Young-Hoon Park, associate professor of marketing at Cornell’s Johnson School of Business, was selected this month as a finalist for the John D.C. Little Award, the highest research honor of the Society for Marketing Science.
Park and co-author Eric T. Bradlow were recognized for their research comparing bids in an internet auction to record-breaking events in sports or meteorology. Their paper outlining this research, “Bayesian Estimation of Bid Sequences in Internet Auctions using a Generalized Record Breaking Model,” was published in the March-April 2007 issue of Marketing Science.
Park and Bradlow created a modeling framework to analyze record-breaking events in online auctions by formulating a generalized record-breaking problem as a missing data problem. This approach allowed them to take into account the ways in which internet auction data differs from classic record-breaking data sets, specifically in that only the bid of the leading bidder is visible, not the participation of all of those people who are in the game.
Applying their model to data on notebook computer auctions from one of the largest Internet auction sites in Korea, the researchers found notable variation in the number of latent bidders across auctions. Of particular note, they discovered that latent bidders are significant in number relative to observed bidders, but that after a given bid, the latent number of remaining bidders is considerably smaller than that of new entrants to the auction. The bidding behavior of remaining bidders was also shown to be influenced significantly by larger bid and time increments.
Park and Bradlow’s model is significant in a marketing context because it allows them to apply brand maps to the auction data to measure brand equity in the online auction context. From bidding behavior, they are able to extrapolate the equity of the brands being sold.
Recognized Researcher Honored for His Teaching
Park’s award for research follows on the heels of his being named the school’s top teacher by graduates of this year’s two-year and accelerated one-year MBA programs.
In May 2008, Park won the annual Apple Award for Teaching Excellence, awarded by each year’s graduating class to the faculty member it believes most demonstrates outstanding leadership and enduring educational influence.
“He is the most passionate teacher I have ever had,” wrote one student as part of the nomination and voting process. “His sense of humor and energy in the classroom make every class very special, so it is not surprising that his students rarely miss a class.”
Park joined the Johnson faculty in 2001 as acting assistant professor in marketing. He was promoted to assistant professor upon completion of his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 2002 and to associate professor concurrent with receiving the Apple Award.
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