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Christophe Van den Bulte
Associate Professor of Marketing

Christophe Van den Bulte currently teaches in Marketing Management in the MBA and WEMBA core, and has also taught undergraduate and MBA courses in Marketing Strategy and Channel Management, and PhD courses in Mathematical Models in Marketing and Social Network Analysis.

His research focuses on two areas: new product diffusion and social networks. Current projects involve analyzing the differential effects of spatial proximity and social networks on the adoption and prescription volume of a new drug by physicians; testing Everett Rogers’ theory of how the speed of diffusion varies across products; analyzing how replication accuracy affects the speed of transfer of best practices within organizations; identifying effective network structures for B2B sales teams and buying teams; assessing the effect of a customer referral program on customer retention and profitability; and investigating patterns of product-market entries and product line extensions in the U.S. mutual fund industry.

Professor Van den Bulte is Area Editor at Marketing Science and Associate Editor at the Journal of Marketing Research. He also serves on the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Research in Marketing, the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, and the Journal of Marketing.

He received his PhD in business administration from the Pennsylvania State University and his MA and BA degrees in applied economics from the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

Current Research Papers

Joan T. Allatta, Raghuram Iyengar, Christophe Van den Bulte, (2009), "Social Network Dynamics after a Corporate Acquisition: How Cross-cutting Circles, Reciprocity, and Managerial Dominance Shape Networks"

Gila E. Fruchter, Christophe Van den Bulte, (2009), "Optimal Advertising under the Generalized Bass Model of New Product Diffusion"

Christophe Van den Bulte, Raghuram Iyengar, (2009), "Tricked by Truncation: Another Source of Spurious Social Contagion"

Publications

Christophe Van den Bulte, (2010), "Opportunities and challenges in studying customer networks", The Connected Customer: The Changing Nature of Consumer and Business Markets, Stefan H.K. Wuyts, Marnik G. Dekimpe, Els Gijsbrechts, and F.G.M. (Rik) Pieters, eds., London: Routledge.

Christophe Van den Bulte, Stefan Wuyts, (2009), "Leveraging Customer Networks", The Network Challenge: Strategy, Profit, and Risk in an Interlinked World, Paul R. Kleindorfer and Yoram (Jerry) Wind, eds., Upper Saddle River, NJ, Wharton School Publishing.

Raghuram Iyengar, Christophe Van den Bulte, Thomas W. Valente, (2008), "Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion", Report No. 08-120, Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute.

Christophe Van den Bulte, Yogeh V. Joshi, (2007), "New Product Diffusion with Influentials and Imitators", Marketing Science, 26 (3), 400-21.

Christophe Van den Bulte, Stefan Wuyts, (2007), Social Networks and Marketing, Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute.

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Awards

Best Reviewer Award, Journal of Marketing, 2007-2008

ERIM Award for Top Academic Article, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2005

Invitee, Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar Program, 2005

Elected Member, Belgian American Educational Foundation, 2005

Invitee, Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar Program, 2003

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Executive Education

Program Faculty, Marketing core course, Wharton MBA for Executives, Philadelphia

Program Faculty, Competitive Marketing Strategy, Philadelphia

Knowledge@Wharton

The Buzz Starts Here: Finding the First Mouth for Word-of-Mouth Marketing (03/04/2009)

Social Marketing: How Companies Are Generating Value from Customer Input (12/12/2007)

New Products (Like the iPhone): Announce Early or Go for the Surprise Rollout? (06/13/2007)

Product Placement in the Pews? Microtargeting Meets Megachurches (11/15/2006)

'Influentials' and 'Imitators': How to Better Forecast the Sale of New Products (09/06/2006)

Christophe Van den Bulte
700 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia , PA 19104
Phone: (215) 898-6532
Fax: (215) 898-2534
vdbulte@wharton.upenn.edu

Wharton Page

Research Interests: New product diffusion; social networks; industrial marketing.

Current Projects:
Social contagion in new product adoption: Social networks vs. geographical distance. Social contagion and marketing effects across stages of the new product adoption process. The drivers of diffusion speed at early versus late points in the new product diffusion process. Testing Everett Rogers’ theory of how the speed of diffusion varies across products. Replication accuracy and the speed at which best practices are shared within organizations. The Effective network structures for selling teams and buying teams. The effect of customer referral programs on customer retention and profitability. Patterns of product-market entry and product line extension in the U.S. mutual fund industry.

Last Modified September 18, 2009