NewsBites

Below is a summary of some of the school's citations in prominent national and regional media. These media placements enhance the school's national reputation and help to brand it as one of the nation's top business schools.

International media—including Yahoo! Finance and Forbes—reported on research by Min-Hsuan Tu, assistant professor of organization and human resources, that found attractive people are more likely to be hired and get paid more. “It’s not so much about the attractive person as much as it’s about the other person’s bias,” Tu explained to the Financial Post. “When people are pretty, other people are more likely to connect with them and get friendly. Then they connect corresponding traits, like being trustworthy, reliable and kind.” (Read more in Insights.)

In the aftermath of the Surfside condo collapse last summer, Joana Gaia, clinical assistant professor of management science and systems, spoke to international media, including “Good Morning America,” about the technology rescuers were using to search through the rubble. In an interview with the Associated Press, Gaia described radar and chemical tracing devices—and stressed speed was most critical. “Responders are operating on a speed rather than accuracy standpoint,” Gaia said. “They think, ‘If I think a body is there, I don’t care how accurate the signal is. I’m just going to try to go save the person.’”

Paul Tesluk, professor and dean of the School of Management, shared insights with the BBC about how hybrid workers can maximize their time in the office. Tesluk advises saving tasks that require collaboration, brainstorming or group creativity for in-office days, as well as spending time connecting with colleagues. Doing so helps shore up the trust “that comes from high-quality working relationships that has been harder to build and develop when working remotely,” Tesluk said.

Charles Lindsey, associate professor of marketing, was interviewed by Bloomberg and The Washington Post about how holiday shopping too early can backfire, as people wind up buying more than they intend. It’s like diners who pay for high-end meals in advance and then splurge on extras like wine when they get there, Lindsey said.

As supply chain struggles threatened to derail holiday shopping, Nallan Suresh, UB Distinguished Professor of operations management and strategy, shared his expertise with a diverse array of media, including Yahoo!, USA Today and Reader’s Digest. “We have congestion in West Coast ports where much of the production from Asia comes through … and a whole lot of constraints in our domestic logistics—driver shortages, truck shortages, container shortages,” Suresh said during a live interview with WIVB-TV, Buffalo’s CBS affiliate. “All those things will be reflected in the consumer experience.”

Business Insider covered research by Joshua Khavis, assistant professor of accounting and law, that found overworked employees are less likely to produce quality audits, even if they have high job satisfaction. “Instead, we found that work-life balance was associated with high-quality audits,” Khavis said.

Emily Grijalva, associate professor of organization and human resources, was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article about the lack of women coaches in the NBA. “A huge difference will come if more women get into these positions of power,” Grijalva said. “Then you’ll have more women voices in the room, and women are less likely to fall prey to [gender] stereotypes than men and also are more open.”

Forbes and Bloomberg reported on new research by Michael Dambra, associate professor of accounting and law, about special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). Dambra’s paper found the worst-performing SPACs offer overly aggressive revenue forecasts that they fail to deliver on.

Natalie Simpson, associate professor and chair of operations management and strategy, spoke with USA Today and MSN about the catastrophic oil spill off the Southern California coast last fall. Simpson said according to the company’s spill response plan, it should have been able to detect a leak that amounted to 1% of the pipeline flow within 50 minutes. “If what people were smelling on Friday in Huntington Beach was, in fact, this oil, then more than that would have already been leaked,” she said.

Financial Times cited research co-authored by Feng Gu, professor and chair of accounting and law, that found 40% of companies reporting a loss would have been profitable without expensing intangibles. These “accounting losers,” Gu’s research showed, invest heavily in new products and services, and generate more valuable patents than profitable companies.

Throughout the 35-day nursing strike at Buffalo’s Mercy Hospital last fall, Larry Zielinski, executive in residence for health care administration, was interviewed several times by The Buffalo News. “It’s not atypical for unions and health care systems to play chicken and issue strike notices and go right down to the bitter end,” Zielinski said. “But to actually go over the cliff is unusual because of the fact the people that you’re ultimately hurting are the patients.”