Grant to Provide Groundbreaking Research into Customer Insights
COLUMBUS, Ohio--(Business Wire)--
Today, Nationwide Insurance announced it is collaborating with the
Fisher College of Business at Ohio State to create the Nationwide
Center for Advanced Customer Insights. This partnership creates one of
the select few centers dedicated to researching and evaluating
consumer behavior in the United States.
The center will focus on current, substantive customer and market
research problems. Nationwide, with the help of Ohio State faculty
members, graduate students and center staff, will identify and
formulate business, marketing and operations research problems.
Through this partnership, OSU faculty, staff and students will have
the opportunity to apply creative research to solving practical
business problems.
"What distinguishes this center is the holistic, interdisciplinary
approach students will be utilizing to solve today's real world
business problems," said James Lyski, chief marketing officer for
Nationwide Insurance. "This partnership will allow us to foster
innovative results by combining a broad base of academic disciplines
including statistics, behavioral science, economics and marketing to
help address the most pressing problems we face every day."
Nationwide will utilize the knowledge gained from this research as
a foundation for the development of plans and strategies to capture
new markets, develop new products, enhance existing markets and
products, and improve future profitability. In addition, the center
will enhance student career opportunities by providing them the chance
develop quantitative skill sets more marketable in a service-based
economy. Nationwide is also a charter member of the Fisher College's
Initiative for Managing Services.
"One of the greatest challenges for business scholars engaged in
empirical research is organizational entry, gaining access to firms as
research sites and the data they possess," said Stephen L. Mangum,
interim dean for Fisher College of Business. "This new center will
offer OSU faculty and graduate students seminal research opportunities
and direct access to Nationwide's customer and marketing data and
direct access to Nationwide marketing executives."
Ohio State will manage the center and staff it with the best in
class OSU faculty, staff and graduate students. Nationwide will
provide an Executive-in-Residence, who will work on-site in the
center.
"The center will manage both tactical projects involving the
application of existing theory and methodologies to solve specific
business and marketing problems, and research projects aimed at
developing new analytical methodologies," said Tom Bishop, who was
named the center's director. "Ohio State researchers using state of
the art predictive modeling, data mining and advanced analytical
techniques can help improve the understanding of customer behavior and
consumer purchasing patterns."
Bishop, an associate professor in the OSU Department of
Statistics, specializes in statistical consulting, experiment design,
regression analysis, and the role of statistical theory and methods
within the context of the scientific method. He was the former
director of the Statistical Consulting Service at Ohio State, and
former manager of the Applied Statistics Section at the Battelle
Columbus Laboratories.
Nationwide, based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest
diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the
world, with more than $161 billion in assets. Nationwide ranks #108 on
the Fortune 500 list. The company provides a full range of insurance
and financial services, including auto, motorcycle, boat, homeowners,
life, farm, commercial insurance, administrative services, annuities,
mortgages, mutual funds, pensions, long-term savings plans and health
and productivity services. For more information, visit
www.nationwide.com.
Nationwide, On Your Side and the Nationwide frame mark are
federally registered service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance
Company.
Nationwide
Eric Hardgrove, 614-677-8516
hardgre@nationwide.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
