Posted on June 16, 2016 by Joanna Carver
Marketing doctoral student B.J. Allen won the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) Dissertation Proposal Competition for his Ph.D. dissertation “Measuring the Positive Halo and Negative Cannibalization Effects of New Product Introductions in High-Tech Markets.”
“While I was an internal consultant in the business strategy division at Sears Holding, part of my job was measuring the impact of new initiatives such as new product introductions,” said Allen. “I was surprised that I couldn’t find much in the academic literature about how new products affect the sales of other existing products.”
His dissertation measures the indirect impact of new product introduction in the video game industry. Utilizing monthly game sales and new game introductions for 8,248 individual games over a 15-year period, Allen found that new product introductions can have both a negative cannibalization and a positive halo effect based on the context.
“The contextual nature of the halo/cannibalization effect is a crucial part of our findings,” said Allen. “Managers can’t simply think that a new product will always have a halo effect or that it will always have a cannibalization effect. Managers need to consider the nature of their own product portfolio in order to decide on the optimal strategy.”
Overall the study found that top games are less likely to be cannibalized and more likely to be helped by new product introductions. He also found that games that are younger in age and of lower quality are more likely to be helped by new introductions. Finally, he noted that the halo effect is moderated by the quality of the new introduction.
Allen’s research interests are marketing strategy, new product strategy development and product lifecycle stages. Before beginning his doctoral studies, Allen held marketing and brand strategy positions with Overstock.com, Sears Holding Corporation and Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Allen’s dissertation committee is composed of UTSA marketing faculty members Suman Basuroy, chair and Graham Weston Endowed Professor; Richard Gretz, associate professor; and Deepa Chandrasekaran, assistant professor.
As the proposal winner Allen received a cash award, access to the PDMA membership to collect data and a one year membership to the association. He will also present his research at their annual Academic Research Forum this October in Georgia.
Wendy Frost—
Please send your comments to: wendy.frost@utsa.edu
— Joanna Carver
