A RESEARCH PAPER ON MATHEMATICAL MODELING IN MARKETING: MAINSTREAM OR MARGINAL METHODOLOGY?

Mr. PRATIK H. TRIVEDI; Prof. (Dr.) RAJSHREE G.Bhatt

Volume : V, Issue : XII, December - 2016

A RESEARCH PAPER ON MATHEMATICAL MODELING IN MARKETING: MAINSTREAM OR MARGINAL METHODOLOGY?

Mr. Pratik H. Trivedi, Prof. Dr. Rajshree G. Bhatt

Abstract :

Marketing education is under the spotlight, with questions being asked about its responsiveness to industry needs. The academic and practitioner literature contains many criticisms of a perceived mismatch between academe and industry, suggesting that there might be too big a gap between academic leaders and industry followers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is a gap between academe and industry in a particular skill area - mathematical modeling, to assist marketing educators in developing appropriate modeling courses. A small sample exploratory survey of senior marketing executives measured the perceptions of usefulness and frequency of use of 12 mathematical models that are taught in a Gujarat university course. Less than half of the models tested were perceived to have more than average usefulness and half were never used. Only four models (time series analysis, conjoint analysis, linear regression analysis and cluster analysis) were used to any extent. However, low usage was acknowledged as being primarily due to the lack of expertise by marketing staff.

The conclusion of this study is that modeling courses should emphasize general principles of modeling illustrated by case studies drawn from industry, which utilize a range of models. Such courses would help idge the gap between theory and practice and help facilitate the merging of the academic and practitioner worlds.