Mary T. Curren

I knew we would win: Hindsight bias for favorable and unfavorable team decision outcomes.

This study examined hindsight bias for team decisions in a competitive setting in which groups attempted to outperform each other. It was anticipated that, because of self-serving mechanisms, individuals would show hindsight bias only when decision outcomes allowed them to take credit for their own teams success or to downgrade another team for being unsuccessful. MBA students playing a market simulation game made hindsight estimates regarding the likelihood that either their own or another team would perform well. Consistent with a self-serving interpretation, when decision outcomes were favorable individuals evaluating their own team, but not those evaluating another, showed hindsight bias. When outcomes were unfavorable individuals evaluating their own team did not show hindsight bias, but those evaluating another team did. Discussion focuses on implications of hindsight bias in team decision-making settings.

Building a Marketing Curriculum to Support Courses in Social Entrepreneurship and Social Venture Competitions.

This study examines the implications of the increased popularity of social enterprise programs and social venture competitions for the marketing curriculum. Social enterprise programs and competitions are often offered outside the school of business and target students from a variety of academic backgrounds. Although social enterprises use business skills to solve social problems, the specific marketing skills required differ from those covered in most marketing curricula. This article recommends some changes in emphasis and/or scope to specific areas in the marketing curriculum and includes an outline of the proposed marketing curriculum for social enterprise programs.

Do Business Communication Courses Improve Student Performance in Introductory Marketing

In this study, the authors investigated whether completion of a business communications course improved student performance in an introductory marketing management course. Regression analysis indicated that students who completed the communications course received higher grades than the otherwise comparable students. In addition, marketing majors and students with high college grade point averages (GPAs) earned better grades in the marketing course. After controlling for college GPA, the authors found that log-linear analysis supported the regression findings by showing a partial association between the grades in marketing and completion of the communications course.

Scholarly Networking Among Business Students: Structured Discussion Board Activity and Academic Outcomes

The authors’ intent was to show the effect of student discussion board activity on academic outcomes, after accounting for past academic performance. Data were collected from 516 students enrolled in a junior-level required business course. Controlling for students’ grade point average, stepwise regression showed a significant relationship between scholarly discussion board usage and both group and individual grades. Students who read the discussion board improved their final grade. More importantly, those students who posted to the discussion board showed further improvement in their academic performance. The findings strongly support the critical notion that when discussion board activity is structured, scholarly networking leads to better student performance. This should encourage more faculty to incorporate task-oriented online discussion in their courses.

A Retail Center Facing Change: Using Data to Determine Marketing Strategy

Plaza del Valle is an open-air shopping center in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. The new marketing manager must review primary and secondary data to determine a target market, a product positioning strategy, and a promotion strategy for the retail shopping center with the ultimate goal of increasing revenue for the Plaza. She is overwhelmed with data and must determine which information to use and how best to use it to make her strategic decisions.