Knowledge that Transforms

Extant research on choice designs in marketing focuses on the construction of efficient homogeneous designs where all respondents get the same design. Recently marketing scholars proposed the const...

Modern business conditions characterized by fierce competition and constant changes impose application of innovation in marketing as an imperative of survival and success of enterprises. In this context, the subject of paper is the role of innovation in marketing for improving small and medium enterprises' business performances. The paper aims to determine potential for increasing of analyzed SMEs' productivity expressed by business revenue per employee, taking into account the employee education level. With the intention of determining the impact of the region development level on implementation of innovation in marketing, the paper analyses the application of innovation in marketing in SMEs in the region of Belgrade and Vojvodina on one hand, and the region of Sumadija, Western, Eastern and South Serbia, on the other hand. The conclusions arising from the paper on significance of innovation in marketing for business performances as well as on relevance of geographic locations for implementation of innovation in marketing, emphasize the importance of this phenomenon to the wider audience. Finally, these conclusions open the possibility of improving the operations of enterprises in Serbia.

I introduce the special section highlighting the background of the competition and the work of the finalists in the 2013–2014 Gary L. Lilien ISMS-MSI Practice Prize Competition, showcasing the best applications of rigor and relevance by marketing scientists in working with practical problems. The winning paper is by a team who developed an innovative pricing tool to enable an electric utility operating in Germany to acquire customers on online price comparison sites while optimizing various metrics of interest. The other two finalists comprise a team that developed an integrated marketing model to address multiple business objectives of the Georgia Aquarium and a team that developed a marketing science model of evaluation and purchase intentions incorporating customer emotions to test advertisement effectiveness for Kmart Australia.

The final term of Preyas S. Desai as editor-in-chief of the journal Marketing Science will end on December 31, 2015. Based on recommendations from the INFORMS Publications Committee, the president of INFORMS has appointed a committee to conduct a full search for a new editor-in-chief. The committee intends to propose a candidate for approval by INFORMS no later than July 1, 2015. All members of INFORMS are invited to participate in this process. The committee seeks your opinions and comments on (1) the current state of the journal, (2) recommendations for change, if any, and (3) candidates for editor-in-chief. Qualifications for the editor-in-chief of Marketing Science will include • A demonstrated interest in a broad range of topics in the field • A demonstrated record of research in the field • Dedication and enthusiasm for Marketing Science • Significant editorial experience • Vision of the role of scholarly publications in the electronic age • Commitment to the workload involved • Ability to effectively and efficiently manage the editorial process Further information about the journal is available at the Marketing Science website: http:// pubsonline.informs.org/journal/mksc. Members of the search committee are Kannan Srinivasan (Chair), Carnegie Mellon University; Pradeep K. Chintagunta, University of Chicago; Peter S. Fader, University of Pennsylvania; Dominique M. Hanssens, UCLA; and Juanjuan Zhang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Please submit comments, nominations, and applications by April 15, 2015. The information may be sent (preferably by email) to Kannan Srinivasan, Chair of the Marketing Science Editorial Search Committee.

Marketing Science greatly benefited from the admirable and fastidious efforts of more than 200 different individuals who provided manuscript reviews last year. Beyond those individuals already recognized on the editorial board, the editor-in-chief and guest editors of Marketing Science are indebted to the many guest editors-in-chief, guest associate editors, and ad hoc reviewers who provided expert counsel and guidance on a voluntary basis. The following list acknowledges the contribution of guest editors-in-chiefs, guest associate editors, and ad hoc reviewers who served from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014. Finally, let us not forget to thank the authors. Marketing Science requires and receives outstanding submissions from many leading researchers and prestigious organizations. Preyas S. Desai Duke University