McCombs Marketing Assistant Professor Ty Henderson recently shared his research on brands driving profits by teaming up with a social cause or donating a percentage of profits to a charity. Henderson found a direct link between brands supporting a social cause and increase in product sales. Interesting to note, Henderson also found that an increase in the percentage a brand donates does not lead to increased purchases. Shopper behavior can be influenced by social cause campaigns regardless of the amount being donated.

Read a full summary of Ty Henderson’s research in McCombs Today.

Professor Leigh McAlister is the Ed and Molly Smith Chair in the Department of Marketing. Leigh’s research and professional activities have, for a long time, addressed issues at the intersection of marketing knowledge development and marketing practice. Prof. McAlister’s current research projects seek to improve our understanding of the importance of marketing, both as a functional capability and as a managerial orientation, on a firm’s growth and long-term strategy. Read more in The CCIMS Report.

Marketing faculty member Raji Srinivasan recently gave a presentation titled “Social Influence Effects on Online Ratings of Service Firms” at the McCombs Faculty Research Series. The talk was based on her online ratings research under review for the Journal of Marketing. Read an overview of the study on McCombs Today.

Associate Professor of Marketing Andrew Gershoff was recently published in the Journal of Consumer Research and featured on Time.com’s Healthland. His research looks at the consumer behavior in choosing safety products. Gershoff’s findings show emotions prevail over logic when safety products have a small potential for betrayal. Read a full description on McCombs Today.

Do you feel uncomfortable buying a gift you find distasteful? Susan M. Broniarczyk, a marketing professor at the McCombs School and Morgan K. Ward, an assistant professor of marketing at Southern Methodist University (and a recent McCombs Marketing PhD grad) share their research on the adverse effects shoppers experience when purchasing gifts that conflict with their own identities.  Read a full summary of the study’s findings by Dave Wenger, posted on McCombs Today.

“It’s Not Me, It’s You: How Gift Giving Creates Giver Identity Threat as a Function of Social Closeness” is a forthcoming article in the Journal of Consumer Research, by Ward and Broniarczyk.