Jan Oskar Bolin recently traveled from Norway to College Park to audit a PhD Seminar on Marketing Strategy under Maryland Smith’s Roland Rust. “A key takeaway,” he says, “is under the right conditions artificial intelligence (AI)could prompt a seismic shift that reverberates throughout the entire economy. But good decisions will have to be made.”

Consumers are grappling with sharply higher prices nearly everywhere, thanks to soaring inflation rates. The sticker shock at the grocery store can be particularly tough to swallow, says Maryland Smith’s P.K. Kannan, the Dean’s Chair in Marketing Science and associate dean for strategic initiatives.

Convenience is invaluable for both sides in business-customer interaction. Thus, companies increasingly are integrating live chat and messaging – an advancement from voice and email – into the customer service channel mix. Third-party apps facilitate and fuel this trend. “The top three apps (WhatsApp, WeChat and Facebook Messenger) each have more than one billion active daily users, making them seemingly indispensable for brands to engage with their customers," says Bo “Bobby” Zhou, associate professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Target missed the mark when calculating this season’s inventory and now the retailer is scrambling to liquidate extra items. The company is slashing prices to move items like patio furniture and household appliances to free up space on shelves and in warehouses. But how’d they get it so wrong?

Juneteenth may be the newest federal holiday, but that doesn’t mean consumers—especially African Americans—want to see themed streamers and beverage koozies at their local supermarket and party store.

One of the world’s top schools for business research, Maryland Smith also is where students experience top-level teaching in a highly supportive community. Smith chronicles and celebrates this distinction at the end of each academic year by honoring its outstanding faculty and staff members with awards of excellence.

Check out the 19th annual Summer Reading List for Business Leaders, with recommendations from faculty members at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. This year’s list includes new and older books on the Fed, problem-solving, entrepreneurism, memory, vaccines, and human nature, plus fiction picks about saving the planet, war and international spies.

As the keynote speaker of the second annual Sports Business Society Conference at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Sean Eggert, vice president of global sports marketing at Under Armour offered his thoughts about the latest marketing trends to hit the sports world and what direction he sees it moving to in the future.

Amna Kirmani, the Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, was named a 2022 fellow of the Society for Consumer Psychology. Her appointment was announced at the academic and practitioner group’s annual conference on March 4.

Banking Bans More Likely Than Oil, Vodka Boycotts to Influence Russia’s Ukraine Stance