Faculty Directory

Prasad Vana

Associate Professor of Business Administration

Email

prasad.vana@tuck.dartmouth.edu

Phone

603-646-0463

Personal Website

https://www.prasadvana.com/

Degree

PhD, London Business School, 2017; MS, University of Texas at Austin, 2007; B.Tech, Indian Institute of Technology, 2006

Areas of Expertise

Marketing, machine learning, statistics and econometrics, optimization

Bio

Professor Vana’s research is broadly situated in the area of digital marketing. His work focuses on three actions that firms have employed within the digital marketing ecosystem to attract consumer attention: 1) adopting new forms of digital promotions and advertising to attract consumers, 2) utilizing online reviews to help consumers through the purchase journey, and 3) using algorithms as a marketing lever to affect consumer choice and aid in firms’ objectives. He empirically examines these research questions by using statistical and econometric methods, machine learning, structural models as well as lab experiments and focuses on the identification of causal effects.

Professor Vana teaches the core Analytics I and II courses, and the Quantitative Digital Marketing elective in the MBA Program at Tuck.

Current Research Topics

  •  
  • Digital marketing
  • Digital promotions and advertising
  • Online reviews
  • Algorithms
  • Econometrics
  • Causal effects
  • Structural models
  • Machine learning
  • Natural language processing
  •  


Professional Activities

Academic positions

  • Associate Professor of Business Administration, Tuck School of Business, 2022-present
  • Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Tuck School of Business, 2017–2022
  • Instructor, Marketing Core Course, London Business School, 2016, 2017

Nonacademic positions

  • Analyst/Consultant, AECOM Consult, Columbus, Ohio, 2008–11

Editorial positions

  • Ad hoc Reviewer: Management Science, Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Production and Operations Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, Journal of Business Research

Works in Progress

  • Vana, P., Hong, S., & Hovy, D. (2022). Quality Competition in the Fast Food Restaurants: Evidence from Online Reviews. Work in progress.
  • Sikdar, S., Vana, P., and Kadiyali, V. (2022). Does Amazon Price “Too High”? Evidence from Pricing During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Work in progress.
  • Vana, P., & Neslin, S. (2022). How Creative Content Affects Audience Retention: The Case of Video Ads on Facebook. Work in progress.
  • Vana, P. (2022). Valuation of NFTs: The role of rarity and attribute preference. Work in progress.


Awards

  • Top 40 Business School Professors Under 40, 2022
  • Fellow, AMA-Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium, 2016
  • Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship PhD Awards, 2015
  • Fellow, EMAC Doctoral Colloquium, 2014
  • Fellow, Workshop on Quantitative Marketing and Structural Economics, 2013
  • Fellow, ISMS Marketing Science Doctoral Consortium, 2013
  • PhD Fellowship, London Business School, 2011–16
  • Recipient, Mary Kate Collins Memorial Endowed Presidential Scholarship, 2007

Working Papers

  • With L. Grewal and A. Stephens, “Brands In Unsafe Places: Effects of Brand Safety Incidents on Consumers’ Brand Attitudes,” revising for 2nd round at the Journal of Marketing Research.
  • With A. Lambrecht, “The Impact of Algorithmic Components on Contributions in Crowdfunding," submitted to Management Science.
  • With P. Pachigolla, “On the Deterrence Effect of Policing Anonymous Online Markets,” Working paper.

Selected Publications