We provide a rationale for evolutionary model building. The basic idea is that to enhance user acceptance it is important that one begins with a relatively simple model. Simplicity is desired so that managers understand models. As a manager uses the model and builds up experience with this...

Sales promotions generate substantial short-term sales increases. To determine whether the sales promotion bump is truly beneficial from a managerial perspective, we propose a system of store-level regression models that decomposes the sales promotion bump into three parts: cross-brand effects...