Marketing Faculty Research

In the earliest stage of innovation, creative proposals are judged according to their perceived novelty and usefulness. Sharaya Jones, assistant professor of marketing at Mason, has a simple yet counterintuitive rule for would-be innovators hawking their ideas: More is more. Her recent paper in Marketing Science, co-authored by Laura J. Kornish of University of Colorado Boulder, pits verbose and detailed idea descriptions against terse ones.

Turbulent times are challenging for decision-makers in business. This pervasive condition scholars call economic policy uncertainty (EPU) can turn a wise move into a costly one virtually overnight and is known to weigh on firm innovation, investments and value. When confronting EPU, what’s a firm to do? Saurabh Mishra, professor and area chair of marketing at Mason, and co-authors explores that question.

​​​​​​​A paper co-authored by Jessica Hoppner, associate marketing professor at Mason, has been named a finalist for the American Marketing Association’s prestigious Weitz-Winer-O’Dell Award.

Research by Gautham Vadakkepatt, associate professor of marketing, finds strong indications that gender equality in advertising and actual outcomes for women are on parallel rising trajectories, in the markets that need it most.

Tarun Kushwaha, a professor of marketing at the George Mason University School of Business, recently ran an experiment that pitted the brainpower of actual human executives against trained algorithms.

The Center for Retail Transformation and the Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship at George Mason University School of Business have entered into a research collaboration with Fairfax County on the Relay project in Merrifield, Virginia. Relay is an autonomous (self-driving) electric public transportation shuttle that will circulate between the Mosaic District and the Dunn Loring Metrorail Station.

Brett Josephson, assistant professor of marketing, has studied government contracting since he was a PhD student. In recently published research, Josephson—together with Ju-Yeon Lee, assistant professor of marketing at Iowa State University, and Babu John Mariadoss and Jean Lynn Johnson, associate professors of marketing at Washington State University—recommended that companies focus on specialization.

Years spent engaging with consumers in the business world made School of Business Marketing faculty Niki Vlastara realize that how sustainability concepts and proposals were marketed significantly influenced how successful they became.