Faculty Research Projects

Faculty research projects on this page will be updated on a regular basis.  If you are interested in working with a faculty member on one of the projects listed on this page, please contact the faculty member, arrange a meeting to talk about the project, and then complete and submit the undergraduate research application listed on this site.

Faculty Member: Dr. Terrence Guay

Contact Information: trg12@psu.edu

Project Description:  Assisting with research for a book titled, "The Business Environment of Europe: Firms, Governments, and Institutions" for Cambridge University Press.  The book describes how both the European Union and national governments shape Europe's business environment.  The undergraduate assistant would help by collecting economic data on individual countries and Europe as a whole, as well as industry rankings and related information.

Faculty Member: Dr. Lisa E. Bolton

Contact Information: boltonle@psu.edu

Project Description: Project Description: My research looks at various questions related to consumer behavior. For example: How do consumers judge whether a price is fair or not, how do consumers perceive luxury consumption, how does food and drug marketing affect a healthy lifestyle? do these reactions vary by culture (e.g., Chinese vs. Americans)? To do this kind of research, it’s ideal to have taken marketing research or consumer behavior or psychology (and, in the case of cross-cultural research, to have suitable language skills and/or contacts for conducting research among other cultures). The most important requirement is that you have a sincere interest in consumer research and a willingness to commit time and effort to pursue that interest – for which reason, students who are considering graduate school (e.g., master’s or ph.d., not MBA) in psychology or marketing are particularly suitable.

Faculty Member: Dr. Lisa E. Bolton

Contact Information: boltonle@psu.edu

Project Description: This research project is aimed at looking at ‘gaps’ between managers and consumers and their view of the marketplace. For example, managers may overestimate how much consumers know about their products, or underestimate how motivated consumers are to learn about their products. These gaps can lead to marketing mistakes; closing these gaps can lead to marketing success. In this research, students would assist in identifying examples in the business and popular press of gaps. This project might be of particular interest to students who are considering graduate school (e.g., MBA program), or who have a particular interest in writing or journalism.

Project sponsor: Arvind Rangaswamy (Senior Associate Dean for Research & Faculty)

Contact Information: arvindr@psu.edu

Co-authors:  Peter Ebbes (Marketing department, PSU)
                    Zan Huang (Supply Chain and Information Systems department, PSU)

Project Description:  In our studies, we are examining various aspects of how social networks influence the spread of word-of-mouth (w-o-m), especially with respect to new products.  In one of the projects, we are exploring the spread of w-o-m among PSU students (in all campuses), who are part of the Facebook network.  In particular, we are interested in studying the extent to which w-o-m (i.e., buzz) that occurs in the entire network can be recovered appropriately in smaller samples of the network.  We are studying how the population network propagates a stimulus we design, by tracking such aspects as discussions related to our stimulus, tracking forwarded messages, and collecting redeemed coupons. Subsequently, the researchers will construct samples using the various sampling techniques that are available, including those that they have developed, for investigating which sampling techniques (if any) recover the behaviors observed in the population. 

As part of the study, the research team needs to conduct focus groups to identify the best stimulus to use in our experiments, and the appropriate incentive structures to use to promote participation in the study.  We would then conduct some pilot studies using the Facebook network, and then implement the full-scale study.   The ideal student researchers for our project would have interests in new media, marketing, and at least some familiarity with social networks and computing technologies.