SMITH BRAIN TRUST — P.K. Kannan acquiesced, like a typical parent and consumer, each time one of his daughters learned to ride a bicycle and requested her own pink model. Similar bikes of other colors were lower priced, but try explaining that to a child.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Say you're a hotel manager trying to decide whether to build a pool: Will the additional reservations you bring in from that amenity offset the cost of construction and maintenance? Or say you offer free bottled water to all guests. If you stopped doing so, would you save money in the long run?

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Video gaming, as eSports, is drawing a marketing bonanza thanks to Millennials, who also make any ‘Is it a legit sport?’ debate moot, says marketing professor Hank Boyd at the University of Maryland’s Robert H.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Berkshire Hathaway’s small but much-discussed bite of Apple suggests a vote of confidence for a tech giant that had been sliding in the stock market.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Social media is buzzing about Budweiser. Just in time for the Summer Olympics and Trump v.

Participants at the Robert H. Smith School of Business's 2016 Emerging Markets Forum agreed that India's rapid growth offered opportunities for both local and U.S. businesses, but they disagreed about whether the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is moving quickly enough to cut red tape.  

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Online services such as OpenTable make it easy for consumers to make restaurant reservations — and not show up. But higher-end restaurants are countering this, and the trend is global:

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Most studies of the interactions between companies and consumers look at one piece of the puzzle: Advertising or social media or news coverage or "consumer sentiment" as measured in surveys. An ambitious new study from the Robert H.

A team of five undergraduates from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business took home second place in this year’s Wake Forest Marketing Analytics Summit, a case competition held annually at WFU’s campus in Winston-Salem, N.C. After 2 weeks of preparation and an intense day of competition, the students returned triumphantly to College Park with the second place trophy and $5,000 in prize winnings. Smith won the competition in 2015, 2013 and 2009.

People are constantly looking for insight on the keys to being a successful leader. A new forthcoming book explores the insights current and aspiring leaders can learn through poetry. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Gaurav Bhalla talks about his new book project that uses poetry to illustrate leadership lessons. Bhalla is an adjunct faculty member in Smith’s marketing department.