s main goal is to increase brand awareness and improve the perception of the brand among consumers ages 18-24. While Chevrolet has a large line of commercial vehicles, there are five models they have asked to students to focus on, including the all-new Spark mini-car, Sonic, and Cruze.

The event is only weeks away, and the students have been hard at work to put on a successful campaign. On October 26, five Chevy cars will be displayed on the UA mall. While the details of the event are still in the works, the main goal is to have UA students to interact with the cars via personality surveys. Once they complete a short survey, they will be matched with one of the five cars based on their personality as indicated in their survey responses. There will also be food, games, and music.

So come support your fellow Eller students and check out some amazing cars October 26 on the UA mall. We will keep you updated with the progress of the campaign in the following weeks.

~~~

Patrick CaseyPatrick Casey is a marketing major with a minor in global business. He works with an international nonprofit organization called Young Life. Patrick will be graduating in December of 2012.

Category: Events, Faculty, Students |
| October 16, 2012
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EdVenture Partners Adding Value to the Eller Experience

By Brenda Schaub, Eller Marketing ’13

Chevrolet Sonic

Fall 2012 marks the beginning of a flood of new and eager students at the Eller College of Management. Among them, 62 students of media arts and marketing adjunct lecturer Edward Ackerley are currently enrolled in MKTG 425 Advertising Management. Here we learn to identify the needs of a market, create an effective message, and identify and utilize appropriate media channels that all aid in the management and development of competent and compelling advertising communications.

Like many semesters before, we have teamed up with EdVenture Partners, an organization that works to build strong cross-sector collaboration between nonprofit, corporate, and public sector entities. In doing so, EdVenture Partners empowers students with hands-on application of real-world learning experiences. This semester, the lucky students of MKTG 425 have been given the opportunity, through EdVenture Partners, to develop a promotional campaign for Chevrolet.

The “iAM” campaign for Chevrolet is currently underway and is geared to promote the Cruze, Sonic, and Spark automobiles in an effort to stimulate awareness throughout the campus.

We are holding an event at the UA Mall on October 26, 2012 from 11:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Immediately following 5 p.m., the event will be moved and continue at Bear Down Fridays at Main Gate Square on University Boulevard. Please be sure to come by and enjoy free food and entertainment, and of course, to see industry-education partnerships at work!

~~~

Brenda SchaubBrenda Schaub is a 27-year-old Eller marketing student. After completing high school, she enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where she was tasked as a pilot training instructor. In 2010, she decided to expand her skills by embarking on an academic journey. Brenda is currently a devoted mother and wife who fervently challenges her abilities when balancing personal and professional obligations. She now looks forward to branching out as a professional following graduation in May 2013 as influential Eller alum.

Category: Faculty, Students | Tags: ,
| May 17, 2012
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Staying Connected? Technology Can Help Family Traditions Survive the Distance

Linda Price

Cross-posted from the Wisconsin School of Business Marketing Research Blog. Assistant professor of marketing Amber Epp co-authored this paper with professor of marketing Linda Price and associate professor of marketing Hope Schau, both of the Eller College.

by Amber Epp

Where are you headed after graduation? If your plans will take you to a new city – or even to a new country — for a job, internship, or educational opportunity, you are not alone. Today’s dynamic, global environment has contributed to the dispersion of families across long distances. It is becoming more common for both extended and nuclear families to live far apart as a result of economic circumstances, military deployments, or basic changes in family structure such as divorce or “empty nest syndrome.” And yet, the desire to stay connected to family has not diminished.

Hope Schau

In response, some companies seek to add product features that enable families to share traditions and joint activities across distances. Technology is often a central part of these new features, affording family members the chance to make joint consumption decisions even during a separation. For example, spouses who live apart may cook and eat dinner together via Skype. Or a father may record himself reading his daughter’s favorite bedtime story so that she can listen to it while he is away. But do these family traditions survive during prolonged separation? And what are the implications for brand use and brand loyalties?

My co-authors and I studied the implications of using technologies to facilitate family interactions at a distance (our research was published in a 2011 working paper by Marketing Science Institute). Paradoxically, we found that many “sacred” face-to-face family activities (the family dinner, game night, holiday traditions), and the brands associated with them, are often abandoned when people are separated. Meanwhile, joint activities that may be considered “mundane” in a face-to-face context (two sisters shopping for clothes, or a couple watching a weekly TV show) are often preserved using various technologies. In essence, our study suggests that truly sacred family practices lose too much in technological translation and thus may be discarded or delayed until the family is reunited. Simpler shared joys, on the other hand, are managed more easily across distances and therefore family members may be more likely to maintain these.

What do these findings mean for brand managers? How can companies help families transition cherished traditions from face-to-face to technology-mediated spaces? One of the underlying reasons families lose these connections is that they lack guidelines for how to maintain them. Companies that create templates for enacting shared activities across distances will gain an advantage over their rivals. For example, Xbox Live offers a chat feature whereas its main competitor does not. In other cases, a small effort by a firm (such as a minor improvement in technology or an ad that prompts “sharing your day”) allows families to see how simple practices could become technology-mediated and adapted to being apart. Nike, for instance, developed a technology that allows participants to share daily running results with distant family members.

Another promising opportunity for brand managers is to find ways to transfer “pieces of sacred” across distances. By deconstructing an elaborate family tradition into its various components, identifying those that capture the most meaningful part of the tradition, and translating them into forms that can be shared via technology, companies can give distant family members the chance to maintain their special connections. For example, a mother whose daughter will spend her first Thanksgiving away from home might use a mobile phone application to upload a family holiday recipe and share it with her daughter via Facebook.

What family traditions will you keep after graduation? Which new activities will you and your family enjoy together?

Category: Faculty | Tags: , , , , , ,
| January 19, 2012
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Advertising Management Course and the American Advertising Federation

If you are looking to fulfill your Marketing Elective credits, you should consider Dr. Ackerley’s MKTG 425 Advertising Management course. This course is centered on providing students with meaningful, hands-on experience as opposed to typical lecture based classes. This semester, our class was given the opportunity to work on two projects: developing and executing an advertising campaign for u-Swirl Frozen Yogurt, and promoting the University Chapter of the American Advertising Federation, also known as AAF.

The AAF is an events only club aimed at getting students exposed to the advertising industry by networking with agencies and industry professionals, attending events held by local organizations such the AAF Tucson and Ad2Tucson, and working on various projects. I took on the task of leading the AAF club for the semester due to the fact that most of the members had graduated, the club needed to be revamped and get up and running again. With other students from Dr. Ackerley’s class, we recruited students at the Eller Leadership Fest by providing them information of what the club offers.

For the first meeting of the year, we had Jenny Wendt, the 2nd Vice President of Ad2Tucson, as a guest speaker to discuss her experiences in the advertising industry and to provide the prospective members with a look at many different opportunities available in the industry. We had pizza and refreshments for the meeting, and had a decent turn out of interested students. Shortly after this meeting, an Executive Board was formed, a Facebook page established for students to keep up with events, and the AAF was later featured on the slideshow that runs on all Eller televisions.

I had the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles to participate in a youth panel discussion on the topic of multiculturalism and diversity sponsored by Initiative Media. This was a multi-faceted discussion to uncover fresh insight into how the millennial generation expects multiculturalism to be expressed in advertising messages, media content and entertainment. This was a great opportunity to network with other students and professionals from the business world, and to hear perspectives from students and professionals from all around the country with various backgrounds. The professional panel included executives from companies such as Leo Burnett USA and Google. More information about this event can be found at www.aaftl.com.

In order to do fundraising for the club, we held a percentage night at La Salsa Mexican Grill on University Blvd on November 10th. Additionally, AAF sponsored  a successful percentage night at u-Swirl Frozen Yogurt at the El Con Shopping Center on Thursday, December 8th from 7pm to close.

This experience with the AAF has been nothing short of challenging. I have had the opportunity, along with the other students in MKTG 425 and the Executive Board, to see what it takes to perform recruiting activities for a club that we essentially knew little to nothing about at the beginning. From this experience, I have personally learned a lot about what it takes to recruit members, plan and promote events, be in contact with local professional organizations, and all of the other ongoing tasks that require constant attention. Over winter break, we will be electing a new President to continue on through the 2012-2013 school year, and a great basis has been set for recruiting and event planning. Now that everything is in place once again, the AAF should be able to make a greater impact on campus and make the organization more well known and represented around the UA community.

Category: Faculty, Students |
| January 12, 2012
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Learning From the Last Great Mortgage Mess

Price Fishback

By Price Fishback, Eller Economics Professor, and Ken Snowden, from UNC-Greensboro

This article has been cross posted from the blog Freakonomics.

For the past four years, the U.S. has faced a housing crisis that shows no signs of ending.  The situation was similar in June 1933 when the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation was created to address the nation’s last severe mortgage crisis.  Some have suggested that a new HOLC could help resolve the current crisis, but their characterizations of the HOLC have been incomplete.  Our goal here is to summarize recent research that provides a fuller picture of the HOLC and its impact on housing markets in the 1930s.

Between 1933 and 1936 the HOLC bought and then refinanced one million severely delinquent mortgages, representing roughly one-tenth of the nation’s nonfarm owner-occupied homes.  The total amount refinanced was $3 billion, or about 20 percent of the outstanding mortgage debt on one- to four-family homes in 1933.  A program of similar proportions in 2011 would refinance 7.6 million loans worth $2 trillion.

The typical HOLC borrower was more than two years behind on the original mortgage and property taxes and could find no private lender to refinance the outstanding mortgage.  Despite these problems, nearly all HOLC borrowers had been considered good credit risks just a few years earlier when they contributed down payments of 33 to 50 percent of the property’s value.  These borrowers ran into difficulties between 1929 and 1933 when the unemployment rate spiked above 20 percent and real GDP fell 30 percent.

The HOLC was promoted primarily as a means of aiding these home owners.  Yet the corporation provided as much, or more, relief to mortgage lenders.  It served as a “bad bank” by purchasing the worst 20 percent of loans held by private lenders in 1933 at nearly the full value of the debt owed them. Recent research has shown that in nearly half of the HOLC loan purchases, the price paid covered the principal on the original loan plus all of the interest payments and real estate taxes missed by the borrower. In the rest of the cases, the price covered all but some of the missed interest payments, but the HOLC tried to limit the amount of hair cuts in order to encourage lender participation.

Although HOLC refinancing did not appreciably decrease homeowners’ debts, they benefited greatly from its generous loan terms.  The HOLC charged 5 percent interest rates on 15-year amortized loans written for up to 80 percent of the property’s value.  Borrowers could also opt for a 3-year moratorium on monthly principal payments.  In all of these dimensions, HOLC loans dominated the terms on loans that were available in the private market given the strict underwriting standards of the time.  The HOLC could assist borrowers while bailing out for lenders, therefore, because it offered much lower rates, much longer terms and much higher loan to value ratios than had been originally written into the existing delinquent loans.

Despite the high number of foreclosures, the HOLC showed a small surplus of total income over expenses in government accounts when it liquidated in 1951.

When servicing the loans it refinanced, the HOLC was slow to foreclose and cautious not to depress local home prices when it disposed of foreclosed properties.  The HOLC, nonetheless, ended up having to foreclose on 20 percent of its mortgage portfolio. Despite the high number of foreclosures, the HOLC showed a small surplus of total income over expenses in government accounts when it liquidated in 1951.  The U.S. Comptroller General concluded that the program actually earned modest losses of roughly 2 percent on its $3 billion loan portfolio, however, after all costs of capital were considered in the government accounting process.  The size of the government subsidy to housing markets was actually much larger, because the interest expense to the HOLC would have been much higher had the interest and principal on its bonds not been fully guaranteed by the Federal Government. Had the interest rate on HOLC bonds been one percent higher, the total subsidy would have been about 12 percent of the value of the $3 billion loan portfolio.

We have each independently worked with co-authors to estimate the impact of HOLC lending activity on local housing markets between 1935 and 1940. Both studies found that the typical amounts loaned by the HOLC in roughly 2500 small counties led to sizeable benefits by preventing a 3 percent drop in the home ownership rate and a 20 percent drop in housing prices within that county.  HOLC lending, on the other hand, had no significant impact on the recovery in homebuilding.  We emphasize that these impacts were estimated for counties outside the nation’s largest cities because data limitations in these dense urban markets precluded estimation of HOLC impacts.

Finally, the beneficial impacts that we have estimated for the HOLC at best only limited the damage during the last great housing crisis.  Between 1930 and 1940, housing prices still fell by an average of 45 percent and non-farm homeownership decreased by nearly 5 percent.  The HOLC, therefore, ameliorated but did not fully resolve the mortgage crisis of the 1930s.  The historical record suggests that proposals for a modern HOLC should take into account both the success and limitations of the original program.

Category: Alumni, Faculty, MBA, Students, Uncategorized, Undergrad | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
| May 25, 2011
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Notehall.com Keeps Eller Connections Alive

By Kelsey Wagner, BSBA Marketing ’12

In October 2009, Sean Conway and D.J. Stephan started a bidding war after they pitched their venture Notehall.com to a panel of investors on the ABC reality show “Shark Tank”. After landing a $90,000 investment on the show, the online market place that allows college students to buy and sell class notes, has now reached eighty-eight universities. The majority of Eller students have at least heard of Notehall, if not use it regularly, but a lot of the fame the start up company holds on campus is because of the alma mater of the two founders; Eller College of Management. The Eller connections at Notehall don’t stop there, Dr. Victor Piscitello, Professor of Marketing at the University of Arizona, serves on Notehall’s Academic Advisory Board, and Sean Conway’s former classmate, Josh Cohen is Notehall’s corporate accountant. Relationships like the one maintained between Notehall founder Sean Conway and Joshua Cohen prove that Eller does not only teach you about the business world, but also connects you to it through relationships with classmates, faculty, and alumni.

After graduation, Sean Conway jumped right into starting his business, Notehall.com, and Josh Cohen started his Accounting Career at Deloitte & Touche,  and has since joined Cohen & Bender an Accountancy Corporation. But it was back in 2006 that the two met as students in Eller’s entrepreneurship program, the McGuire Center. It was there, Sean says, that he was, “given the knowledge on how to organize business ideas, and the finances behind running a company.  Most of all, Eller gave me the self-confidence to start my own company.” During his time here, Sean also gained valuable contacts and lasting friendships, including that of Josh Cohen, his current CPA. Sean says, “Josh was always a person that had the top notch accounting knowledge in class.  When we would ask him for advice he always knew the answers.  I knew he was a person that I could trust and rely on as our corporate accountant, and I couldn’t have been more right.” They both had promising future endeavors, and Josh says, “Once we graduated, we wanted to help each other out. He needed an Accountant and I was looking to build a client base for my firm. Before he hired me, I was helping him when he came across any tax or accounting related questions. Also I think we can help each other and grow together professionally.”

Josh and Sean live on two different ends of the west coast, Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively. Thanks to the wonders of technology, though, they are able to keep in touch and discuss work related issues frequently via email and cell phone. This is also how they both keep in contact with other former classmates and faculty members. Because maintaining the relationships founded here at the UofA Sean says he, “sets aside one call every two weeks to connect with an old classmate, professor or someone else I respected in the Eller community.” On top of that, Josh says he always makes an effort to return back to his Wildcat home, where he has been to homecoming the past two years, and plans to get out to Tucson for an interview weekend in the fall.

The two Eller graduates credit both the academic environment here at Eller, and the connections they were able to make, as key factors to their success. The two work together as friends first, but business partners second. As they work together to create success for themselves and their organizations, they are also paving the way for future Eller graduates. One bit of advice Josh Cohen recommends to current Eller students is, “Network, Network, Network. Stay in touch with your classmates, and once you start working meet other UA Graduates in the cities you are located. The more people you know the better you will do in the future.”

To current McGuire students who are interested in following Sean and Josh’s footsteps, Conway recommends that, “If you are interested in entrepreneurship, start a business right out of college.  You are used to living off nearly nothing anyway and likely have no wife or children to support.  It’s the best time to shoot for the moon.”

 

 

 

Category: Alumni, Faculty, Students, Uncategorized, Undergrad | Tags: , , , , , ,
| May 4, 2011
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True Life: I’m a NCAA Intern

By Lauren Sokol, Journalism Major and Sports Management Minor 2012

On Thursday, March 31st, Annie Marum, Alison Ceppi, Taylor Heinlein, Jeff Robin, Cody Wingert, and myself departed from Phoenix to begin our Final Four adventure. Upon arrival, the six of us checked into our hotel, changed and went to Bracket Town to meet with Mark Heatherman. Heatherman is the director of association services for the National Association of Basketball Coaches and was one of our main contacts while we were in Houston. Heatherman told us a little bit about the different NABC events we would be working at while we were in Houston. That evening, the six of us worked at the Nike/National Association of Basketball Coaches Welcome Reception. At this event, we were put in charge of greeting the guests as they were walking in and collecting their tickets. After the reception we were asked to come to the NABC staff meeting. After the meeting wrapped up we headed back to the hotel and were anxious to get some sleep knowing that we would be waking up in just a few short hours.

On Friday morning, we met Heatherman at Bracket Town to get our assignments for that day. Annie Marum and I were assigned to work in the hospitality suite for the coaches’ wives as well as the luncheon for the wives. Cody, Alison and Jeff worked for the Trade Show put on by the NABC at the convention center. Taylor worked at the clinics and speaker sessions for the coaches and players.

After we were all finished with our events, we walked over to the Minute Maid Stadium to help with the 2011 Coaches’ Huddle 3. This event was put on to reaffirm the fight against cancer as part of one of the many events put on by Coaches vs. Cancer. Cody, Alison, Annie, and I were seated at a table towards the entrance checking guests in and handing each guest a small basketball and pen for autographs.  Taylor and Jeff were seated at a separate table near the entrance and they checked in the coaches and had them sign basketballs that would be auctioned off later in the evening.  Being honored that night was University of Missouri’s basketball coach Norm Stewart. Stewart is one of the organizations founders. We were able to watch Stewart’s speech and at the end of the event we all had the opportunity to talk to him and take a picture.

SMA Students at NCAA Tournament

After the Coaches Huddle, Alison, Cody, Annie, and I went back to the hotel to get ready for the night. Taylor and Jeff went to straight to a Learfield event, but met up with the rest of us later that night. That night we all attended the Bricklayers Ball at the House of Blues. This was a private party and had a guest list that blew us away.  At this party we were able to network with some head honchos in the sports industry.  These head honchos include Troy Miller, owner of Division ONE Sports, Dave Hirsch, the vice president of communications with the Pac-10, and Scott MacKenzie, founder of U of A’s Sports Marketing Association.  It was so much fun to be able to meet so many amazing people and have a normal conversation because it was in a more relaxed environment.

Saturday morning we were right back into business mode.  We worked at the Fight Cancer in Style Luncheon. The luncheon was originally created five years ago as a way to say thank you to the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball coaches’ wives. At the luncheon, Taylor and I were getting people to sign up and join “Choose You“, a new movement directed towards women from the American Cancer Society. At the luncheon we were able to sit inside and listen to the presentation. The speaker who really touched the audience the most was Cheryl Rose, husband of BYU’s head coach Dave Rose. Cheryl spoke about how cancer has affected her life. Cheryl’s speech was absolutely incredible and I don’t think there was one dry eye in the audience.

After the luncheon Annie and I headed off to Reliant Stadium to watch the semi-finals games. Taylor, Cody, Alison, and Jeff went down to Washington Street to watch the games. It was such an amazing experience to be able to view the games and be around all the fans. The only thing that would have made it better is if the Arizona Wildcats were there.

Sunday evening we were invited to attend the annual Guardians of the Game award show hosted by the NABC. Each year the NABC awards coaches from all levels for outstanding achievements and contributions to the game, the student-athletes and society. The miniature ESPSYS was an amazing place to be. We were able to sit in the audience and witness the awards of the night be presented to basketball greats such as Jimmer Fredette from Brigham Young, Nolan Smith from Duke, Kemba Walker from Connecticut. The NABC coaches that were honored were Coach of the Year Steve Fisher and Norm Stewart.

We were also fortunate enough to have the once in a lifetime experience of sharing a table with Steve Fisher and his wife Angie. It was truly an amazing night. Some were able to get pictures with the players and coaches, but the one that is already framed is Jeff Robins picture with Mr. Jimmer Fredette.

Monday we met with Chris Hayek for lunch. Chris is the group manager at Shell Lubricants. Chris was able to give each of us different advice regarding our future goals and talk about his career and the path he took to get where he is now.

The trip was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of us. We were able to network with so many people, maybe even some potential bosses in the future. We all gained so much from the hands-on experience. I speak for all of us when I say this; we appreciate everything that SMA did to help make this trip possible. All of us were able to truly experience March Madness.

Want to see more from their trip?

Want to read more about their trip to the Final Four?

Category: Alumni, Events, Faculty, Students, Uncategorized, Undergrad | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
| April 25, 2011
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Eller Students Meet the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet

By Philip Bagdade, Finance 2012

Philip Bagdade and Warren Buffet

On March 31st, 2011 twenty Eller and pre-business majors including myself, (as well as similar sized groups from roughly 9 other schools around the US, Israel, and China!) made the journey from Tucson to Omaha, Nebraska to tour two Berkshire-Hathaway companies and meet with it’s legendary CEO Warren Buffett for a Q&A session.

Eller students meet Warren Buffet

The next day we toured Nebraska Furniture Mart and Borsheims Jewelry Company, which both became members of the Berkshire-Hathaway family of holdings in the 1980’s. First up was Nebraska Furniture Mart, the largest furniture retailer in the United States and is still under the management of the founding family. With half a million square feet in retail space, everyone was amazed with the sea of couches, desks, recliners, and every other furniture, appliance, or electronic component of a household imaginable. In the afternoon we went and toured Borsheims Jewelry Company where Susan Jacques shared with us her unlikely ascent to Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Jacques also described the service-first approach that Borsheims uses with all of its customers.

Warren Buffet drinking a root beer float from Piccolo's on the cover of FORTUNE Magazine

Between our tours of Borsheims and Nebraska Furniture Mart was the main attraction of the trip. All the students were shuttled to the Field Club of Omaha where we would have the privilege of listening to the Oracle of Omaha himself answer questions from the audience. For about two hours I sat intently listening to every word that Mr. Buffett had to say as he gave responses to a variety of questions ranging from personal influences to business tactics to philanthropic activities. While we were sitting there I could not help but be astonished at his energy, passion, clarity, intelligence, and charming humor—for an 80 year old no less! After Q&A, Mr. Buffett treated all of the students to lunch at one of his favorite local restaurants, Piccolo’s, a charming restaurant that seemed like it could exist no where besides the heart of the Midwest. After enjoying one of Piccolo’s famous root beer floats, a personal favorite of Mr. Buffett’s that he was once pictured enjoying on the cover of fortune magazine, we were able to take pictures with Mr. Buffett, who vowed to stay as long as we liked. In this arena, Mr. Buffett’s humor and charisma were again apparent as it flowed over like the root beer floats we had just enjoyed.

I am hard pressed to find another day and a half which has both stimulated and invigorated me as much as this recent whirlwind trip to Omaha. I am so thankful to have had this unique opportunity to listen to such an icon of investing as well as make some wonderful new friendships along the way!

Category: Alumni, Events, Faculty, Students, Uncategorized, Undergrad | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
| February 14, 2011
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Professor Sidney J. Levy and Doctoral Student Wilson Bastos Go to Austria

Sidney Levy

By Sidney J. Levy

The University of Innsbruck, with sponsorship from the Swarovsky Crystal Company, in 2010 established a new academic venture, the Brand Research Laboratory. I was invited to provide the inaugural lecture. I wrote a paper, “The Concept of Branding,” in collaboration with doctoral student Wilson Bastos; and created a PowerPoint presentation for the occasion.

On November 28, Wilson and I started our journey to Austria. We were delayed at the Tucson Airport due to bad weather and were rerouted to Heathrow from Dallas instead of going directly to Frankfurt. The airports were a mess, with long lines of unhappy travelers trying to get to their destinations. At Frankfurt, Wilson was not allowed on the plane to Innsbruck, for no clear reason, and had to wait until the next morning; and I sat in the plane on the ramp for four hours before departing and arriving at Innsbruck at 11:30 p.m.

Despite this ominous beginning, a wonderful visit began on Tuesday, November 30th. We were hosted by Professor Hans Mühlbacher who created the BrandLab with Swarovsky, and especially by Professor Marius Lüdicke who assumed responsibility for the program during our visit. On Wednesday, Wilson earned his keep with a well-received presentation of his research on the relationship to happiness of experience, material objects, and sociality. We were entertained royally on campus, taken to lunches and dinners, and toured around town by Verena Brown, who is most knowledgeable about the local history. We were taken to the most marvelous spa up in the mountains where they have 3 large outdoor pools and several saunas where the visitors wander around casually in the nude enjoying the different temperatures and atmospheres. I also attended a performance of Andrea Chenier at the Innsbruck Opera House.

My lecture was attended by over 120 registrants and was preceded by a six man brass band playing a fanfare—the first time that’s ever happened to me. The talk went well. It is a history of the concept of branding, its changing meanings over time and its current pervasive character in practice and research; I have since received several requests for copies. Wilson and I plan to submit the paper to the Journal of Marketing.

On December 4th, Marius and his colleague, Elizabeth Pichler, drove us to Salzburg. We visited Mozart’s home and we attended the 11:45 p.m. memorial performance of Mozart’s Requiem in the Kollegien church. It was played Zur Todesstunde, at Mozart’s death hour, with original instruments. It was magnificent and heart-rending, a peak life experience for me.

Wilson and I wound up our visit by two days in Vienna, wandering the city among the Christmas markets, visiting Freud’s home/office, the Museum of Fine Arts, and admiring the grandeur of the St. Stephan’s Cathedral. We attended the spectacular Vienna Opera House for a performance of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. The theater is quite a sight and the singing was wonderful–especially the “Figaro, Figaro!”–but we were so uncomfortable in the crowded and cramped seats and overheated room that, I hate to say it, we left at the intermission. Our flight home was thankfully uneventful, leaving us with many great memories of the beauties and hospitality of Austria.

Category: Faculty, Students | Tags: ,
| February 7, 2011
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Statistics Colloquium February 16 @ Noon

The Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics presents a free lecture at the Student Union Memorial Center, Santa Cruz Room 2/16 at noon.

APS Professor Keisuke Hirano on Impossibility Results for Nondifferentiable Functionals

We examine challenges to estimation and inference when the objects of interest are nondifferentiable functionals of the underlying data distribution. This situation arises in a number of applications of bounds analysis and moment inequality models in economics, and in recent work on estimating optimal dynamic treatment regimes in biostatistics.  Drawing on earlier work relating differentiability to the existence of unbiased and regular estimators, we show that if the target object is not continuously differentiable in the parameters of the data distribution, there exist no locally asymptotically unbiased estimators and no regular estimators. This places strong limits on estimators, bias correction methods, and inference procedures.

Category: Events, Faculty | Tags: ,
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