Prasad Vana

Professor Vana’s research focuses broadly on online marketing utilizing traditional statistical and econometric modeling methodology as well as the more recently developed machine learning tools. He empirically investigates questions related to online promotions and advertising, online platforms, and online reviews. His research includes work on how individual online reviews affect consumer purchase decisions, consumer response to online cashback promotions, consumer decision making in crowdfunding, and the effect of law enforcement busts on Darknet markets. Professor Vana teaches the core Analytics course and the Quantitative Digital Marketing elective in the MBA Program.

CURRENT RESEARCH TOPICS

• Digital marketing
• Quantitative marketing
• Machine learning
• Online promotions
• Online platforms
• Online reviews
• Structural models
• Bayesian methods
• Big data methods

DEGREE

PhD, London Business School, 2017; MS, University of Texas at Austin, 2007; B.Tech, Indian Institute of Technology, 2006

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Academic positions

• Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Tuck School of Business, 2017–present
• Instructor, Marketing Core Course, London Business School, 2016, 2017

Nonacademic positions

• Analyst/Consultant, AECOM Consult, Columbus, Ohio, 2008–11

Editorial positions

• Ad hoc Reviewer: Management Science, Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Production and Operations Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Quantitative Marketing and Economics

RESEARCH

Cashback is Cash Forward: Delaying a Discount to Entice Future Spending Vana, P., Lambrecht, A., & Bertini, M. (2018). Journal of Marketing Research, 55(6), 852-868.

The Effect of Individual Online Reviews on Purchase Likelihood Vana, P., & Lambrecht, A. (2021). Marketing Science, 40(4),708-730.

Complementing Human Effort in Online Reviews: A Deep Learning Approach to Automatic Content Generation and Review Synthesis Carlson, K., Kopalle, P., Riddell, A., Rockmore, D., and Vana, P. (2021). Under 3rd round revision at the International Journal of Research in Marketing.

On the Deterrence Effect of Policing Anonymous Online Markets Vana, P., & Pachigolla, P. (2021). Preparing for submission to Information Systems Research.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Modelling the Role of Algorithms in Crowdfunding: A Multiple Discrete Continuous Choice Approach Vana, P., & Lambrecht, A. (2021). Preparing for submission to Management Science

Quality Competition in the Fast Food Chain Industry: Evidence from Online Reviews Vana, P., Hong, S. & Hovy, D. (2021).

AWARDS

• Fellow, AMA-Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium, 2016
• Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship PhD Awards, 2015
• Fellow, EMAC Doctoral Colloquium, 2014
• Fellow, Workshop on Quantitative Marketing and Structural Economics, 2013
• Fellow, ISMS Marketing Science Doctoral Consortium, 2013
• PhD Fellowship, London Business School, 2011–16
• Recipient, Mary Kate Collins Memorial Endowed Presidential Scholarship, 2007