Interesting and impactful research on phenomena

Authors: Gerard J Tellis

Publish Date: 2016/09/12

Volume: 45, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-6

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Abstract

Most researchers assume that research is a quest for truth So the discovery of truth would automatically be impactful However research is impactful not if it is true but if it refutes the assumption belief of its audience Davis 1971 Refuting the assumption of the audience is also what makes it interesting The truthfulness of a proposition is of limited duration Every proposition or theory will ultimately be proved wrong as new research emerges and knowledge accumulates What matters is merely whether the research runs counter to what is currently assumed as true That’s interesting That’s impactful Let’s consider some examplesOne of the most interesting and impactful theories in the last 200 years is the theory of evolution Why so The reason is that it refuted the strong beliefs of millions of people around the world that extant species of life were created by one or more gods Darwin postulated that all the variety of living things evolved from simpler life forms This theory is still interesting and controversial because millions of people around the world still strongly believe in creation Indeed in recent decades some such believers have tried to espouse a rival theory to evolution called creationism They want to suggest that creation is not merely a belief system but a scientific theory like evolution Nonbelievers in evolution repeatedly throw up a simple classic counterexample to evolution How could humans have evolved from monkeys Thus evolution is perennially interesting and impactful to many because about 157 years after its first formal propounding it still seems to refute common beliefs and perceptionsEvolution is enormously impactful It provides the most parsimonious explanation for the death of now extinct species the origin of new species the variety of existing species and their seemingly exquisite match to the environment It has also enlightened paleontology genetics embryology and other natural sciencesSimilarly the theory of relativity is perennially interesting and impactful It’s interesting because even today its premises refute our common misperceptions about the world We think that time is absolute and speed is relative But the theory suggests that time is relative and the speed of light in a vacuum is absolute and independent of the source Likewise the impact of the theory has been enormous enlightening our understanding of the universe light space travel time gravity and many other issuesFor decades economists proposed the theory of firstmover advantage which said that the first to enter a market had some enduring advantage over later entrants to the market Marketing researchers further elaborated that to mean overwhelming advantage in terms of market share success and longterm market leadership However Golder and Tellis 1993 refuted this notion of pioneering advantage attributing it to survival bias selfreport bias and weak measures of pioneers With good measures free from biases they found that pioneers mostly fail have low longterm market share and are rarely longterm leaders in their markets Because the authors refuted a strong theory in economics marketing and management their thesis was interesting has earned high Google citations and won the Odell Award for Long Term Contributions in the Journal of Marketing Research The thesis continues to be interesting Many economists strategists and lawyers who have not heard of or do not believe in Golder and Tellis 19931 continue to propose pioneering advantage as a reason for success Reporters continue to cite first moveradvantage whenever they describe the success of a market entrant casually redefining the market or the order of entry to show the advantage Students continue to offer firstmover advantage as a reason for firms that succeed or late mover disadvantages for others that fail Here again casual redefinition of order of entry or the market is used to fit the conclusionLikewise Richard Thaler’s theory of mental accounting is highly interesting and impactful Economists typically believe that a dollar is a dollar in every context Likewise investors believe that money should be moved among accounts to the one where returns are the maximum Such beliefs rely on the fungibility of money However Thaler showed that consumers do not behave according to this principle Rather they maintain separate mental accounts that violate this principle A simple example is a consumer who saves in a bank account at very low interest a sum of money to purchase a home The same consumer also maintains credit card debt of a lesser amount at very high interest The consumer can pay off all of his or her debt with some of the bank savings to reduce monthly interest payments—but will not Thaler went on to propose his theory of mental accounting that explains a number of anomalies in people’s borrowing saving and use of money His work on mental accounting has led to thousands of citations and may yet earn him a Nobel prize Thaler’s work is perennially interesting because it still is difficult for consumers to understand the fungibility of money and use it accordingly

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