In January, MSI announced winners and honorable mention recipients in the 2019 Alden G. Clayton Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Competition:

WINNERS

Nicolas Padilla, Columbia University, Columbia Business School
Dissertation Proposal: “The Customer Journey as a Source of Information”
Advisors: Eva Ascarza and Oded Netzer

Omid Rafieian, University of Washington, Foster School of Business
Dissertation Proposal: “Adaptive Ad Sequencing”
Advisor: Hema Yoganarasimhan

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Min Kim, University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business
Dissertation Proposal: “Discovering Online Shopping Preference Structures in Large and Frequently-Changing Assortments”
Advisor: Jie Zhang  

Eugene Pavlov, University of Washington, Foster School of Business
Dissertation Proposal: “Increasing Consumer Engagement with Firm-Generated Social Media Content: The Role of Images and Words”
Advisor: Natalie Mizik  

“The competition encourages scholars early in their careers to focus on research that not only contributes to theory but that is also relevant and applicable to marketing managers,” said Executive Director Barbara Kahn. “This year, our winners Nicolas Padilla and Omid Rafieian combined state-of-the-art analytical methods to provide meaningful insights about how marketers can better serve customers. MSI is proud to support these young scholars and share their research findings with the business community.”

As winners, Nicolas Padilla and Omid Rafieian will receive $5,000 each. In addition, winners and honorable mention recipients are invited to attend the inaugural MSI 2020 Summit, where their work will be acknowledged.

The 2019 competition received almost 90 submissions from doctoral students around the world, said Research Program Director Sherry Pincus. “We are thrilled with their level of interest and with the strength of their submissions, and we are so grateful to the numerous scholars who donated their time serving as reviewers.”

Now in its 36^th year, the competition was established in honor of MSI president Alden G. Clayton. Many past recipients have become leading marketing academics who maintain a career-long association with MSI. The inaugural winner of the Clayton Competition was Dartmouth’s Kevin Lane Keller, MSI’s 2013-15 Executive Director.