Using Research as a Force for Good

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.