2006 ISMS Practice Prize Competition—Special Section Introduction

<jats:p> We introduce the work of the finalists in the 2006 ISMS Practice Prize Competition, representing outstanding examples of rigor plus relevance in our profession. The winner, describing a collaboration between J.D. Power and Associates and U.C. Riverside, involves a sequenced program of research to understand the effect of promotional activity in the U.S. automobile market. The other three finalists address a model to calibrate the effects of corporate brand activity across three divisions at Allstate Insurance; a method for using CLV models to focus customer contact strategies at IBM; and a segmentation strategy to protect and gain customers in the face of a new entrant for the Austrian mobile telecommunications carrier, tele.ring. </jats:p>