David Bell is a Professor of Marketing and Xinmei Zhang and Yongge Dai Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Academic Director for Wharton’s Advanced Management Program. He is an expert in consumer shopping behavior.
His current research focuses on theories and explanations for geographic variation in the performance of Internet retail startups. Startups studied include Bonobos.com, Diapers.com and WarbyParker.com.
ecent articles explain the effect of physical location on customer acquisition, contagion effects among co-located consumers, and the effect of preference isolation on online demand.
Professor Bell’s research is published in all of the premier academic marketing journals: Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Marketing Science and Quantitative Marketing and Economics. He also serves as an expert witness in intellectual property matters pertaining to individual choice behavior.
He holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, an MS in Statistics from Stanford University, an MA (Honorary) from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.Com (1st Class Honors) and B.Com from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.