13301 Seminar: Product and idea promotion and spread

Credits: 3 graduate credits in Business Administration

Prerequisite:36 graduate credits in Business Administration, including Accounting for Managers, Marketing, Management and Organizational Behavior, Financial Management, and Corporate Law for Managers.

Registration for the seminar is conditional on approval of the program director.

Objectives:

Experts seek to examine what makes some ideas and products succeed, while others fail. The seminar presents theoretical knowledge and research regarding what contributes to success. For example, in the past few years there has been growing recognition and interest in the revolutionary idea that the wisdom of the crowd may be greater than that of experts, under certain conditions. Discussions will focus on understanding this recent, fascinating phenomenon, its conditions, and how to implement it in a variety of managerial domains. Concepts such as "the tipping point," which allows ideas and products to break through, and "the stickiness effect," which encourages their success, will also be examined. In addition, recognizing the shift in the balance of power between firms and their customers, the seminar will also address the concepts of sharing, outsourcing to the crowd, and “word-of-mouth,” and the role they play in the holistic marketing concept.

Selected topics:
Integrating outsourcing to the crowd in holistic marketing; The phenomenon of "the tipping point" which leads to the spread of ideas and products; The factors that contribute to the success (stickiness) of some ideas and products, while others fail; The importance of sharing (internal and external) and the means to promote its success; The challenges facing traditional firms in the sharing-economy era; Viewing customers as content producers, which contributes to better managerial decision-making and the fostering of innovation; Social influence in the digital era and word-of-mouth; The reasons for preferring wisdom-of-the-crowd, and the conditions for its success.

Structure:

• Each session will include a survey of the literature, a demonstration of its implementation, and a discussion of issues relevant to seminar topics.
• Each student will analyze and write a final paper on a chosen topic, including a literature review. The student will select a company with which to implement the material.
• Students will determine a schedule with the seminar coordinator for the submission of the final paper.
• Students will present selected materials to the group and the seminar coordinator for discussion and critique.