Faculty research

Professor and Chairperson of Business Law Stephanie Greene and Professor of Business Law Christine O’Brien have co-authored an article, “New Battles and Battlegrounds for Mandatory Arbitration After Epic, New Prime, and Lamps Plus,” forthcoming in the American Business Law Journal. The scholars examine the impact of, and proposed legislation in reaction to, three recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions interpreting the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) in ways that generally prioritize arbitration over workers’ labor law rights.

Associate Professor of Marketing Henrik Hagtvedt co-authored an article, “Aesthetically (dis)pleasing visuals: a dual pathway to empathy and prosocial behavior,” published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing. The researchers found that visuals combining both pleasing and displeasing elements (for example, a colorful sneaker amidst a pile of shabby sneakers) have a better chance of activating viewers’ empathy and encouraging prosocial behavior than do visuals with pleasing or displeasing elements alone.

Management Science has accepted a paper co-authored by Assistant Professor of Operations Management Nan Liu, entitled “Appointment Scheduling Under Time-Dependent Patient No-Show Behavior.” Based on their study of data sets in the U.S. and Chile, Liu and colleagues propose a scheduling model for medical outpatient clinics that would reduce costs and waiting times.

Andrey Malenko and Nadya Malenko, both associate professors of finance, co-authored a study, “Proxy Advisory Firms: The Economics of Selling Information to Voters,” published in the Journal of Finance. The Malenkos found that when proxy advisors have precise information, it may go underused because advisors ration out their recommendations to maximize profits. However, some proposed policies to address this issue can have negative effects.

Peter F. Drucker Chair in Management Sciences Alicia Munnell has a paper, “Socioeconomic Barriers to Working Longer,” forthcoming in Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging. Munnell, who is the director of the Center for Retirement Research, also co-authored a study with two colleagues from the Center, Associate Director of State and Local Research Jean-Pierre Aubry and Research Economist Laura Quinby. “Spillovers from State and Local Pensions to Social Security: Do Benefits for Uncovered Workers Meet Federal Standards?” will appear in Social Security Bulletin.

Gergana Nenkov and Hristina Nikolova of the Marketing department delivered an award-winning paper, “We Succeeded Together, Now What: Relationship Power and Sequential Decisions in Couples’ Joint Goal Pursuits,” at the 2019 Association for Consumer Research Conference. They examined how married couples make decisions in pursuit of complex joint goals, like saving for retirement or buying a house. In particular, they found that a partner with more relationship power is more likely to disengage from the joint goal and indulge themselves (say, by buying an unnecessary personal item) after a small success (such as making a contribution to the retirement account). Nenkov is an associate professor and the Haub Family Faculty Fellow; Nikolova is the Diane Harkins Coughlin and Christopher J. Coughlin Sesquicentennial Assistant Professor of Marketing.

The Journal of Experimental Psychology published “Similar but unequal: Political polarization in the effects of perceived social similarity on support for redistribution” by Associate Professor of Marketing Nailya Ordabayeva. Prior research in this area predicted that people would support redistributive policies if they perceived that such policies would help those racially similar to themselves. However, Ordabayeva made the perhaps counterintuitive finding that among conservatives, the perception of similarity only strengthened their belief that people deserve unequal outcomes.

Associate Professor of Marketing Linda Salisbury co-authored (with Gergana Nenkov and two outside colleagues) “Improving Financial Inclusion through Communal Financial Orientation: How Financial Service Providers Can Better Engage Consumers in Banking Deserts,” published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. The study suggests that mainstream banks will have more success entering underserved communities (“banking deserts”) by highlighting ways in which the bank is beneficial for the community’s well-being.

With two colleagues, Assistant Professor of Information Systems Xuan Ye has a paper forthcoming in Management Science entitled “Paying to Program? Engineering Brand and High-Tech Wages.” The researchers found that tech workers change jobs in part based on whether they can learn new skills with a new employer. Ye’s study was also featured in voxeu.org, the policy portal of the Centre for Economic Policy Research.