2009–2010 ISMS-MSI Practice Prize Competition—Special Section Introduction

I introduce the work of the finalists in the 2009--2010 ISMS-MSI Practice Prize Competition, representing once again the best combinations of rigor and relevance produced by marketing scientists. The winning paper is by a team from several German universities and represents a collaboration with Bayer AG on an important problem---allocating the marketing budget dynamically across countries, products, and the marketing mix. The other three finalists described projects involving a branding project for an Australian airline, Jetstar, based on a dynamic choice model; a new tool for differentiating Prudential's variable annuities from the competition; and a marketing communications model for a small, family-run European office furniture supplier, Inofec.