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• Article | Journal of Consumer Research | June 2019

  Learning to Become a Taste Expert

  Kathryn A. Latour and John A. Deighton

  Evidence suggests that consumers seek to become more expert about hedonic products to enhance their enjoyment of future consumption occasions. Current approaches to becoming expert center on cultivating an analytic mindset. In the present research the authors explore the benefit to enthusiasts of moving beyond analytics to cultivate a holistic style of processing. In the taste context the authors define holistic processing as nonverbal, imagery based, and involving narrative processing. The authors conduct qualitative interviews with taste experts (Master Sommeliers) to operationalize the holistic approach to hedonic learning and then test it against traditional analytic methods in a series of experiments across a range of hedonic products. The results suggest that hedonic learning follows a sequence of stages whose order matters and that the holistic stage is facilitated by attending to experience as a narrative event and by employing visual imagery. The results of this multi-method investigation have implications for both managers and academics interested in how consumers learn to become expert in hedonic product categories.

  Keywords: Learning; Experience and Expertise; Analysis; Perception;

  Citation:

  Latour, Kathryn A., and John A. Deighton. "Learning to Become a Taste Expert." Journal of Consumer Research 46, no. 1 (June 2019): 1–19.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2016 (Revised April 2019)

  Legendary Entertainment: Moneyball for Motion Pictures

  John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

  Legendary, the Hollywood studio responsible for such hits as Jurassic World and The Dark Knight, decides to take the marketing of its films in-house, and to market them fan-by-fan. Owner Thomas Tull acquires the big-data-in-sports firm started by Matt Marolda and appoints him to run marketing analytics for Legendary. The methods perform well in the motion picture market. Other Hollywood studios want to lease its services, and firms outside of entertainment express interest. Marolda and Tull consider setting up Legendary Analytics as an independent consulting business. At that point Dalian Wanda, China's largest entertainment and real estate conglomerate, buys Legendary. Should Marolda focus on China or the diversified U.S. market?

  Keywords: ＂marketing analytics＂; Marketing Strategy; Decision Making; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry;

  Citation:

  Deighton, John A., and Leora Kornfeld. "Legendary Entertainment: Moneyball for Motion Pictures." Harvard Business School Case 516-117, May 2016. (Revised April 2019.)  View Details

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• Working Paper | 2019

  Reflexivity in Credit Markets

  Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson and Lawrence J. Jin

  Reflexivity is the idea that investors' biased beliefs affect market outcomes, and that market outcomes in turn affect investors' beliefs. We develop a behavioral model of the credit cycle featuring such a two-way feedback loop. In our model, investors form beliefs about firms' creditworthiness, in part by extrapolating past default rates. Investor beliefs influence firms' actual creditworthiness because firms that can refinance maturing debt on favorable terms are less likely to default in the short run—even if fundamentals do not justify investors' generosity. Our model is able to match many features of credit booms and busts, including the imperfect synchronization of credit cycles with the real economy, the negative relationship between past credit growth and the future return on risky bonds, and "calm before the storm" periods in which firm fundamentals have deteriorated but the credit market has not yet turned.

  Keywords: reflexivity; Attitudes; Financial Markets; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment; Credit;

  Citation:

  Greenwood, Robin, Samuel G. Hanson, and Lawrence J. Jin. "Reflexivity in Credit Markets." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 25747, April 2019.  View Details

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