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
- Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Tuck School of Business, 2017–present
- 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
- With S. Hong and D. Hovy, “Quality Competition in Fast Food Restaurants: Evidence from Online Reviews”
- With S. Neslin, “How Creative Content Affects Audience Retention: The Case of Video Ads on Facebook”
Awards
- 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 P. Pachigolla, “On the Deterrence Effect of Policing Anonymous Online Markets”, submitted to Information Systems Research
- With L. Grewal and A. Stephens, “Brands In Unsafe Places: Effects of Brand Safety Incidents on Consumers’ Brand Attitudes”, under review at the Journal of Marketing Research
- With A. Lambrecht, “Modelling the Role of Ranking Algorithms in Crowdfunding", working paper.
Selected Publications
- With K. Carlson, P. Kopalle, A. Riddell, and D. Rockmore, “Complementing Human Effort in Online Reviews: A Deep Learning Approach to Automatic Content Generation and Review Synthesis”, forthcoming, International Journal of Research in Marketing
- With A. Lambrecht, “The Effect of Individual Online Reviews on Purchase Likelihood”, Marketing Science, 40(4):708-730, 2021
- With A. Lambrecht and M. Bertini, “Cashback is Cash Forward: Delaying a Discount to Increase Future Spending,” Journal of Marketing Research, 55(6), 852-868, 2018