Tag: Wharton



Ankita Bhalla, BSBA

Lauren Dumas, BSBA ’19, contributed this post on behalf of her second-place winning team at the Wharton Undergraduate Case Conference.

A dynamic business landscape experiencing incredible disruption, in combination with the rise and influence of the Millennial consumer, impacts every industry—including grocery retail.

This was the situation presented to participants at the Wharton Undergraduate Case Conference, where the Arch Consulting team was challenged with curating a strategy addressing people, process, and technology related to a fictional chain of grocery retailers.

The team of four representing WashU included Lauren Dumas, BSBA ’19; Alec Johnson, BSBA ’20; Ankita Bhalla, BSBA ’20; and Nathaniel Ryan, Art/Sci ’20. Arch Consulting was able to secure a second-place finish after presenting their recommended strategy to two rounds of judging panels.

The case was distributed to teams approximately three weeks in advance of the actual competition and was sponsored by Deloitte. The case focused on developing a comprehensive strategy for a fictional grocery retailer looking to position itself competitively in the dynamic grocery retail industry, specifically appealing to the Millennial consumer.

After researching industry trends, the profile of the Millennial consumer, and general information regarding recent technological development, the case team recommended the following strategy:

  • Generate brand loyalty and engagement among both Millennials and pre-existing customers through the convergence of digital, physical, and experiential shopping components.
  • Implement new blockchain and multi-echelon supply chain tactics, in combination with superior data aggregation and analysis, to drive organizational impact.
  • Increase managerial-level Millennial hires by restructuring recruiting, promoting an enhanced corporate culture, and increasing retention.

The team had the opportunity to compete against 18 other schools from across the United States and Canada. The first round pooled teams into four groups and the top team in each group was selected to compete in the final round. Then, the four finalists presented to a panel of three judges and an audience that included the rest of the competition participants.

Arch Consulting had an incredible time participating in this competition and its team members are grateful to have had the opportunity to represent WashU in this capacity. The organization looks forward to participating in the remaining competitions this semester, and continuing to represent WashU in semesters to come.

Thank you to the BSBA office and all advisors, faculty, and staff who have offered unwavering support and encouragement throughout the process!

Pictured above: Ankita Bhalla, BSBA ’20; Alec Johnson, BSBA ’20; Lauren Dumas, BSBA ’19; and Nathaniel Ryan, Art/Sci ’20 at the Wharton Undergraduate Case Competition 2018.


Sydney Scott, assistant professor of marketing, has spent the last decade in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her undergraduate degree in psychology there, followed by what she calls “a natural evolution” to a master’s and PhD in marketing at Wharton.

Scott’s dual interests in psychology and marketing have been a perfect match for studying consumer behavior. She has conducted research into consumer preferences for natural, organic products versus genetically modified products.

Scott grew up in California, but is getting acquainted with her new hometown, exploring St. Louis’ ice cream shops and trying out local delicacies like gooey butter cake.

Area of Expertise:

Consumer behavior and decision-making

Research Interests:

Morality and consumption; judgment and decision-making; preference for naturalness

Selected Publications:

  • “Evidence for Absolute Moral Opposition to Gentically Modified Food in the United States”, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Issue 3, 315-324, with Y. Inbar, P. Rozin, 2016
  • “The Price of Not Putting a Price on Love”, Judgment and Decision Making, Issue 1, 40-47, with A. McGraw, D. Davis, P. Tetlock, 2016
  • “Why Does the Cognitive Reflection Test (Sometimes) Predict Utilitarian Moral Judgment (and Other Things)?”, Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, Issue 3, 265-284, with J. Baron, K. Fincher, S. Metz, 2015
  • “Asymmetrical Social Mach Bands: Exaggeration of Social Identities on the More Esteemed Side of Group Borders”, Psychological Science, Issue 10, 1955-1959, with P. Rozin, H. Zickgraf, F. Ahn, H. Jiang, 2014
  • “Integrative Complexity Coding Raises Integratively Complex Issues”, Political Psychology, Issue 5, 625-634, with P. Tetlock, S. Metz, P. Suedfeld, 2014
  • “Psychological Strategies for Winning Geopolitical Forecasting Tournaments”, Psychological Science, Issue 5, 1106-1115, with B. Mellers, L. Ungar, J. Baron, J. Ramos, B. Gurcay, K. Fincher, D. Moore, P. Atanasov, S. Swift, T. Murray, E. Stone, P. Tetlock, 2014
  • “Nudge to Nobesity I: Minor Changes in Accessibility Decrease Food Intake”, Judgment and Decision Making, Issue 4, 323-332, with P. Rozin, M. Dingley, J. Urbanek, H. Jiang, M. Kaltenbach, 2011

Professor Anne Marie Knott’s, award-winning research tool RQ (Research Quotient) is now available via Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), the data research platform and business intelligence tool for corporate, academic and government institutions worldwide.

“WRDS is very happy to offer RQ to our academic subscribers,” said Robert Zarazowski, Managing Director of WRDS. “We know that R&D plays a critical role in both firm growth and valuation, and I’m confident that RQ will be extremely useful to WRDS users.”

“I’m very excited WRDS is hosting RQ,” said Professor Anne Marie Knott. “It’s important for academics to make data available for study replication, but because RQ is derived from Compustat, I didn’t have permission to do that. WRDS solves that problem. Not only can scholars replicate RQ studies, but they can also retest prior innovation studies using patents. Since we now know patents don’t match expectations for a measure of R&D productivity, we think a number of prior results may be overturned.”

RQ enables researchers to link R&D to firm growth and market value; derive optimal firm R&D spending; examine revenue generation from R&D and assess undervalued firms. Used for notable academic research on R&D, and developed by Anne Marie Knott, Professor of Strategy at Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis, RQ is key for R&D-related inquiries.

RQ is available at no cost to academic institutions that maintain a subscription to S&P Capital IQ Compustat. A part of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, WRDS provides thought leadership, data access and research insight to corporations, universities and regulatory agencies worldwide.

Content from BusinessWire Press Release

READ MORE ABOUT RQ
HBR Article: The Trillion-Dollar R&D Fix
Paper: Measuring Innovation
2015 Olin Award Winner: The Broken Link Between R&D and GDP Growth