Insights

News about faculty and their research

Take the plunge and invest in weird

“People tend to draw conclusions about those who are non-normative. A person’s willingness to violate norms, or their inability to follow them, can enhance their creativity; yet at the same time, weird entrepreneurs are perceived to have diminished competence. ”

— Emily Grijalva, associate professor of organization and human resources, on her study that explores the link between investor funding and perceived weirdness, using pitches given by entrepreneurs from the five most recent seasons of the popular television show “Shark Tank.” The study finds that being unapologetically weird can be both an advantage and a liability, and interpersonal warmth is key to leveraging advantages and disadvantages. The study appeared in Personnel Psychology. Read more about Grijalva's study.

In business, all losses are not alike

Two dice: one with a percentage symbol and one with up and down arrows.

“Even as the economy boomed in 2019 following a decade of growth, about half of all public companies reported losses, despite initial success, because accounting rules force them to. This is just another indication of how broken accounting is. We need to treat intangible investments as real economic assets. ”

— Feng Gu, chair and professor of accounting and law, on his study that found that Generally Accepted Accounting Principles mask the true value of companies by marking investments in intangibles like technology, brands and human capital as losses. The research appeared in Review of Accounting Studies. Read more about Gu's study.

Servant leaders are better for the bottom line

“We gave employees a decision-making test and were able to show a relationship that we had theorized: those who were more ‘other-oriented’ made smarter, more well-thought-out decisions. Other-orientation gives you experience looking at problems from perspectives beyond your own. ”

G. James Lemoine, assistant professor of organization and human resources.

— James Lemoine, associate professor of organization and human resources, on his research that found that moderate increase in servant leadership can have a significant effect on an organization’s revenue: a one-point increase in servant leadership scores (on a seven-point scale) resulted in $11.3 million in additional revenue for the company, about a 6% increase. The research appeared in Personnel Psychology. Read more about Lemoine's study.

How to make flights more punctual

“The airlines that take action to change their operations will see the biggest improvement in on-time performance and rankings. Understanding the relative impact of active and passive strategies is crucial for airlines aiming to stay competitive in a dynamic industry. ”

— Milind Sohoni, chair and professor of operations management and strategy, on his study that found operational changes — such as efforts to reduce travel time, increase boarding efficiency and minimize gate-related delays — are the best way to improve airline on-time performance. The research appeared in Production and Operations Management Society. Read more about Sohoni's study.

Applying game theory to the front lines

“In the wake of ever-evolving adversarial threats, governments worldwide have invested trillions to safeguard their nations. Through game theory modeling, strategic interactions between defensive agencies and adversaries can be studied to tackle some of the world’s most pressing security challenges, in both the physical and cyber environments. ”

— Kyle Hunt, assistant professor of management science and systems, on his research that analyzed how strategy can protect against adversarial threats and found attacker-defender games have a wide range of use, including infrastructure and asset protection, inspection and screening, and patrolling. The study appeared in the European Journal of Operational Research. Read more about Hunt's study.

A controversial SEC rule did little to rein in excessive CEO pay

“The cybersecurity environment is constantly changing. Losses from insider attacks, criminal activity and nation-states can be significant and have increased substantially in the past several years. The effects can be devastating and lead to collateral damage involving customer losses, lawsuits and severely damaged reputations. Our goal is to continue developing students with the skills and technical expertise to combat bad actors seeking access to sensitive information. ”

— Lawrence Sanders', professor of management science and systems, on the CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service program, which UB has run since 2008 to train the next generation of cybersecurity experts. The program has graduated more than 45 scholars who work for the FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies. Sanders is co-principal investigator on the project, which received an additional $3.4 million from the National Science Foundation in August. Read more about the program.

Didn’t finish your daily to-do list at work? Don’t dwell on it

Business person looks at post-its on glass.

“By shifting our focus from ‘why employees failed to achieve goals’ to ‘how employees react to unrealized goals,’ we found that daily unattained goals can lead employees to develop strategies to cope with a cycle of negative thoughts of failure. These coping strategies that focus on the past may relieve some discomfort in the moment, but are often disruptive and can make employees less productive. ”

— Min-Hsuan Tu, assistant professor of organization and human resources, on her study that provides a comprehensive picture of how after-work thought processes can impact day-to-day goals. Published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the study offers practical insight for managers seeking to support and retain employees. Read more about Tu's study.

Knowledge is power: Early disclosure of risks can reduce decline in stocks

Business person analyzing finance document.

“This research supports the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulatory agencies’ drive to increase disclosure. Enhanced disclosure can improve a firm’s information environment, leading to better outcomes for firms and market participants alike. ”

— Szu-Yin “Jennifer” Wu, clinical assistant professor of finance, on her research examining the impact of risk factor disclosures that the SEC has required since 2005, finding that practitioners can reduce large negative events, such as Enron’s financial collapse when management hid financial losses, through early disclosure. The study was published in the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy. Read more about Wu's study.

Pension bailouts lead to opportunistic behavior

Business person recusing another from sharks.

“We find that the pension bailout increased plans’ incentives to engage in risk-taking, opportunistic and self-serving behaviors. The potential of future bailouts may actually incentivize institutions to take on more risk. It shifts the consequences of increased risk-taking away from the companies sponsoring these underfunded pension plans and onto taxpayers. ”

— Michael Dambra, associate professor and Kenneth W. Colwell Chair of Accounting and Law, in a new working paper that examines how collectively bargained pension plans respond to cash bailouts. Particularly after the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, the bailouts have negatively affected the management and administration of multiemployer pension plans. Read more about Dambra's study.

The business value of IT investment

“This phenomenon confused managers, policymakers and researchers in the ’80s, and was thought to have disappeared in the mid-’90s. While increased IT spending doesn’t always increase productivity, IT investment can pay off when countries leverage available complementary resources, such as e-commerce, traditional capital and traditional labor. ”

— Winston Lin, professor of operations management and strategy, on his study that analyzed the IT productivity paradox, a slowdown in productivity growth that occurred in the ’70s and ’80s despite rapid IT development, that remains in some developed countries. The research appeared in Asia Pacific Management Review. Read more about Lin's study.