NewsBites

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

Bloomberg Businessweek launched a new B-school return on investment ranking, which placed the School of Management at No. 5 in the nation. The school also rose seven spots to No. 62 nationally in Bloomberg’s annual MBA ranking, and moved up two places to No. 30 among public B-schools. 

CNN interviewed Dominic Sellitto, clinical assistant professor of management science and systems, for a story about an AT&T data breach, stressing the importance of the data that phone carriers hold. That information is “the gateway into everything else on the internet,” he said. “Every communication that we have, everything goes through a telecom provider or internet service provider.”

The New York Times quoted Charles Lindsey, associate professor of marketing, in a story about how people who go viral on social media platforms like TikTok are becoming Hollywood celebrities. “The entire media space is just so much more interconnected,” he said. “It’s more democratized. It’s flatter. The crossover potential is just so much more than it was five years ago.”

Fortune also interviewed Lindsey for an article about the rise of Fizz, a Gen Z social media startup that raised $41.5 million. Comparing Fizz to Facebook, Lindsey said Facebook’s 3 billion monthly active user base has both obviously contributed to its success — and brought it farther away from its original goal. Fizz’s success as a startup and a burgeoning e-commerce platform shouldn’t necessarily mimic Facebook’s meteoric rise if it wants to find success, Lindsey argued. “It’s the anti-Facebook in a way,” he said. Yahoo! News also carried the story.

Bloomberg reported on a study co-authored by Cristian Tiu, chair and associate professor of finance, that found hedge funds identified as green based on their returns, rather than labels or marketing, consistently outperformed brown hedge funds by 7% annually, indicating that certain hedge funds generate alpha from investors’ climate concerns. The article was reposted by Yahoo! Finance.

MSN featured research by Wreetabrata Kar, assistant professor of marketing, about how when a reviewer loses an “elite” badge on the restaurant review site Yelp, the quality of their reviews declines, but the perceived value of those reviews remains surprisingly high because of how the site displays their status. “Platform managers should consider how recognition systems are displayed, because subtle design choices can significantly impact user behavior and perception — and may even undermine their goal of promoting high-quality content,” he said.

MSN also reported on research by Ram Ramesh, professor of management science and systems, that found when motivating app-based gig economy workers like DoorDash and Uber drivers, giving out money and virtual high fives are separately effective — but not when given together. “Combining verbal recognition with bonuses to motivate workers is an intuitive idea; but such combinations can be counter-productive in the gig economy,” he said. “Coming from the lower end of the earnings spectrum, gig workers feel shortchanged when a pat on the back is given instead of more financial rewards.”

The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Arun Lakshmanan, associate professor of marketing, about how Meta and Snapchat are turning your selfies into AI avatars to sell you more stuff. “When you boil it down, [Facebook and Snapchat] are basically advertising delivery systems,” he said. “What’s being sold on these platforms is user attention and the opportunity to persuade users. And these avatars could become extremely compelling persuasion devices. There’s ample research that indicates when you see yourself using a product, it reduces barriers to purchasing that product.” MSN also published the story.

Harvard Business Publishing featured a story by James Lemoine, associate professor of organization and human resources, about how he has embraced morally controversial topics to prepare the next generation of business leaders in his business ethics course.“In this class, I have facilitated fantastic and respectful conversations among students around these highly sensitive topics … I believe the class has succeeded because students want to discuss these topics in an open and fear-free environment and because they saw the class as a psychologically safe environment to do so,” he said.

NPR’s Marketplace interviewed Kevin Cleary, clinical assistant professor of management science and systems, for a radio segment and story about what the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike does and what caused the massive computer outage at businesses and organizations around the world. “It kind of does the same thing that classical antivirus would do,” he said. “It’s looking at different files that are downloaded to your computer. It’s looking at different system states, it’s looking at logs, it’s looking at different kinds of network traffic.”

Woman’s World magazine quoted Min-Hsuan Tu, assistant professor of organization and human resources, in a story about research-based job-hunting tips, including how to improve nonverbal cues during an interview. “Evaluators consistently rated individuals who practiced power posing as more confident and enthusiastic,” said Tu.

The Buffalo News quoted Ananth Iyer, dean of the School of Management, in a story about the NY SMART I-Corridor Tech Hub, a $40 million initiative for the Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse region that centers on semiconductor manufacturing, research and education. “Getting started in this journey is a wonderful step, because we can do this for many other industries: clean energy, health care, name it,” he said.