Jiaru Bai

Assistant Professor of Operations

Title: Hiding in Plain Sight: Surge Pricing and Strategic Providers

Journal: Production and Operations Management 

The findings in this paper reveal that on-demand service platforms face significant challenges from provider collusion, which can create artificial supply shortages and harm both the platform and its customers. The study shows that, in the presence of potential provider collusion, it is optimal for the platform to prevent collusion by implementing a compensation structure that ensures that total provider earnings increase in the number of providers available, although this adjustment may ultimately leave providers worse off compared to a scenario without collusion.

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Julia Bear

Professor, Organizational Behavior

Title: But What If I Lose The Offer? Negotiators' Inflated Perception Of Their Likelihood of Jeopardizing a Deal

Journal: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Job seekers are often reluctant to negotiation because they worry that the offer could be rescinded. Across a series of seven studies, findings reveal that these fears are consistently exaggerated: although job candidates are highly concerned about jeopardizing a deal by negotiating, candidate perception is inflated compared to managers’ reports of offer withdrawal.

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Visit HBR.org for a discussion of the findings. 

Richard Chan

Associate Professor, Management

Title: Seeing the whole: Configurational cognition and new venture resource mobilization.

Journal: Strategic Management Journal

This analysis of Kickstarter campaign successes shows that narratives alone are ineffective, but when paired with quality indicators and community engagement, they can drive success, with simpler stories relying on images and more complex ones requiring videos. Our results encourage entrepreneurs to look beyond “silver bullet” solutions and think holistically how to communicate their ventures as “whole packages”.

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Mohammad Delasay

Associate Professor, Operations Management

Title: Prioritization in the Presence of Self-ordering Opportunities in Omnichannel Services

Journal: Production and Operations Management

This paper highlights the critical role of prioritization policies in omnichannel service systems, where mobile apps are used for self-ordering (like in fast food restaurants and coffee shops), in balancing wait times between walk-in and mobile customers. The research underscores that improper policy choices can drastically reduce throughput and profitability, making careful selection essential during the shift from single-channel to omnichannel services.

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Margaret Echelbarger

Assistant Professor, Marketing

Title: Generically Partisan: Polarization in Political Communication

Journal: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Generic language, which is common in everyday speech (e.g., cows have spots), may contribute to polarization by encouraging people to adopt inaccurate broad conclusions about political categories. Thus, as people continue to become more polarized, the way they communicate about both their own party (e.g., Democrats) and another party (e.g., Republicans) may become increasingly exaggerated, increasing misperceptions about both parties.

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Haresh Gurnani

Dean, College of Business

Title: Peer-to-Peer Sharing Platforms with Quality Differentiation: Manufacturer’s Strategic Decision under Sharing Economy

Journal: Production and Operations Management

As peer-to-peer sharing platforms become more common, product manufacturers are exploring building their own exclusive platforms. In this research, we examine three scenarios: no sharing platform, a third-party platform, and a manufacturer’s platform coexisting with a third-party one. Our findings show that manufacturers who create their own platforms can increase profits, even when another third-party platform already exists.

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Wencui Han

Associate Professor, Operations and Decision Analytics

Title: The Black Lives Matter Movement Mitigates Bias Against Racial Minority Actors

Journal: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Although movie viewers tend to react negatively to increased racial representation in casting, social movements like #BlackLivesMatter, amplified by social media, have helped mitigate this bias against racial minority actors.

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Danling Jiang

Professor, Finance

Title: Lawyer CEOs

Journal: The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis

When are CEOs with legal expertise valuable for firms? The findings show that lawyer CEOs are typically associated with less frequent less severe firm litigations of various types. But they are more valuable during certain periods or in certain industries when their skills are most needed.

• SSRN working paper for free download at Lawyer CEOs

• Lawyer CEO data at the author website HERE

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Zhifeng Yang

Professor, Accounting

Title: Political Incentives and Analyst Bias: Evidence from China

Journal: Contemporary Accounting Research

The findings in this paper highlight the influence of political incentives on financial analyst bias. They suggest that analysts are more likely to issue favorable recommendations during scheduled provincial political events in China and the effect of political incentives on analyst bias is more pronounced for analysts affiliated with politicians.

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