Haslam College of Business - Research Digest Short Takes

Yes. Audit quality improves after firms join an association or network, especially where incentives for quality are more substantial, and competition is high. Shared training and reputational mechanisms strengthen reporting standards. 

Collaborative networks elevate quality and credibility among smaller firms, providing the discipline and resources traditionally available only to large international practices.  

Based on “How Can Small International Accounting Firms Improve Audit Quality? The Role of Accounting Associations and Networks” by Xi Ai, Lauren M. Cunningham, Xiao Li and Linda A. Myers, published in Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory.

Yes. When the acquirer and target use the same audit office, post-acquisition reporting quality rises and audit fees decline. Knowledge transfer reduces learning costs and financial misstatements. 

Using a common audit office fosters continuity and reduces integration risk, thereby strengthening corporate governance and enhancing investor confidence.  

Based on “Common Auditors in Mergers and Acquisitions: Post-acquisition Financial Reporting Quality and Audit Fees,” by Xi Ai, Linda A. Myers and Roy Schmardebeck, published in Accounting and Business Research.

Committees increasingly absorb cybersecurity and environmental, social and governance oversight, relying on shared frameworks and expert input. Such expansions improve coverage but risk overload without clear boundaries. 

Boards must clarify committee jurisdictions to ensure accountability while preventing duplication and fatigue. 

Based on “Redefining Perceived Boundaries: Insights into the Audit Committee’s Evolving Responsibilities,” by Lauren M. Cunningham, Sarah E. Stein, Kimberly Walker and Karneisha Wolfe, published in The Accounting Review.

Yes. Evidence suggests that managers inflate discretionary accruals while issuing overly optimistic earnings forecasts to delay the recognition of bad news. These patterns are especially pronounced among firms using non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) reporting. 

Regulators and analysts should evaluate earnings management as a multi-period process rather than a single-period event to detect systematic manipulation better.  

Based on “Do Managers Use a Multi-Period, Coordinated Strategy Involving Accrual Management and Subsequent Earnings Forecasts to Inflate Expectations?” by Linda A. Myers, Bruce K. Billings, Sami Keskek and Thomas C. Omer, published in Contemporary Accounting Research.

Yes. Effective polarization and loyalty cues lead to systematic distortion in crowdsourced event validation. Emotional and social identities override collective rationality. 

Designers of crowdsourcing platforms must detect subgroup bias and integrate corrective mechanisms to ensure data reliability. 

Based on “Do Crowds Validate False Data? Systematic Distortion and Affective Polarization,” by Daniel Pienta, Sriram Somanchi, Nishant Vishwamitra, Nicholas Berente and Jason B. Thatcher, published in MIS Quarterly.

Organizational security climate influences employees through two mechanisms: expanded role definitions and heightened concern for organizational protection. Together, they fully mediate the link between climate and proactive behavior. 

Security culture should emphasize personal responsibility and collective concern to drive sustainable, extra-role cybersecurity engagement. 

Based on “Unraveling the Psychological Links Between Organizational Security Climate and Extra-Role Security Behaviors,” by Ali Vedadi, Akmal Mirsadikov and Merrill Warkentin, published in Information & Management.

Yes. An eight-year panel plus experiment shows that employee-related CSR lowers security risks, while CSiR increases them; effects are more potent when practices are distinctive relative to peers, consistent with principal-agent alignment. 

Employee-centered CSR operates as a non-technical security control, aligning incentives and reducing insider risk; toxic practices undermine security posture. 

Based on “Do Good and Do No Harm Too: Employee-Related Corporate Social (Ir)responsibility and Information Security Performance,” by Qian Wang, Daniel Pienta, Shenyang Jiang, Eric Ngai and Jason B. Thatcher, published in the Journal of the Association for Information Systems.

Predictive analytics are the most common methods used. The level of analytics in the literature is much higher than what hospitals usually use in practice. 

Most “analytics” proposals likely focus heavily on predictions. Managers should encourage partners and teams to turn those predictions into clear operating policies, like improving surgical schedules and managing supply inventory. 

Based on “Examining the Use of Analytics in Healthcare Operations Management: A Systematic and Narrative Literature Review,” by Bogdan Bichescu, Randy V. Bradley, David D. Dobrzykowski, Iana Shaheen and Antoinette Smith, published in Decision Sciences.

Yes, IT justification practices matter indirectly by shaping IT infrastructure integration, which in turn improves supply chain efficiency. Justifying IT in terms of strengthening business-process quality rather than narrowly on return on investment is more strongly associated with higher integration and better efficiency. 

Hospital technology, financial and supply chain executives should justify and measure IT investments in terms of process quality and integration rather than ROI, partnering to integrate the supply chain IT bundle with existing systems so that digitization delivers the expected cost and efficiency gains. 

Based on “Where Does Insensitivity Lie? How IT Investment Decision Practices Shape Supply Chain Efficiency,” by Randy V. Bradley, Bogdan Bichescu, Junwoo Cha, John E. Bell, Terry Esper and Ben Hazen, published in the Journal of Business Logistics.

The method improves early signal detection, making it easier to spot suspect drug-reaction pairs while keeping false alarms in check. 

Pharmacovigilance teams and large providers can change drug-safety workflows with similar tools. This approach allows them to prioritize early follow-up on a smaller, more reliable set of suspect drug-adverse reaction pairs instead of waiting for many cases. 

Based on “Early Detection of Adverse Drug Reactions in Postmarket Monitoring,” by Lian Duan, Wenjun Zhou, Yong Hu, Lida Xu and Mei Liu, published in INFORMS Journal on Computing.

If approximate knockoff statistics can be coupled to those from an ideal, “perfect” knockoff procedure so that realizations are sufficiently close, then approximate robust knockoffs (ARK) retain asymptotic false-discovery-rate and k-family-wise-error control. 

Data science leaders in high-stakes domains such as healthcare or finance can justifiably use knockoff-based feature selection even with imperfect feature models, provided the knockoff procedures are explicitly designed to account for model misspecification. 

Based on “ARK: Robust Knockoffs Inference With Coupling,” by Yingying Fan, Lan Gao and Jinchi Lv, published in the Annals of Statistics.

When a store closes, online orders from that location’s area increase by 24 percent. About 11 percent of the demand that was previously met in-store moves online. Closing 10 percent of stores leads to only a 5.5 percent drop in total omnichannel sales since e-commerce can make up for some of the offline sales lost. New online customers tend to buy more bestsellers and make fewer returns. 

Retailers should view online channels as valuable assets during crises. When physical stores shut down, they should focus on selling bestsellers and providing low-risk online experiences to attract new customers. 

Based on “Impact of Temporary Store Closures on Online Sales: Evidence from a Natural Experiment,” by Ragip Gürlek, Diwas Singh KC and Paolo Letizia, published in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.

By looking at 1.6 million online orders from a global luxury brand in 21 countries with free returns for both product types, the authors found that customization lowers return rates more significantly in cultures with high masculinity and high uncertainty avoidance. In contrast, this impact is weaker or not noticeable in cultures with high power distance and high individualism, leading to notable differences between countries. 

Global retailers should tailor customization options and return policies to fit local cultural characteristics, using cultural factors to predict how customization affects returns. 

Based on “Product Customization and Returns: The Moderating Role of National Culture,” by Haileab Hilafu, Paolo Letiziaand Paolo Roma, published in Production and Operations Management.

SmartMOA, which uses a Bayesian neural network to estimate each analyst’s error and uncertainty, reduces overall error and uncertainty, achieving about 41 percent better accuracy than simple consensus. It also outperforms truth-discovery methods and standard machine-learning models based on eight years of Chinese earnings-forecast data. 

Investment teams can improve on equal-weight consensus by using a framework like SmartMOA. This helps create better, quality-weighted forecasts that support portfolio risk management. 

Based on “Multiple Financial Analyst Opinions Aggregation Based on Uncertainty-Aware Quality Evaluation,” by Shuai Jiang, Wenjun Zhou, Yanhong Guo and Hui Xiong, published in European Journal of Operational Research.

When retailers are similar and use wholesale-price contracts, both retailers offer MBGs. However, under two-part tariffs, the decisions about MBGs depend on bargaining power. With uneven power, the weaker retailer is more likely to provide MBGs, regardless of the contract used. This explains why similar products often have different return policies at various outlets. 

Manufacturers should create money-back-guarantee policies based on vertical bargaining and contract design. They should recognize that channel power can cause differences in return policies and that uncoordinated contracts may leave weaker retailers exposed to return risks. 

Based on “Product Return Policies: The Impacts of Vertical Bargaining and Contracting with Retail Competition,” by Chengzhang Li, Tingliang Huang and Yufei Huang, published in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.

It depends on the cost of customization and how much customization is provided. Probabilistic selling and customization can either support or weaken each other. The best results often happen at moderate levels of customization, especially when costs are high. 

Managers should steer clear of extreme customization strategies. They should focus on moderate, cost-sensitive customization that boosts perceived value without ruining the “mystery” aspect or adding operational complexity that eats into profits.  

Based on “Probabilistic Selling with Customization? A Theoretical Analysis,” by Zhe Yin and Tingliang Huang, published in Production and Operations Management.

Reviews written after very short use or very long use tend to get more helpful votes than those written after moderate use. This creates a U-shaped pattern. 

Platforms should clearly show usage along with review length to highlight “trusted experience” reviews. 

Based on “Displaying the Amount of Consumption Time in Online Reviews Can Affect Helpful Votes,” by Zheng Zhang, Wenjun Zhou and Michelle Andrews, published in the Journal of Marketing.

In a generic drug supply chain with a few powerful GPOs, ASP-based reimbursement can reduce shortages compared to AWP for drugs that are hard to supply and in concentrated GPO markets. However, in markets with more GPOs or only slightly high supply difficulty, increased free-riding under ASP may lead to lower prices and a higher risk of shortages. 

Regulators and payers should understand that average sales price reimbursement can help reduce shortages for difficult-to-supply drugs in markets with few group purchasing organizations. However, this benefit doesn’t apply to all drug categories. Segments with more group purchasing organizations or moderate supply difficulty need close attention since stronger free-riding under average sales price can lower wholesale prices and raise the risk of shortages. 

Based on “Reimbursement Policy and Drug Shortages,” by Xuejun Zhao, Justin Jia and Hui Zhao, published in Management Science.

The authors represent Shapley values using factorial effects from two-level experimental designs and then use fractional factorial designs to approximate them, showing that under mild assumptions, true Shapley values can be recovered with fewer than 4n²–4 coalition evaluation 

Data science teams can apply Shapley-based explanations to models with many features, using factorial-design approximations to keep compute budgets manageable while still distinguishing key main effects and interactions. 

Based on “Fast Approximation of Shapley Values through Fractional Factorial Designs,” by Zheng Zhou, Robert Mee, Herbert Hamers and Wei Zheng, published in the Journal of the American Statistical Association.

A predictive optimization model shows that reallocating limited resources can simultaneously reduce deaths and narrow disparities: emphasizing total deaths favors dense counties, while emphasizing equity shifts resources toward underserved ones. 

States can use quantitative optimization to balance efficiency and fairness when allocating public-health infrastructure. 

Based on “Reducing Overdose Deaths and Mitigating County Disparities: Optimal Allocation of Substance-Use Treatment Centers,” by Matthew Baucum, Matthew Harris, Lawerence Kessler and Guanyi Lu, published in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.

Export support boosts firm-level exports within existing markets, but it does not alter prices, quality, markups or marginal costs. This pattern shows that firms grow by shifting demand rather than by enhancing productivity or improving products. 

Export-support programs are tools for market access and demand generation, not methods to automatically improve product quality or reduce costs. If the goal is to strengthen competitiveness through innovation, quality improvement or productivity growth, export support should accompany intentional investments in capabilities instead of being relied upon to achieve those results on its own. 

Based on “Do Export Support Programs Affect Prices, Quality, Markups and Marginal Costs? Evidence From a Natural Policy Experiment” by Magnus T. Buus, Jakob R. Munch, Joel Rodrigue and Georg Schaur, published in the Review of Economics and Statistics.

Very costly. Each extra day of customs processing in Peru imposes a burden equivalent to an 18 percent tariff. Adoption of the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement measures significantly reduces these costs. 

Streamlining administrative processes can generate welfare gains exceeding those from tariff liberalization, highlighting logistics reform as a robust trade policy tool. 

Based on “Import Processing and Trade Costs,” by Jerónimo Carballo, Alejandro G. Graziano, Georg Schaur and Christian Volpe Martincus, publsihed in the Journal of International Economics.

Uncertainty about rivals’ costs or how much they want to win can boost effort. However, uncertainty about group size does not have the same impact. People may also put in more effort than standard self-interest models would suggest. 

Information disclosure is a tool. Careful management of what participants know about competitors can increase effort, but it can also lead to unnecessary over-investment. Managers should match the contest design with the value of extra effort.  

Based on “Who Are We Up Against? Heterogeneous Group Contests with Incomplete Information,” by Vasudha Chopra, Hieu M. Nguyen and Christian A. Vossler, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 

Mexico’s national education reform lowered teen birth rates by 2.8 percent in high-exposure municipalities. The decline stems from heightened aspirations and perceived opportunity. 

Educational expansion is an effective social policy that improves both economic and health outcomes for future generations. 

Based on “Improvements in Schooling Opportunities and Teen Births,” by Lucas N. Garcez, María Padilla-Romo, Cecilia Peluffo and Mayra Pineda-Torres, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Memories decay over time unless individuals expend costly effort to preserve them. This means there is a bias toward recent memories, and performance declines as the delay between learning and action increases. 

Organizations should reduce the lag between information exposure and decision-making and design information systems that preserve older, relevant signals to counteract excessive recency bias. 

Based on “Rational Memory With Decay,” by Nathaniel Neligh, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Yes. Extending the school day by 3.5 hours increased divorce rates in municipalities with greater exposure, driven by expanded female labor participation and shifting household dynamics. 

Childcare and education reforms affect family structure. Social policy should anticipate how time allocation influences household decision-making. 

Based on “Parents’ Effective Time Endowment and Divorce: Evidence from Extended School Days,” by María Padilla-Romo, Cecilia Peluffo and Mariana Viollaz, published in the Journal of Public Economics. 

Limit information disclosure such as past winning bids to reduce profitable deviations and protect seller revenue in sequential auction design.

In sequential Dutch and English auctions, a class of “mimic” deviations yields flat expected, implying weak incentives to adhere to equilibrium strictly. This fragility complicates learning and sustaining equilibrium play.  

Based on “Mimic Martingales in Sequential Auctions,” by Matt Van Essen and John Wooders, published in Economic Theory.

Areas with more residents who no longer deducted SALT saw an approximate 3 percent increase in municipal bond yields. This effect was stronger in states where voters must approve taxes or debt. It shows that a lower willingness among voters to support future revenue leads to higher municipal credit risk. 

Investors seek higher yields where voters have more influence. Municipal issuers and analysts should consider voter-approval rules and taxpayer sentiment in their credit-risk assessments. 

Based on “Voter-Induced Municipal Credit Risk,” by Brent W. Ambrose, Matthew P. Gustafson, Maxence Valentin and Zihan Ye, published in Management Science.

Innovators are more likely to leave areas with high opioid epidemic exposure. This is also likely connected to firms moving their research labs away from these places. 

Opioid prevalence creates an economic-development and innovation risk that can lead to issues with retaining high-skill workers and preserving innovation. 

Based on “Spillover Effects of Opioid Abuse on Skilled Human Capital and Innovation Activity,” by Kimberly Cornaggia, John Hund, Kevin Pisciotta and Zihan Ye, published in Management Science.

Investment banks use a high cost of equity, averaging 15 percent, when valuing companies. This rate is higher than what standard financial models suggest. They increase this rate for riskier firms and set it very high in management buyouts. 

The cost of equity in fairness opinions significantly affects valuation outcomes. These discount rates are consistently higher in management buyouts than in other transactions. Since these COE assumptions influence how market participants view the deal, having the freedom to set discount rates is a vital part of the fairness-opinion process, especially in deals that involve potential conflicts of interest.  

Based on “The Cost of Equity: Evidence from Investment Banking Valuations,” by Gregory W. Eaton, Feng Guo, Tingting Liu and Danni Tu, published in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

There is no economically meaningful change in spreads, depth or standard liquidity measures of the cost of trade. 

Large reductions in dark trading activity do not by themselves deliver better spreads, depth or overall liquidity.  

Based on “Dark Trading Volume and Market Quality: A Natural Experiment,” by Ryan Farley, Eric K. Kelley and Andy Puckett, published in the Journal of Corporate Finance.

Mexico’s national education reform lowered teen birth rates by 2.8 percent in high-exposure municipalities. The decline stems from heightened aspirations and perceived opportunity. 

Educational expansion is an effective social policy that improves both economic and health outcomes for future generations. 

Based on “Improvements in Schooling Opportunities and Teen Births,” by Lucas N. Garcez, María Padilla-Romo, Cecilia Peluffo and Mayra Pineda-Torres, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Staggered boards have fallen sharply among big, index firms, but they have become more common among firms outside the major indices. Young firms are increasingly likely to adopt classified boards, while older firms are more likely to dismantle them as they mature, markets become more liquid and governance scrutiny increases. In the 1990s and 2000s, classified boards added value for newly public firms but reduced value for mature firms; by the 2010s, this phenomenon largely disappeared as firms more actively declassified boards when they became more costly. 

Staggered boards are still widely used, but their role has become more life-cycle dependent. Today, young, innovation-intensive firms are more likely to adopt classified boards, while mature firms are increasingly likely to remove them, mainly as trading spreads fall, institutional investors and activists become more influential and governance scrutiny intensifies.  

Based on “Thirty Years of Change: The Evolution of Classified Boards,” by Scott Guernsey, Feng Guo, Tingting Liu and Matthew Serfling, published in the Journal of Finance.

When a state legalizes medical marijuana, firms based there see their implied cost of equity fall by about 4 to 6 percent. This is lower than the average cost of equity of 8 percent. The drop is more significant for firms with strong growth opportunities, higher productivity, more skilled workers and labor-intensive cost structures. This suggests that legalization makes it easier and less risky to hire and keep workers. 

State medical marijuana legalization is linked to a noticeable drop in firms’ equity financing costs. This effect is particularly strong for growth-focused, high-productivity and labor-intensive firms. After legalization, these states experience higher labor-force participation, more jobs and working hours, an influx of people moving in, better health reports, rising home prices, and less stock-return volatility. This shows that medical marijuana policy can influence firms’ cost of equity and risk by easing hiring issues and increasing the local supply of workers.  

Based on “Marijuana Legalization and Firms’ Cost of Equity,” by Scott Sean Guernsey, Matthew Serfling and Chao Yan, published in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

Yes. Counties with more people leaving during COVID faced higher municipal bond yields, which show increased borrowing costs. The effect was stronger in areas that were more affected by the move to remote work and in transportation-backed bonds, where revenue depends more on commuting and travel.    

Leaders should view population changes and remote work exposure as real credit risks, not just background data. Finance leaders should stress-test revenue, keep an eye on return-to-office trends and be ready for investors to account for more uncertainty when out-migration and remote work exposure overlap.  

Based on “A Flash in the Pan(demic)? Migration Risks and Municipal Bonds,” by Matthew Gustafson, Peter Haslag, Daniel Weagley and Zihan Ye, published in Management Science.

Firms in denser regional clusters increased their sales and market share faster than their rivals during the recession and early recovery. They faced less uncertainty during the crisis, invested more in physical capital and intangibles, maintained better employment growth during and after the recession and achieved higher valuations. These benefits are stronger in highly competitive industries and among firms that are better positioned to take advantage of cluster benefits. 

Cluster location is a strategic tool for resilience. In tough times, being part of a dense cluster helps companies adapt, continue investing, keep talent and gain market share as demand and competition change.  

Based on “Regional Clusters and Product Market Outcomes During Turbulent Times,” by Sandy Klasa, Hernán Ortiz-Molina and Matthew Serfling, published in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

The aspiring architect must legitimate the ecosystem as well as themselves as an architect. The effectiveness depends on moving across different audiences and ecosystem aspects over time to produce “ecosystem momentum.” 

Ecosystem builders should plan legitimacy-building as a multi-phase portfolio of actions. 

Based on “Momentum through a Mantra: How a New Architect Legitimizes a Nascent Entrepreneurial Ecosystem,” by Brian J. Bergman and Jeffery S. McMullen, published in the Journal of Business Venturing.

Expanding the term “joiners,” who are non-founder employees of new ventures, could help, including primary joiners, who are in direct contact with the founders and create their own evolving role, and secondary joiners, who join the venture later. 

Entrepreneurial ventures have a different take on human resources, with a greater level of dynamism and social construction than in traditional roles. 

Based on “Seeing Human Resources of Entrepreneurial Firms in New Ways,” by Melissa S. Cardon, Mirjam Knockaert, Frederik Anseel and M. Diane Burton, published in the Journal of Business Venturing.

Calling enactment varies by prototypicality. Highly prototypical workers embody the archetype, while less prototypical workers engage in internal processes to manage tensions and audience expectations. 

When a role has strong behavioral expectations, managers should anticipate that less-prototypical employees may require additional support to perform the role credibly. 

Based on “Who’s Behind the Red Suit? Exploring Role Prototypicality within Calling Enactment among Professional Santas,” by Christina B. Hymer, Bethany S. Cockburn and Borbala Csillag, published in the Academy of Management Journal.

There are different design-relevant tradeoffs to various program types, including the role of external partners and the placement of supports in the pre- versus post-hire phases. 

Neurodiversity hiring is not a single intervention, but may come from a pre-hire pipeline, a post-hire accommodation/retention system or a hybrid. 

Based on “Neurodiversity Right: The Case for Employer Neurodiversity Programs,” by Andrew Millin, Nicole A. Drader-Mazza, Katie L. Badura, Virginie Lopez-Kidwell and Timothy P. Munyon, published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Employees use multiple disengagement and engagement tactics. Disengagement can help manage symptoms and stabilize performance, operating through mechanisms such as suffering reduction, image preservation and distraction. 

Allowing brief, controlled disengagement, such as stepping away, reducing social exposure temporarily and shifting task mix, may help employees sustain performance and remain employed.  

Based on “Navigating Mental Illness at Work Using Disengagement and Engagement Pathways,” by Emily H. Rosado-Solomon, Sherry Thatcher and Samantha D. Strizver, published in the Academy of Management Journal.

In a sample of firms with attacked competitors, positive framing in earnings calls increases after the competitor attack, consistent with a deterrence-oriented AIM response. 

Following an adverse event, leadership communications may shift toward more positive framing, which can reduce perceptions of vulnerability. However, this strategy might not be effective in every situation.  

Based on “Anticipatory Impression Management for Potential Adverse Events: Positive Framing in the Wake of Short Seller Attacks on a Competitor,” by Ruixiang Song, Brian L. Connelly, David J. Ketchen and Wei Shi, published in the Academy of Management Journal.

People may seek control and imagine an entrepreneurial future, depending on their entrepreneurial self-permission or justification to explore venture ideas. 

Entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs) and workforce programs can treat early entrepreneurship as structured experimentation for low-commitment experimentation.  

Based on “Permission to Play: Trying on Entrepreneurship in Times of Crisis,” by M. Toubiana, Brian Bergman, A S. Shantz and S. Bacq, published in the Journal of Business Venturing. 

Compensatory roles, including more traditional positions as regular employees, can offset negative expectations tied to a discrediting role like an entrepreneurial position. 

Recognizing compensatory roles may help employees offset negative stereotypes in job transitions, especially when role expectations are clear and nonconformity risk is low.  

Based on “Role Rectification: How Hybrid Entrepreneurship Turns Entrepreneur Roles from Liability to Advantage in Hiring,” by Gavin Williamson, Timothy P. Munyon, Ali Mchiri and Malgorzata W. Kozusznik, published in the Academy of Management Journal.

Products designed for repairability, sustainability and health outcomes align social and financial benefits, build brand trust, boost loyalty and enhance long-term firm value. 

When firms embed ethics, sustainability and human well-being directly into innovation strategy, social impact and financial performance reinforce each other, turning responsible design into a competitive advantage rather than a cost.  

Based on “Better Innovation for a Better World,” by Darren W. Dahl, Charles H. Noble, Martin Schreier and Olivier Toubia,  published in the Journal of Marketing.

Double discounts often increase the likelihood of purchases compared to single discounts, even when the total price after a double discount shows a smaller overall discount, and even at lower discount levels. The main factor is surprise. Since double discounts are uncommon, consumers feel more surprised when they notice a second reduction, and this surprise influences their preferences. Both consumers who miscalculate the discount and those who get it right usually prefer double discounts. Individuals with higher emotional intelligence respond especially well to double discounts. These discounts can even encourage them to consider buying extra, non-promoted products during the same shopping trip. 

Double discounts work partly through a surprise factor and perform well even when the stated discount is smaller and at lower levels, especially among customers with higher emotional intelligence.  

Based on “Surprise, Surprise: The Dual Impact of Double Discounting on Consumer Preferences,” by David M. Hardesty, Jonathan Hasford, Adam Farmer and Blair Kidwell, published in the Journal of Retailing.

Compliance rises when robot-delivered advice is framed as originating from a human source, raising perceived accountability. When robots embed simple social cues that signal care for the user’s well-being, the accountability and compliance gap between “robot-only” and human-backed robot advice shrinks. 

Creators should design robot interfaces to mimic human social presence and accountability, such as through empathetic cues, to improve compliance in healthcare and service settings.  

Based on “Increasing Accountability and Compliance with Robot Advice,” by Jana Holthöwer, Jenny van Doorn and Stephanie M. Noble,  published in the Journal of Marketing.

Ads that evoke awe usually decrease purchase intentions for LE products. Awe creates a feeling of unity. This leads consumers to prefer products and brands that show a sense of connection. Since LE products are seen as exclusive and limited, they don’t match this feeling, which causes a drop in preference. However, when marketing messages focus less on exclusivity and more on features like high quality, or when awe is combined with messages about collective impact, the negative effect of awe on LE products can be reduced or even reversed. 

When marketers use awe-filled messages with LE products, consumers may be less likely to buy them. Campaigns tend to be more effective when awe connects with traits like shared purpose, quality, craftsmanship or charitable efforts that reflect awe’s motive of collective progress.  

Based on “How Awe in Marketing Communications Reduces Consumer Preferences for Limited-Edition Products,” by Aysu Senyuz, Jonathan Hasford and Ze Wang, published in the Journal of Marketing Research.

Subtle misspellings can improve memorability and maintain positive associations, while confusing alterations reduce clarity and trust. 

Marketers can use slight misspellings strategically when they enhance recognizability but should avoid novelty that undermines clarity or trust.  

Based on “The Art of Misspelling: Unraveling the Diverging Effects of Misspelled Brand Names on Consumer Responses,” by Leah W. Smith and Annika Abell, published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Open and user innovation works best when viewed as a system involving multiple actors. It organizes stakeholders using a 3×3 matrix: three roles (creator, contributor, customer) and three actor types (individuals, firms, groups). This setup clarifies who generates ideas, who improves or evaluates them, who gains benefits and how these roles can overlap or change over time. 

Business leaders should treat open innovation like an ecosystem that they design and govern. Leaders should identify the key stakeholders by role and actor type, then create the right opportunities for each role. They must also consider who holds power in the system, how participants move between roles, the organization’s beliefs about what drives value from the program and any new types of stakeholders that may emerge.   

Based on “A Multiple-Stakeholder View of Open and User Innovation: Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda,” by Keith M. Smith, Matthew S. O’Hern, Mason R. Jenkins, Paul W. Fombelle and Charles H. Noble, published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Consumers have different baseline performance expectations for male and female streamers. Poor performance by male streamers and especially strong performance by female streamers both violate these expectations, leading to reduced intentions to engage, such as watching, donating or sharing. Consumers with high emotional intelligence are more sensitive to these violations, which can trigger negative reactions. Messages that challenge stereotypes and brand communications can improve outcomes for brands linked to stereotyped streamers. However, they are less effective at completely changing how people see female streamers. 

Brands, platforms and game companies in livestreaming need to consider gendered performance expectations. High-performing female streamers may still face lower engagement because their success contradicts deep-rooted stereotypes. Stereotype-challenging messaging and brand support can improve brand evaluations and help reduce these biases, even if they do not fully remove the negative attitudes directed at the streamers themselves. 

Based on “The Impact of Gender Expectations on the Evaluation of Video Game Livestreaming Content,” by Roman Welden, Laurel Johnston and Jonathan Hasford, published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing.

Restrictive changes, such as shortening return time frames or adding restocking fees, significantly lower trust and consumer intentions. However, providing clear reasons, like the high cost of processing returns, greatly lessens these negative reactions. 

Managers may notice a short-term drop in trust and demand when they tighten return policies. However, this can be reduced by clearly explaining the reasons for the changes. 

Based on “The Point of No Return? Restrictive Changes to Lenient Return Policies and Consumer Reactions to Them,” by Huseyn Abdulla, Michael Ketzenberg, James D. Abbey and Gregory R. Heim, published in the Journal of Operations Management.

Negative events can increase retention when they are seen as shared problems that both the company and employees want to solve. This often happens with equipment or operational disruptions, where both sides have the same goals. Quick problem-solving in these situations can strengthen relationships. On the other hand, negative events related to pay or time off usually lower retention because the goals are not in sync. 

Managers should not assume every disruption hurts retention. Operational breakdowns should be seen as opportunities to respond quickly, communicate clearly and build trust. Issues with pay and time off should be recognized as higher-risk signs of misalignment, and they should be addressed through lasting policy and HR process improvements. 

Based on “Shared Hardships Strengthen Bonds: Negative Shocks, Embeddedness and Employee Retention,” by Andrew Balthrop and Hyunseok Jung, published in the Journal of Business Logistics.

Supply chain networks change due to both external forces, like shocks and environmental changes, and internal forces, including firm choices, reconfiguration and capability shifts. Networks can evolve in different patterns, including planned redesigns, adaptive changes, hierarchical re-structuring and cascading ripple effects across connected partners. 

Leaders should manage their supply chains as a dynamic network, not just a set of supplier relationships, separating external forces from internal decisions, because the right response tools, governance and metrics differ for each. 

Based on “A Review of Network Evolution: Cross-Disciplinary Views, Frameworks, Methodologies and an Agenda for Future Supply Chain Research,” by Junwoo Cha, Robert Wiedmer, Justin T. Kistler, John-Patrick Paraskevas, and Wendy L. Tate, published in the Journal of Business Logistics.

Partnerships are most effective when the partners are somewhat similar. If partners are too alike, they miss out on new ideas. If they differ too much, working together can become hard. The best crossover results usually come from a moderate level of similarity. 

Managers should look for partners with some shared traits. They should stay away from partners who are almost identical or those who are too different, as this can make collaboration slow and confusing. A moderate level of similarity offers enough common ground to work effectively while still introducing fresh ideas.  

Based on “Partner Similarity and Crossover Product Development: Evidence from the PC Game Market,” by Seongkyoon Jeong, Adegoke Oke, Yi Su Chen and Ednilson Bernardes, published in the Journal of Operations Management.

At first, attacks focused on internal employees using deception. Then, they shifted to external actors by exploiting system weaknesses. These patterns show a “chained vulnerability” as risk spreads among different actors. 

Organizations should keep active defense strategies against cyberattacks that can come from different points in the supply chain, especially after disruptive events. Investment should cover both human defenses like training and detection, as well as supplier and infrastructure security. 

Based on “Strange Dance Partners: Supply Chain Cyberattacks and Chained Vulnerability,” by Seongkyoon Jeong, Zach Rogers and Thomas Y. Choi, published in the Journal of Operations Management.

The policy leads to increased opioid prescribing. This effect is stronger in high-demand situations and competitive markets. 

Policymakers and health-system leaders should understand that incentives linked to patient satisfaction in a competitive market can unintentionally promote risky prescribing. This is especially true when clinician workloads are high and competition is fierce. Reducing clinician workload and easing pressure can help lower excessive opioid prescribing. 

Based on “Prescribers Under Pressure? An Examination of Healthcare Policy, Prescribing Workload and Competition on Opioid Prescribing,” by Justin T. Kistler, Luv Sharma, Christopher W. Craighead and Mark Ferguson, published in the Journal of Operations Management.

Yes, improving fulfillment offerings reduces the sales impact of digital infrastructural disparities, such as a lack of internet access. Free return shipping in particular helps individuals with disabilities. 

Retailers should use omnichannel fulfillment offerings as both an inclusion and growth strategy. Tools that improve accessibility for specific customer segments, such as people with disabilities, and expand digital inclusion can expand access and demand in underserved regions. 

Based on “Bridging the Digital Divide in Online Retailing: The Effect of a Strategic Focus on E-Commerce Fulfillment Offerings,” by John-Patrick Paraskevas, Xiaodan Pan, Isaac Elking and Kevin H. Park, published in Production and Operations Management.

Drivers usually prefer direct task offers, easier task acceptance and more consistent base pay instead of earnings that rely a lot on promotions. Preferences differ by driver segment, based on income needs and multi-aping behavior. 

Creators should shape the driver experience according to genuine driver preferences, not assumptions. They should also create clear “direct offer” processes, make task acceptance straightforward and highlight transparent base pay. 

Based on “Improving Driver Engagement in Delivery and Rideshare Services,” by Lance W. Saunders, Vincent E. Castillo, William J. Rose, Anne E. Dohmen and John E. Bell, published in the Journal of Business Logistics.