RESEARCH ROUNDUP

Fear Factor
One reason consumers don’t invest enough, according to assistant marketing professor Christopher Bechler, is that working hard lowers one’s investment risk tolerance — especially when times are tough. His findings provide support for new interventions that encourage wealth building, such as those that automatically invest workers’ income.

Public Health 3.0
For decades, national, regional and local health officials and policymakers have analyzed public health data to improve and protect communities and address disparities. Ahmed Abbasi, the Joe and Jane Giovanini Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations, proposes an upgraded data and informatics approach he calls Public Health 3.0. 

Banking On Incentives
A study by John Donovan, the Gerspach Family Associate Professor of Accountancy, shows how bank boards use executive “pay for prudence” incentives to encourage bankers to balance shareholders’ preference for risk with regulators’ push for prudence in order to minimize the likelihood of failure.

Productive Dreaming
Could dreams impact workplace productivity? Dreams can increase our mental resilience, which, in turn, impacts goal progress. Assistant management professor Casher Belinda’s research suggests a way our brains attempt to make sense of and give meaning to our dreams. 

Speedy Profits
Assistant finance professor John Shim researches how profits financial exchanges reap from selling speed to high-frequency traders stand in the way of market design innovation. This results in higher investor trading costs. He explores whether exchanges’ private incentives to adopt market design reform align with what is socially efficient.

Bot Influencers
Bots influence how we interact with each other in digital spaces, according to IT, Analytics, and Operations assistant professor John Lalor and professor Nicholas Berente. They identified novel ways in which different types of bots on Reddit shaped online conversations and discussed the implications for the design of online communities. 

Boardroom Politics
The political ideology of an incoming CEO influences whether current board directors stay on or leave their positions, according to a study by John Busenbark, the Mary Jo and Richard M. Kovacevich Associate Professor of Management & Organization. Notably, political disagreement is more influential in board resignations than political agreement is in retention.