Northwestern’s Advice on Real Deal Work Inclusivity, and More – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
How to Make Inclusivity More Than Just An Office Buzzword – Kellogg Insight
Many organizations claim to value diversity, but even successful leaders at diverse organizations may fall short when it comes to inclusion.
“Inclusion is about welcoming, developing, and advancing a diverse mix of individuals,” explains Ellen Taaffe, an Assistant Professor of Leadership and Director of Women’s Leadership Programs at the the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.
“It’s about making all people feel valued, including changing practices that might unfairly benefit any one group, and making sure that everyone feels they have the same opportunity to advance and make an impact. Creating that environment is where the real challenge lies.”
Taaffe recommends making the business case for inclusion. “The message is clear: this will help all of us because it will open us up to new ideas and help us think differently. You might not need this with every group, but it’s good to have proof points just in case, to offset the concerns people might have.”
“As disruption occurs across industries, new ideas are needed from more diverse perspectives to be more innovative and competitive in our rapidly changing world.”
You can read the full article here.
Will More Companies Follow MasterCard’s Lead? – Gies School of Business News
MasterCard announced this past week that it will drop the name from its logo “in select contexts.”
The credit card company hopes customers will recognize the brand solely based on its iconic interlocking red and yellow circles. U. Illinois Gies School of Business Professor of Business Administration, Yuqian Xu, co-authored a paper titled “The Impact of Mobile Payment Channel on Consumer Consumption: Evidence from Alipay,” which highlights the growing popularity of digital payment methods that may lead to fewer credit card transactions.
“By taking the word ‘card’ off their logo, we’re seeing Mastercard embrace this trend of consumers moving toward more digital payment methods. I think this is a smart move letting the public know they’re adjusting with technology. Eventually we’re going to see credit cards having a progressively smaller market share as digital payment methods grow.”
Xu adds, “Credit card companies need to view the move toward digital payments as an opportunity for them, instead of as competition. Traditional credit card companies have a large market share already, so if they increase their digital payment capabilities, they’ll be able to keep their original customers and acquire new ones as well.”
You can read more from the recent Gies interview here.
Chicago Booth’s Marianne Bertrand Wins New Swedish Prize in Economics and Management – Chicago Booth News
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business has yet another accolade added to its ranks.
Marianne Bertrand, the Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, is the newest winner of the Jan Söderberg Family Prize in Economics and Management. This prize awards a leading international scholar under the age of 50 who has made a discovery or contribution within the fields of economics and management. Bertrand was awarded the prize for her scholarship in issues that includes “inequality, discrimination, and sexism,” according to the school.
Marianne Bertrand, the Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, is the newest winner of the Jan Söderberg Family Prize in Economics and Management. / Photo via chicagobooth.edu
“I find it most interesting to push the boundaries of economics,” Bertrand says. “I am convinced that satisfactory answers to many of the questions that interest me cannot be provided by solely looking at market incentives or restricting the human decision-making process to strict rationality assumptions.”
She explains, “For example, it is difficult to fully understand the sources of the gender wage gap or the sources of racial prejudice without tapping into the tools of sociology and psychology. Similarly, it is difficult to fully explore the sources and consequences of income inequality without paying attention to the role of political institutions, power and influence.”
Fredrik Andersson, Dean at Lund University School of Economics and Management and chair of the prize committee, praises Bertrand:
“Marianne Bertrand is one of the world’s most prominent applied micro-economists. We see her work as an inspiration for researchers in both economics and management. Her focus on issues such as inequality and discrimination also align well with our core research agenda.”
You can read more about the award and Professor Bertrand here.
Working From Home, Maximizing Profits, and More – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
Are You a Different Person at Work Than at Home? Compartmentalizing Like This Can Lead to Unethical Decisions – Kellogg Insights
Northwestern Kellogg Assistant Professor of Marketing Maferima Touré-Tillery and the University of the Sciences’ Alysson Light coauthored new research, which finds that “people who perceive their personalities as constant across their roles are more likely to behave ethically than those who think of themselves differently in each role.”
Touré-Tillery explains, “If I tend to think about myself the same way from one identity to the next, then if I do something that’s going to make me feel bad about myself, it’s likely that I’ll feel bad about myself across all of my identities.”
She adds, “Every unethical thing amplifies that sense of being a bad person. By having them merge their work and personal lives, you are helping them merge their identities as parent and worker—so they might behave more morally across the board.”
You can read the full Kellogg Insights article here.
Should Public Companies Do More Than Maximize Profits? – Chicago Booth
At a recent panel discussion hosted by Chicago Booth’s Rustandy and Stigler Centers, BlackRock Co-founder Sue Wagner and Booth’s Luigi Zingales and Marianne Bertrand dissected BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s letter to his fellow CEOs, imploring them to engage more deeply with social issues as part of their long-term strategies.
Moderator Robert H. Gertner explains, “We have seen greater discussion, both within and outside of academia, about the role of corporations. It has come from consumers, from employees, from the government, from academics, and from investors. Perhaps this letter from Larry Fink may go down as a sort of cornerstone of this discussion.”
You can read the full exchange between all the panelists here.
Tech Leader Shares His Views On Innovation, Autonomous Vehicles, and Purpose – Gies School of Business News
The University of Illinois Gies College of Business recently hosted Mobileye ASIC Department Project Manager and Founding Engineer Mois Navon, who discussed how his company’s purpose has driven their success.
The Israeli-based Mobileye is “one of the leaders in driver assistance technology and autonomous vehicle research.” According to the article, “the demonstrated ability of [Mobileye’s] products to help prevent accidents led insurance companies to give discounts to people who used them. People were getting into fewer accidents, and the accidents they did get into were less severe.”
Navon explains Mobileye’s purpose within the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, which means “fixing the world.”
“I think that technology is that driving force for fixing the world—even though new technologies can engender difficult transitions. I think humanity is ultimately driven by purpose. We’re here to fix ourselves. We’re here to fix the world. And I hope you’ll join me.”
You can read more about the company and Navon’s speech at Gies here.
Business School Experts on the Glass Ceiling, and More – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
Here’s a Better Way to Schedule Surgeries – Kellogg Insight
Northwestern Kellogg Associate Professor of Operations Chaithanya Bandi and McCombs’ Diwakar Gupta recently published new research that focuses on how hospital administrators can optimize operating room schedules “while still satisfying surgeon needs.”
According to the article, “the researchers developed an innovative algorithm to improve OR operations, minimizing the number of ORs hospitals had to keep open, while still honoring surgeon requests,” which can drive savings of anywhere from 10-25 percent in OR costs and “lead to lower healthcare costs and thus lower insurance premiums.”
Bandi explains, “In healthcare settings, these kinds of savings don’t translate immediately to consumers. But better utilization of OR capacity helps the hospital see more patients in a shorter period of time, with lower rejections or delays for surgery requests.”
Bandi hopes to apply an “algorithm similar to the OR-optimization model to help data centers improve project efficiency. “Projects like these can take hours to run and incur very large energy costs. By some estimates, as much as 12% of the world’s total energy goes toward these projects.”
You can read more from Kellogg Insight here.
The Glass Ceiling: Three Reasons Why it Still Exists and is Hurting the Economy – Chicago Booth News
In a new working paper entitled “The Glass Ceiling,” Chicago Booth Professor Marianne Bertrand outlines three factors “why the glass ceiling persists in excluding women from top-paying jobs.”
- Women with college degrees often choose to work in fields that offer lower incomes.
- Psychological differences between men and women could account for up to 10 percent of the pay gap.
- The demands for child care, housework and other life chores outside of work fall more heavily on women than on men.
She explains, “In a world where talent is distributed equally among women and men, an economy that does not fully tap into the leadership skills offered by women is necessarily inefficient. Talent is left on the table when women are not placed in leadership positions, and the economy suffers.”
Chicago Booth Professor Marianne Bertrand
You can read more from Chicago Booth News here and check out “The Glass Ceiling” here.
‘We All Lose’ in Trade War, Says Gies Business Professor – Gies College of Business News
The University of Illinois Gies College of Business blog spoke with Professor of Finance Don Fullerton to understand the potential long-term ramifications of recent trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
The U.S. recently announced 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods [like] industrial machinery parts, food seasonings, and network routers, while China countered with tariffs on $60 billion worth of American meat, chemicals, and clothes, which are set to increase to 10-25 percent by the end of the year.
“There’s going to be significant costs to bear. A lot of economists were arguing strongly against a trade war because in the long run we all lose. We’ll end up paying more for all kinds of goods. We’ll pay more for domestically-produced goods because we don’t get to buy the cheap imports anymore. And the goods we do import, we’ll pay more for because of the tariffs.”
You can read the Gies College of Business News here.
Booth Set to Launch New Poverty Lab
Marianne Bertrand, Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at Booth School of Business, will direct the new University of Chicago Poverty Lab. According to a press release on the The University of Chicago’s website, The Poverty Lab is one of three new urban labs the University of Chicago announced. This lab joins the Ecology and Wellness Labs as part of a University of Chicago network that builds on the success of the school’s Crime and Education Labs.
The Poverty Lab’s mission will be to seek ways to improve parenting skills and better prepare students for the job market. In each lab, staff members and students conduct research, formulate strategies for tackling problems, work with community groups to operate programs, then evaluate data to assess impact. By summer, the labs will be operating out of workspace in the Loop. Continue reading…
