Faculty Members at Yale (Year 2008-2009)
Makoto Abe
September 2008- September 2009
Hidemi Takahashi
March 2009-September 2009
Makoto Abe 
Professor of Marketing, Graduate School of Economics, The University of Tokyo
B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (MIT)
Ph.D. in Operations Research (MIT)
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Analyzing various marketing phenomena using models at an individual level and deriving managerial implications that are useful to practitioners:
Macro statistics of firms, such as sales and market share, result from aggregation of individual consumer purchases. To gain better insights into this process, micro-level analysis of consumer behavior, either with household-level disaggregate data or by laboratory experiment, is warranted to understand the underlying behavior that is responsible for macro-level phenomena. Recent advances in information technology allow collection of such individual data with ease through POS systems and over the Internet. Currently, managers are not sure how to make better use of the ever increasing amount of data for strategic purposes, and research need for individual-level modeling is growing rapidly. Taking advantage of the size of disaggregate data, my research focuses on nonparametric statistical methods and micro-level simulations.
RESEARCH PLAN AT YALE
The objectives of Marketing are to understand customers' perceptions and preferences, design products and services accordingly, and finally sell and deliver them to users. Marketers must decide what product to sell (Product), how much to charge (Price), what advertising and promotion to carry out (Promotion), and which channels to use (Place), the so-called 4Ps of Marketing. In a mature society, it is especially important to recognize differences between consumers in areas such as product preference and sensitivity to marketing stimuli, and to respond appropriately. From early on, marketing has put into practice the idea of heterogeneity, offering different products and conducting different marketing activities to different consumers through concepts known as segmentation, positioning, and targeting.
In the present era of information technology, in which data on individual customers can be collected and analyzed without the need for aggregation, this idea is even more crucial. For example, by combining a frequent shoppers program (FSP) with point-of-sales (POS) data, one can obtain time-series purchase records of individual consumers. Via the Internet, one can collect not only customer actions such as catalogue requests, inquiries, complaints, and purchases, but also page-viewing history accumulated in log files. Because such a huge volume of data is stored without being aggregated, we now have a better opportunity than ever before to understand individual customers in depth and carry out customized marketing activities.
Following this theme, I construct consumer behavior models, estimate individual specific parameters from data, and seek managerial implications in the context of One-to-One Marketing and customer relationship management (CRM). During this process, I plan to compare Japanese and U.S. consumers from actual Marketing data. I am also looking forward to research collaboration with the Marketing faculty in the Yale School of Management.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
"Science of Web Marketing: Research and Network", (2007) Chapter 5, with Hikaru Yamamoto, edited by A. Inoue and the Japan Institute of Marketing Science, Chikura Shobo. (in Japanese)
"Science of Marketing－Analysis of POS Data" (2005) with F. Kondo, Asakura Shoten. (in Japanese)
"Research Mind－Research Method in Management" (2005) with T. Fujimoto, N. Takahashi, J. Shintaku, and M. Kasuya, Yuhikaku. (in Japanese)
"Pricing Science－Exploit the Mystery of Price" (2005) Chapter 6, edited by Z. Sugita, T. Ueda, and T. Moriguchi, Doubunkan. (in Japanese)
"Monozukuri Management Lecture using 170 keywords" (2005) edited by N. Takahashi, Nikkei Business Press. (in Japanese)
"Beyond Customer Orientation" (2003) with Hotaka Katahira and Ichiro Furukawa, (ISBN 4-492-50120-7), Tokyo: Touyou Keizai Shinpo Press. (in Japanese)
"Introduction to Marketing Science" (2003) with Takeshi Moriguchi and Ichiro Furukawa, (ISBN 4-641-12197-4), Tokyo: Yuhikaku Press. (in Japanese)
"Advertising in Japan" (2001) in Advertising Worldwide (ISBN 3-540-67713-5), ed. Ingomar Kloss, Heidelberg: Springer.
Selected Papers in English
・ ""Counting Your Customers" One by One: A Hierarchical Bayes Extension to the Pareto/NBD Model," Marketing Science, forthcoming
・ "A Prediction Model for Web Page Transition," International Journal of Electronic Business, 3(4), pp.378-391, 2005
・ "Investigating the Competitive Assumption of Multinomial Logit Models of Brand Choice by Nonparametric Modeling," Computational Statistics, 19(4), pp.635-657, 2004 (with Y. Boztug and L. Hildebrandt)
・ "A Generalized Additive Model for Discrete-Choice Data," Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 17(3), 1999
・ "Error Structure and Identification Condition in Maximum Likelihood Multidimensional Scaling," European Journal of Operational Research, 111(2), 1998
・ "Measuring Consumer, Nonlinear Brand Choice Response to Price," Journal of Retailing, 74(4), 1998
・ "A New Era of Private Brands in Japan: Opportunities and Challenges for Foreign Retailers and Manufacturers," Journal of Asian Business, 13(4), 1997
・ "A Household-Level Television Advertising Exposure Model," Journal of Marketing Research, 34(3), 1997
・ "Modeling Methods for Discrete Choice Analysis," Marketing Letters, 8(3), 1997 (with M. Ben-kiva, D. McFadden, et al.)
・ "Audience Accumulation by Television Daypart Allocation Based on Household-Level Viewing Data," Journal of Advertising, 25 (winter), 1996
・ "A Nonparametric Density Estimation Method for Brand Choice Using Scanner Data," Marketing Science, 14(3), 1995
・ "Price and Advertising Strategy of a National Brand Against Its Private-Label Clone," Journal of Business Research, 33(3), 1995
・ "A Moving Ellipsoid Method for Nonparametric Regression and its Application to Logit Diagnostics Using Scanner Data," Journal of Marketing Research, 28(3), 1991
Associate Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Dr. phil., Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main (Orientalistik)
RESEARCH PLAN
My principal field of research so far has been in the transmission and reception of the Greek philosophy and science in Syriac and Arabic. I would like, if given the chance of spending a six-month period at Yale, to further my studies in this field in collaboration with the members of staff at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC), which is among the foremost centres of research in the world in the field of Greco-Arabica. I plan, in the first place, to continue with my editions of the works on Aristotelian philosophy by the Syriac prelate and scholar Gregory Barhebraeus (1225/6-86) and, in particular, to consider the relationship of his works to those of Ibn Sina (980-1038), as well as to those of Arabo-Persian scholars closer to his time, such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149-1209) and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-74).
At the same time, in the light of the aim of the Todai-Yale Initiative to promote Japanese Studies, I would like to attempt conducting comparative studies that link Near Eastern Studies with Far Eastern Studies. While I am very much aware that there is a limit to what can be done in a six-month period, it is my hope that the beginnings, at least, of a meaningful study may be made during that period with assistance from the staff both at NELC and the Departments of East Asian Studies and of East Asian Languages and Literatures.
PUBLICATIONS
(A) Monographs
1. Aristotelian Meteorology in Syriac. Barhebraeus, Butyrum sapientiae, Books of Mineralogy and Meteorology, Leiden: Brill, 2004.
2. Barhebraeus: A Bio-Bibliography, Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2005.
(B) Select Papers
1. “Syriac Fragments of Theophrastean Meteorology and Mineralogy – Fragments in the Syriac version of Nicolaus Damascenus, Compendium of Aristotelian Philosophy and accompanying scholia”, in W.W. Fortenbaugh & G. Wöhrle (ed.), On the Opuscula of Theophrastus, Akten der 3. Tagung der Karl-und- Gertrud-Abel-Stiftung vom 19.-23. Juli 1999 in Trier (Philosophie der Antike 14), Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2002, p. 189-225.
2. “The Greco-Syriac and Arabic Sources of Barhebraeus’ Mineralogy and Meteorology in Candelabrum of the Sanctuary, Base II”, Islamic Studies (Islamabad) 41:2 (2002) 215-269.
3. “Barhebraeus und seine islamischen Quellen. Têgrat têgrātā (Tractatus tractatuum) und Gazālīs Maqāsid al-falāsifa”, in M. Tamcke (hrsg.), Syriaca. Zur Geschichte, Theologie, Liturgie und Gegenwartslage der syrischen Kirchen. 2. Deutsches Syrologen-Symposium (Juli 2000, Wittenberg) (Studien zur Orientalischen Kirchengeschichte 17), Münster: LIT Verlag, 2002, p. 147-175.
4. “Observations on Bar cEbroyo’s Marine Geography”, Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 6:1 (Jan. 2003)
5. “Reception of Ibn Sīnā in Syriac. The Case of Gregory Barhebraeus”, in D. Reisman (ed.), Before and After Avicenna. Proceedings of the First Conference of the Avicenna Study Group (Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science 52), Leiden: Brill, 2003, p. 249-281.
6. “Bemerkungen zum Buch der Blitze (Ktobo d-zalgē) des Barhebraeus”, M. Tamcke (hrsg.), Suryoye und ihre Umwelt. 4. deutsches Syrologen-Symposium in Trier 2004. Festgabe Wolfgang Hage zum 70. Geburtstag (Studien zur Orientalischen Kirchengeschichte 36), Münster: LIT Verlag, 2005, p. 407-422.
7. “Syriac Version by Hunain (?) of Nicolaus Damascenus’ Compendium of Aristotelian Philosophy and Accompanying Scholia”, Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 5 (2005) 18-34.
8. “Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Qazwīnī and Bar Shakkō”, The Harp: A Review of Syriac and Oriental Ecumenical Studies 19 (2006) 365-379.
9. “St. Thomas Christians of Kerala, India – The ‘Way of St. Thomas’ and the ‘Way of St. Peter’” (in Japanese), in Katorikku to Bunka [Catholicism and Culture], Tokyo: Institute of Cultural Science, Chuo University, March 2008, p. 75-151.
10. “Treatise on Meteorology by Muhammad b. Mūsā al-Tālishī (ms. Daiber Collection II.82)”, in W. Raven et al. (ed.), Islamic Thought in the Middle Ages. Studies in Text, Transmission and Translation in Honour of Hans Daiber, Leiden: Brill, 2008, p. 363-401.
11. “Transcribed Proper Names in Chinese Syriac Christian Documents”, in G. Kiraz (ed.), Malphono w-Rabo d-Malphone: Studies in Honor of Sebastian P. Brock, Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2008, p. 631-662.
12. “A Mimro on Maphrian Gregory Barsawmo Safī Bar ‘Ebroyo by Dioscorus Gabriel of Bartelli, Bishop of Gozarto d-Qardu”, in H. Teule & C. Fotescu Tauwinkl (ed.), The Syriac Renaissance, Louvain: Peeters, p. 151-194, 2009 (in press).
