Discovery at Carlson·17 Wisdom of the Crowd? It’s Complicated

Wisdom of the Crowd? It’s Complicated

The unofficial motto of the Carlson School is “business as a force for good.” The saying is on signs, coasters, and posters in our buildings. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni bring it to life every day. 

During our recent AACSB Continuous Improvement Review, we pulled together just some of the many examples of faculty members who have tackled some of society’s most pressing issues. In doing so, we decided to share those as part of this issue of Discovery at Carlson. Some you may remember, while others may be new. All are impactful.

• Prof. Pinar Karaca-Mandic is studying how physicians discontinue the use of ineffective treatments under a major grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 
• Prof. Ximin Huang is working with the State of Minnesota to study how legislation can encourage and optimize electronics recycling. 
• Prof. Aaron Sojourner along with his colleagues worked with Minneapolis Public Schools to significantly improve students’ outcomes. They looked at how data can be used to attract the most effective teachers, recognize them and place them in places where they are most needed. 
• Prof. Kingshuk Sinha is exploring how international non-profit organizations enable the long-term delivery of surgical care in underserved communities. Specifically, he focused on the diagnosis and treatment of children with congenital heart disease. 
• Prof. Joe Redden's research explores how nudging can help children eat more fruit and vegetables.
• Prof. Kathleen Vohs’ stream of work, used by major leaders (e.g., President Obama) studies how the process of making choices, even for mundane tasks, drains a person’s cognitive resources, affecting their concentration for more important issues. 
• Prof. Sofia Bapna, Prof. Russell Funk and Prof. Alan Benson’s work focuses on how factors like maternity leave benefits, job rejection communications, and job description advertisements impact women’s participation in technology careers.
•        A story in a recent issue of the alumni magazine covered four impactful faculty research projects:
  • Prof. Jason Chan, working with a large retailer in China, examined the shopping habits of consumers in China and found interesting insights for the retailer. 
  • Prof. Nan Li examined the role of monitoring third-party transactions in India and showed that it can help investors and regulators in markets where strong regulatory regimes are not present. 
  • Prof. Karthik Natarajan focused on health care supply chains in India to keep people healthy in developing countries. 
  • Prof. Tracy Yue Wang examined cultural heritage in the C-suite and found that culture affects decision-making and it could be seen, for example, in CEOs’ choices regarding M&A. They, interestingly, discovered that on average, companies led by CEOs with a German heritage conduct significantly less M&A activities. 
• Prof. Soumya Sen worked on several data pricing solutions that offer the opportunity to bridge the digital divide and help Internet Service Providers (ISPs) extend their services to remote customers. 
• Professors Jiao Luo and Aseem Kaul show how corporate social responsibility in the form of pollution reduction efforts, charitable giving, and the like—can boost corporate profits. 
• Prof. Alok Gupta has a long research stream that has changed FloraHolland’s -- that facilitates 60% of the world’s flower trade -- operations and design of the auctions used by them for over 100 years, by creating more time through the use of analytical strategies.

Summer 2021

科研行善 

       “商业行善”(Business as a force for good)是卡尔森学院的非正式校训，它被印在教学楼的标识牌、杯垫、海报上，学院的学生、教职工、校友等一直在实践这一价值观。
       在近期的AACSB持续改进审核中，我们整理了一些案例，反映教职工如何通过科研为社会解决燃眉之急，并将这些案例发表在这一期的Discovery at Carlson。这些案例中的名字可能很熟悉、也可能很陌生，但他们都带来了深远的社会影响。

• Pinar Karaca-Mandic教授参与了美国医疗保健研究与质量局的一项重大拨款项目，研究医生终止无效治疗方案的方式。
• Ximin Huang教授与明尼苏达州政府合作，研究通过立法鼓励和提高电子产品的回收利用。
• Aaron Sojourner教授与同事和明尼阿波利斯市公立学校系统合作，研究如何大幅度提高学生的学业成绩。他们通过数据提高教师招聘和师资岗位匹配的有效性。
• Kingshu Sinha教授协助国际非营利组织提高缺医地区的长期外科护理水平。具体而言，他的研究领域主要是先心病的诊断和治疗。
• Joe Redden教授的研究课题是，如何通过话术鼓励儿童增加水果和蔬菜的摄入。
• Kathleen Vohs教授研究决策过程如何影响人们对重要事件的关注。即使是简单任务的决策，也会占用人们的认知资源，从而导致人们忽略重要事件。包括奥巴马总统在内的一些重要领导人都应用了这一研究成果。
• Sofia Bapna教授、Russell Funk教授和Alan Benson教授的研究了可能影响女性参与技术岗位的产假福利、面试失败沟通和招聘职位描述。
• 最近一期的校友杂志报道了四个颇具影响力的研究项目：
  • Jaso Chan教授与中国的一家大型零售商合作，研究中国消费者的消费习惯，发现了一些对零售商殊为有用的洞察。
  • Nan Li教授研究印度对第三方交易的监督，发现此举能够在政府监管较弱的市场中提高投资商和监管方的效率。
  • Karthik Natarajan教授着力研究印度医疗供应链，以期提高发展中国家人民的健康水平。
  • Tracy Yue Wang教授研究高管的文化背景，发现文化背景影响高管的决策方式，例如，CEO的并购决策等。研究发现，德裔CEO领导的企业参与并购的频率远低于其他企业。
• Soumy Sen教授研究了多个数据定价解决方案，用于解决数字鸿沟、以及帮助互联网服务供应商（ISP）为偏远地区的客户提供服务。
• Jiao Luo教授和Aseem Kaul教授通过研究证实，通过实施减排、慈善捐赠等企业社会责任行为，企业可以提高利润。
• Alok Gupta教授的一项长期研究改变了FloraHoland，这家荷兰鲜花交易网站涉及全球60%的鲜花交易。通过使用分析策略获取更多时间，改变了FloraHoland延续了百余年的运营和竞买方式。