Poets & Quants, the business school news site, recently released its list of the World’s Best 40 under 40 Business School Professors. This year, assistant professor of organization & management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, Emily Bianchi won one of the spots on the list.
Bianchi’s research involves the intersection of psychology and business. Some of her work looks at how economic conditions during early adulthood have an influence on later job attitudes. Bianchi’s most recognized academic research found that narcissism is blunted when people enter the workforce during a recession.
Bianchi told Poets & Quants a story about her most memorable moment as a professor. She recounted a class where she had assigned the “Red Paperclip Exercise.” The students would have two weeks to trade a red paperclip for something more. It was at the end of the two weeks when students were presenting their trades that Bianchi remembers most.
“The class period was almost over when one student came in late and completely out of breath. We all looked at him, sensing there was a good story. He had not spoken in class the entire semester and no one knew what to expect. He stood up in front of the class, caught his breath, and slowly began to recount the eight trades he had made. At the end, he held up two round trip tickets to Bermuda. He had traded them with his internship supervisor who was about to have his first child and wasn’t going to be able to use them before they expired. His parents had never travelled and he planned to surprise them with the tickets. The class was stunned and silent for a long time. No one knew what to say. Neither did I.”