UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

Background

The marketing-finance interface has been an area of strategic marketing research for two decades with exceptional impact on both research and practice. The biennial „Marketing Strategy Meets Wall Street“ conference is the research field’s flagship conference and attracts the very best researchers and their work. The 8th edition of the conference will be hosted by Marc Fischer (University of Cologne) and Alexander Edeling (KU Leuven) in Cologne, Germany, from May 22-24, 2024. The conference will provide an opportunity for researchers, practitioners, and industry experts to come together and discuss the intersection of marketing strategy and finance including their impact on multiple other stakeholders such as customers, employees, suppliers, and communities. Right after the conference, the EMAC conference will take place in Bucharest (from May 28-31, 2024).

Extended Scope of Relevant Research

The marketing-finance stream has answered important questions in the past and demonstrated the potential of marketing to generate value for firms and their owners in multiple ways. While the interests of firm owners remain highly relevant to marketers, the scope of decision-making has changed over the last years. Both investors and top managers have expanded their set of objectives by taking a broader stakeholder-centric view that balances the interests of customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders.

As a consequence, the role of marketing to generate value has to expand to include goals beyond maximizing cash flow and stock returns to encourage responsible shareholders and investors. This extended conference scope aims at exploring the dynamic relationship between marketing strategy and Wall Street against the backdrop of the fundamental societal changes. Research will therefore no longer focus solely on traditional links between the worlds of marketing and finance alone but consider important recent developments such as the expanding role of other stakeholders, the emergence of ESG (environmental, social and governance), DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and CSA (corporate sociopolitical activism) criteria for both investors and marketing decision-makers, advancements in technology, and the potential impact of generative AI on both marketing and investment decision-making.

Key Themes and Research Questions

We invite submissions that explore various aspects of the expanded marketing-finance interface and address critical research questions, including but not limited to:

Relations between investors, accountants, and marketing decision-makers

1. The valuation of firms: how does a broader stakeholder view change the value relevance of marketing?
2. What are new and innovative approaches to establish causality with financial firm performance data?
3. Can consumer theories help explain complex behavioral processes of responsible investor behavior?
4. Which importance do earnings conference calls have for disseminating value-relevant marketing content?
5. Which marketing strategies do investors reward in times of high inflation?

Role of ESG, DEI, and CSA

1. How do firms measure the success of their programs and actions that address DEI and sustainability goals? What kinds of metrics do we need?
2. What is the role of marketing in shaping companies’ ESG performance and DEI perception? To what extent are these measures value relevant in the eyes of investors?
3. Corporate sociopolitical activism: What is the impact of a company's stance in geopolitical conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine, on consumer perceptions and firm value?
4. Are DEI capabilities and social responsibility sources a new kind of intangible asset? If yes, how can we evaluate this asset? Do these capabilities really create a sustainable competitive advantage?
5. What makes companies more resilient in dealing with a firm crisis: antecedents and strategies?

Impact of Technology and AI 

1. Artificial intelligence and investment decisions: How can investors leverage AI to extract value from marketing information, leading to more informed investment decisions?
2. To which extent do societies benefit from marketing AI solutions? What are the boundaries and potentially unwanted consequences?
3. Two-sided digital platforms: How can two-sided digital platforms be designed to simultaneously create consumer welfare and shareholder value?
4. What role do social media influencers play for firm value creation? How are the effects different from traditional celebrity endorsements?
5. How can we leverage computational and visual arts to describe and understand marketing phenomena in image and video material?