Eight Lundquist College of Business researchers brought their papers to life in a fun and fast-paced competition for the inaugural Research Slam in November.
Our faculty's work regularly appears in the world's elite academic journals, but this format—the PechaKucha method of 20 slides shown for 20 seconds each—is a first for the college.
Chris Liu, associate professor of management and Inman Research Scholar, took on the impressive task of synthesizing his 11 papers into a presentation with the theme of “Networks, Pyramids, and Unicorns." In just one example, Liu showed how geographical proximity in the U.S. senate matters—though not if the senate member is already powerful.
Dane Christensen, associate professor of accounting and Charles E. Kern Research Scholar, reviewed why rating agencies can't seem to agree on which firms should in fact be considered socially responsible. Yet, when these same S&P 500 companies are rated for credit worthiness, there is much greater overlap in ratings.
Mike Pangburn, head of the Department of Operations and Business Analytics and Ehrman V. Giustina Professor of Operations and Business Analytics, spoke to understanding the value of delayed discounts in retail rewards programs—for the retailer at least.
“They are called rewards programs, . . . but they can be used by the seller to extract more profit from us," he explained.
T. Bettina Cornwell, Department of Marketing head and Philip H. Knight Chair, used “memory measurement" in her description of research on mega events, like the Olympic Games and the World Cup, and sponsorship recall.
Andrew Edelblum, a PhD candidate in marketing, shared “Supporting ‘Our" Cause: How Brand Activism Shapes Moral Behavior," highlighting how brands have changed their behavior during hyper-partisan political times.
Associate professor of finance and Inman Research Scholar Stephen McKeon highlighted some interesting areas of inquiry connected to forthcoming research into cyrptocurrency and blockchains. Self-executing contracts, for example, are a fascinating and promising financial service that can be successfully automated and present a rich area for research, he said.
In “Can I Do It? How Should I Do It? Did You Do It Already?: A Dialogue between Humans and Technologies in Organizations," assistant professor of management Alex Murray discussed how humans interact with “smart" technologies in modern organizations. Robots caring for patients in hospitals is one example.
“Research is one of our core activities here at the Lundquist College," said Andrew Nelson, associate vice president for entrepreneurship and innovation and Randall C. Papé Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, who hosted the online event. “We have 48 research-oriented faculty. They are each experts in their fields."
The twist of the research slam, Nelson noted, is that the students evaluate the professors.
Assistant professor of finance Maria Chaderina earned the title of winner for “The Dark Side of Liquid Bonds." She explained when insurance companies sell some of their corporate bonds at a large discount, creating losses for the insurance companies, the result is higher premiums for consumers.
The event was sponsored by the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship and judges were Business Honors students Ethan Rife, Cameron Clarke, Sebastian May, Taylor Clayton, and Taha Mirghorbani.
—AnneMarie Knepper-Sjoblom "05, Lundquist College Communications