User:Smk50/sandbox

.==External links==

• MSI website

Marketing Science Institute

member companies

Founded in 1961, the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) is a corporate-membership-based organization dedicated to bridging the gap beween marketing theory and business practice. Leading researchers from universities worldwide participate in MSI research programs.

As a nonprofit institution, MSI financially supports academic research for the development—and practical translation—of marketing knowledge on topics of importance to business. Issues of key importance to business performance are identified by the Board of Trustees, which represents MSI corporations and the academic community. MSI supports studies by academics on these issues and disseminates the results through conferences and workshops, as well as through its publications series.

MSI headquarters are located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The primary governing body of MSI is the Board of Trustees. MSI Executive Directors oversee the quality and content of MSI-sponsored research and facilitate the matching of research interests between MSI’s corporate members and academics.

History

In 1961, Scott Paper Company President Thomas B. McCabe founded the “Institute for Science in Marketing” with input from leading thinkers John Howard, Albert Wesley Frey, and Wroe Alderson. Twenty-nine companies responded to his membership appeal, establishing MSI as a nonprofit organization that would “contribute to the emergence of a definitive science of marketing” and “stimulate increased application of scientific techniques to the understand and solving or current marketing problems.” Offices were established in Philadelphia near the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and Wendell Smith became its first president.

MSI's founding coincided with a period of booming growth in the U.S. marketing systems, fueled by pent-up demand from war years restrictions on production of consumer goods, and an explosion in population growth. There were also significant infrastructure developments for distribution (such as the interstate highway system), a shift to suburban living (with implications for the retailing sector) and the development of television and a national audience for advertisers. Key marketing concepts, such as the “4 Ps” (product, price, place, promotion) of marketing were introduced. Management science theory, methods, and tools were infused into marketing, and consumer behavior emerged as an area of study within marketing.

In its first decade, MSI supported the development of new tools for marketers, such as multidimensional scaling, stochastic modeling, causal modeling, and decision calculus marketing. It also provided the foundation for advances in new product development. In 1968, MSI moved to Cambridge and begain a 15-year association with the Harvard Business School.

In the 1970s, MSI launched and managed the Profit Impact of Marketing Strategy project, which in conjunction with General Electric, created and analyzed a cross-sectional database that described marketing strategies and profitability across hundreds of business units. The financial consequences of marketing continue to be an area of

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, MSI assembled teams to shape policy at the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Agricultre. MSI also played an important role in introducing qualitative research methods, and sponsored the Consumer Odyssey, a summer-long road trip that was foundational to the rise of qualitative consumer research.

By the 1980s, services had become an important source of growth and profitability for many firms. The role of marketing in strategic planning received increased attention. MSI research introduced key concepts such as market orientation and marketing capabilities.

The conceptualization and measurement of brand equity originated in MSI-sponsored research in the early 1990s. MSI also played an important role in introducing qualitative research methods to help marketers better understand consumers. MSI took an early interset in physiological measures, and has more recently turned its attention to understanding how theory and methods from neuroscience can be used to understand consumer thinking an behavior.

Recently the role of marketing has shifted due to globalization of marketing systems, technology advances, and unanticipated shifts in consumer preferences, behavior and values.

Executive Directors Council

After completing their term, Executive Directors continue to serve MSI as members of the Executive Directors Council.

Ruth N. Bolton, Marketing Science Institute

George S. Day, University of Pennsylvania

Rohit Deshpandé, Harvard Business School

John U. Farley, Dartmouth College

Stephen A. Greyser,Harvard Business School

Dominique Hanssens, UCLA

Donald R. Lehmann, Columbia University

Leigh McAlister, University of Texas at Austin

David B. Montgomery, Stanford University

David J. Reibstein, University of Pennsylvania

Richard Staelin, Duke University

Louis W. Stern, Northwestern University

Frederick E. Webster, Jr., Dartmouth College

Russell S. Winer,New York University