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The Impact of Advancing Technology on Marketing and Academic Research

Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, Bryan Hall, Box 117155, Gainesville, Florida 32611-7155
steven.shugan{at}cba.ufl.edu

Academic research in marketing often and rightfully tends to either build on well-established past research topics or follow well-established practices in industry. However, as technology advances, it might be possible to foresee some more enduring trends and focus research on future issues rather than on past issues.

One approach would be to study emerging technologies with rapidly declining costs. Each of these emerging technologies spawns myriad applications that have the potential to dramatically impact existing markets. Interesting research topics include the study of the impact of these applications on different market participants (e.g., final consumers, the seller, the seller of complementary services, intermediaries, information providers, competitors, other industries). Research topics also include the optimal structure for products and services, given these new applications, as well as which intermediary should offer particular services. Research topics also include the interactive ability to rapidly customize marketing strategy by identifying individuals at particular points in time and under particular demand conditions. Five of these technologies include enhanced search services, biometrics and smart cards, enhanced computational speed, M-commerce, and GPS tracking.

Key Words: research in marketing; scholarly and academic research topics; research fads

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