The Marketing Science Institute (MSI) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2019 Alden G. Clayton Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Competition. Started in 1984, this annual competition is intended to encourage doctoral work on topics of importance to the marketing community. Students submitted their dissertation proposals from June 2019 through mid-August 2019, at a point when their dissertation work was no more than 50% completed.

The winners were selected from nearly 90 submissions. Three evaluations of each submission were solicited from outside academic experts. We are grateful to all the marketing scholars who generously contributed their time to serve as reviewers.

WINNERS
Nicolas Padilla, Columbia University, Columbia Business School
Advisors: Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer
The Customer Journey as a Source of Information

Omid Rafieian, University of Washington, Foster School of Business
Advisor: Hema Yoganarasimhan
Adaptive Ad Sequencing

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Min Kim, University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business
Advisor: Jie Zhang
Discovering Online Shopping Preference Structures in Large and Frequently-Changing Assortments

Eugene Pavlov, University of Washington, Foster School of Business
Advisor: Natalie Mizik
Increasing Consumer Engagement with Firm-Generated Social Media Content: The Role of Images and Words

The competition winners receive $5,000. Winners and honorable mentions are invited to attend the inaugural MSI 2020 Summit, where their work will be acknowledged. We congratulate the winners and honorable mentions as well as the authors and thesis chairs/advisors of the many other fine submissions received.

Barbara E. Kahn
Executive Director, Marketing Science Institute
Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor
Professor of Marketing
The Wharton School