Conducting Research in Marketing with Quasi-Experiments

<jats:p> This article aims to broaden the understanding of quasi-experimental methods among marketing scholars and those who read their work by describing the underlying logic and set of actions that make their work convincing. The purpose of quasi-experimental methods is, in the absence of ex...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Goldfarb, Avi, Tucker, Catherine, Wang, Yanwen
Other Authors: Sloan School of Management
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2022
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144251
Description
Summary:<jats:p> This article aims to broaden the understanding of quasi-experimental methods among marketing scholars and those who read their work by describing the underlying logic and set of actions that make their work convincing. The purpose of quasi-experimental methods is, in the absence of experimental variation, to determine the presence of a causal relationship. First, the authors explore how to identify settings and data where it is interesting to understand whether an action causally affects a marketing outcome. Second, they outline how to structure an empirical strategy to identify a causal empirical relationship. The article details the application of various methods to identify how an action affects an outcome in marketing, including difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, instrumental variables, propensity score matching, synthetic control, and selection bias correction. The authors emphasize the importance of clearly communicating the identifying assumptions underlying the assertion of causality. Last, they explain how exploring the behavioral mechanism—whether individual, organizational, or market level—can actually reinforce arguments of causality. </jats:p>