Figure 1: Role of Knowledge Generation in Learning
“I teach, research, and practice innovation, entrepreneurship, and design.” (Karl Ulrich, Endowed Professor at the Wharton School)
I consider myself a theory-savvy modeler in Marketing, driven by a desire to contribute through high-quality research, yet who is also comfortable in lecture halls and classrooms. I earned my Doctorate in Business Administration, equivalent to a PhD in Marketing, at Koç University in Istanbul, and gained necessary skills and experience for teaching at TED University in Ankara. Innovation, strategic brand management, new product development and pricing are my main research areas. Figure 1 illustrates how I approach to research, scholarship and teaching services. They work together for knowledge generation and sharing.
Research
Within the realm of digital marketing, I have contributed to the SAGE Handbook of Digital Marketing with a chapter published in 2022. This chapter provides a theory-based review of e-commerce types from the lens of transaction cost economics, offering valuable insights into this rapidly evolving field.
I co-authored a research paper titled “Privacy Concerns in Consumer E-commerce Activities and Response to Social Media Advertising: Empirical Evidence from Europe” with (Associate Professor of Economics) Tekin Kose. Our study investigates the relationship between consumers’ micro-level response to social media advertisements, their participation in e-commerce, and their online privacy protection activities. Drawing on a representative sample of 153,053 consumers from 29 European countries, our findings underscore the significance of empowering consumers with control over their online privacy to foster online demand and promote positive responses to social media advertising. For this research project with Dr. Kose, we reinstated TED University as a research university with the European Commission and were able to gain access to Eurostat microlevel datasets.
In my research on new product development, I collaborate with a research group at the IE Business School in Madrid, including (Associate Professor of Marketing) Eda Sayin, (Assistant Professor of Marketing) Yegyu Han, and (Assistant Professor of Marketing) Jeanne Kim. We employ a multi-method approach combining empirical analysis and laboratory experiments to examine the factors contributing to crowdsourcing success. Furthermore, in collaboration with (Assistant Professor of Marketing) Alexa Burmester, we explore the role of team dynamics in the success of developing complex products.
Another focal area of my research revolves around pricing dynamics, which I believe is strongly influenced by the economic environment in which firms operate. I have been involved in two working papers alongside my doctoral co-advisors, Koen Pauwels (Distinguished Professor of Marketing) and Berk Ataman (Associate Professor of Marketing), as well as a research project with Erdem Basci (Professor of Economics). In the first working paper, we delve into explaining the phenomenon of price response asymmetry at the brand-SKU level, examining a dataset encompassing 243,150 product time-series from 2,178 brands across 742 retail stores in consumer markets in the United States. We adopt the regulatory focus theory from psychology to shed light on this phenomenon, incorporating labor market resilience as an operational variable that moderates the process. In the second working paper, we explore the asymmetry in relation to the business cycle. Additionally, our research project aims to reconcile macroeconomic theories with empirical evidence on brand pricing, specifically focusing on temporal asymmetries in the context of the business cycle.
In a working paper with Ibrahim Unalmis (Professor in Economics), we explore the effectiveness of strategic planning capabilities. Through modifications to an established theoretical model, i.e., newsvendor model, we analyze an evolving market, where the choice between long-term and short-term strategy making to determine the optimal quantity of goods supplied over time. Our findings reveal that firms pursuing short-term strategies underperform when cost advantages increase demand uncertainty. Additionally, we explore the relationship between strategic planning capabilities and firm performance across a sample of 7,299 companies from 35 countries.
I enjoy interdisciplinary collaborations and embrace diverse perspectives. Additionally, I am dedicated to mentoring and guiding students in their research endeavors, evident in my teaching, to pass on a passion for rigorous inquiry in their academic and professional pursuits.