Smith PhD Student’s Dissertation Draws Prestigious INFORMS Honor

The INFORMS Society for Marketing Science (ISMS) has named marketing PhD student Seoungwoo Lee of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business as a winner in its ISMS Doctoral Dissertation Competition for 2015.

Lee’s work, “Free, Paid, or Freemium: Dynamic Versioning Decisions for Mobile Apps,” addresses how app publishers make versioning decisions and how app platforms can improve their commission structures to achieve mutual benefits.

A panel chaired by ISMS education vice president and Yale School of Management professor K. Sudhir judged and selected Lee’s dissertation, based on:

• Problem Importance
• Likely theoretical contribution, and-or advance in marketing science
• Likely contribution to marketing practice
• Appropriateness of methodology-research design

The award, including $5,000, follows Lee capturing the 2015 Shankar-Spiegel Dissertation Proposal Award in October from the nonprofit organization Marketing EDGE. 

“As a researcher, Seoungwoo possesses a fantastic combination of mastery of advanced quantitative modeling and computer programming skills and a sharp mind for developing research topics of managerial importance,” said Smith School marketing professor Jie Zhang, who along with professor Michel Wedel, chaired Lee’s winning dissertation.

“He is keenly interested in the mobile app industry and digital technologies, Zhang said. “I am confident that he will do impactful research in these fields.”