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Continued from previous page
Some of the physicians appeared to be the hub of wheels
with many spokes—they were connected to other doctors
who trusted them. Some physicians were isolated, and others
were cross-connectors—individuals who linked up two networks
that otherwise seemed to be almost separate.
Some of the hubs were unsurprising—
they were renowned leaders at highly reputed
university medical centers, and Bristol-Myers
Squibb had long established relationships with them.
But several highly connected physicians in one of the networks
were not even on the radar for Bristol-Myers Squibb. And
the researchers were surprised to discover how the two parallel
networks were divided: by ethnicity. In one network, the physicians
had Western surnames, and in the other, Asian ones.
While ethnic enclaves are quite obvious in social life, the way
that those social norms transfer to professional life was only obvious
in retrospect.
In the next step Van den Bulte and his fellow researchers,
including Wharton marketing colleague Raghuram Iyengar,
are analyzing two separate sets of data. One, they are combining
the network data with databases containing information
on sales calls by pharma reps, on physicians' prescription
volume for the previous generation drug in this treatment
category, and on the timing when each doctor wrote his or
her first prescription for the new Bristol-Myers Squibb drug.
Two, they are overlaying demographic and professional
information—where the doctors attended medical school,
how long have they been in practice, whether they have a
publication record—to find personal characteristics that
may be used in other markets to predict the structure of the
social network, including who the influential physicians are.
With the first phase completed in October 2006, the
study is being extended to more cities in the U.S. and China
to see whether the results hold up.
How research Becomes Practice
So again, how does the topic of Van den Bulte's research—
new product diffusion and social networks—relate to the
spread of academic discoveries to business practices? Van den
Bulte supplies a few examples from his own experience, recalling
how Tom Valente, who recommended him for the
Bristol-Myers Squibb job, knew him.
While still a doctoral student, Van den Bulte read a halfcentury-
old sociology study on the diffusion of a new drug.
He thought it would be interesting to re-analyze the data using
modern techniques. A professor with whom Van den
Bulte was taking a class at the time had just come back from
a conference where, he happened to remember, someone had
made a presentation using those very same old data. Van den
Bulte checked the conference program and found his name:
Thomas Valente. Voila—a cross connection.
In another example of how networks lead to the spread
of academic research, Van den Bulte presented his ideas at
the annual business-to-business marketing conference run
by his former faculty adviser at Penn State's Institute for the
Study of Business Markets. In attendance was Dominique
Hanssens, executive director of the Marketing Science
Institute, a Cambridge, MA industry-sponsored nonprofit
organization that supports academic research to develop and
disseminate marketing knowledge. Hanssens drafted Van den
Bulte to write the book on social network marketing for its
Relevant Knowledge line, a series of accessible books that interpret
academic theory for business practitioners.
The book's publication will continue the dissemination
process that is already in motion. In September 2006,
Knowledge@Wharton published an article about his work,
allowing Van den Bulte's research to reach the biweekly journal's
worldwide mass audience of 500,000 subscribers across
English, Spanish, Chinese, Indian, and Portuguese editions.
Having his ideas reach both academic and professional
audiences is important to him. Echoing Mitchell, Van den
Bulte said, "If I can't publish my results, I'm not interested
in consulting. A condition for my working on this that we
could use it for research purposes."
Fortunately, the firm found that reasonable. The manager
in charge of the new product's launch told Van den Bulte he
wasn't worried about exposing the results to competitors because
academic research takes so long. "By the time the paper
is out, either we will already be successful with the product,
and we won't care," the product manager joked. "Or, the
product will have failed, in which case we really won't care."
Getting Involved with Wharton Research
The Wharton Partnership is the Wharton School's
program for fostering industry/academic collaboration.
The Partnership engages with more than 200
corporations and foundations.
The Partnership provides member organizations
with a single entry point to the School. A relationship
manager assists Partners in identifying and
connecting with faculty who are researching topics
of specific interest to them. Companies collaborating
with research centers have early access to findings.
For more information, visit partnership.wharton.upenn.edu,
call 215.898.5070, or e-mail corporate-fdn@wharton.upenn.edu.
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