"The impacts of marketing innovation strategies on a company’s serviceability can best be deduced from" [the formula])
It's from a marketing dissertation in the Business school.
A couple of us have had a scratch round but I wondered if anyone here recognized it or has better googlefu to track down what they might be talking about?
Many thanks
tc
(OB Trav: A business school sets its final year students a project to calculate to investigate the effects of "vicinity marketing" (which the student defines as worlds within Jump-2) on small merchant ships . The PC's vessel gets a request (or several if in a quiet port) from a student wanting to use them as a case study. They've got a small amount of research funding to try out various approaches on nearby planets - low tech, social media, word of mouth, etc. They want to Jump with the ship and investigate but their funds don't include passage fees.
1) All is as represented and if the student is given a berth will do their best to produce some results but with no effect.
2) As #1 but the marketing does get the PC's ship better deals on 1 in 3 of the worlds visited. (DM +2 to broker rolls)
3) As #2 but another student is ahead of this one and gets the better deals first (DM -1 to broker rolls)
4) As #1 or #2 or #3 but the student is less than diligent and gets into trouble at least one of the worlds and the local law enforcement consider the PCs to be liable for the behaviour/actions.
5) It's merely a scam to get a free Jump to the next world.
6) The student is actually in the employ of a rival small merchant line trying to get an insight into the movements or actions of the PC's ship or company.