By Anastasiya Pocheptsova and Daryl James

Commitment-shy shoppers carefully evaluate products before making a purchase, but new research from shows something different happens when the same people think about renting.

By Anastasiya Pocheptsova SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Commitment-shy shoppers carefully evaluate products before making a purchase, but something different happens when the same people think about renting.

UMD-Smith Marketing Experts Comment on Holiday Retail Trends, Tactics  COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Nov. 20, 2014 – Post-recession shoppers, some cautious, others shortcutting to bargains, are increasingly “webrooming.” The tactic involves studying prices and products online, then purchasing from brick and mortar stores. 

Thursday, October 2, 2014, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, October 5, 2014, 7:30 a.m. Should you buy or rent? Consumers have long debated this decision when it comes to homes and cars, but a recent explosion in the rental market has provided more rental options than ever before. Everything from movies to designer handbags and dresses to jewelry and beyond can be rented. And according to new research, consumers have no problem opening their wallets to rent. 

Though cellphones are usually considered devices that connect people, they may make users less socially minded, finds a recent study from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Smith’s marketing department has successfully recruited several active assistant professors over the past three years. Michael Trusov, who received his PhD from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management in 2007, studies Internet social networks and online word of mouth and has received several awards and mentions for his publications. Yogesh Joshi, a 2007 graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, ha