The Fisher Leadership Initiative (FLI) has launched Lead Read Today, a new platform dedicated to advancing the study and practice of principled leadership.

Do you still think about prior commitments you’ve had at work? Academic Minute speaks with Ohio State University's Howard Klein, who discusses the need for businesses to help employees feel good about moving on.

Consider the proportion of publicly-traded corporations’ total income that comes from the top 100 firms. This percentage was 48.5 in 1975, according to research conducted by finance professors Kathleen Kahle and René Stulz, and only slightly higher in 1995 at 52.8 percent. Since then it has mushroomed, and by 2015 it stood at an astounding 84.2 percent.

“There is a lot of experimenting going on as everyone tries to figure out that last-mile delivery — it’s a tough economic equation to make work,” said Mike Knemeyer, a professor of logistics at Fisher. “But if you can, you’ll have a big head start on the others, and you’ll end up making money not just in groceries but on all of the things that you sell.”

A number of merchants use third-party vendors. It’s just another way to sell products online. Fisher's Deborah Mitchell said it’s part of the changing shopper landscape.

“One thing we’ve learned from social-psychological research in the last 10 or 15 years is that when we make decisions about people — when we evaluate others — we have biases that carry a lot of history that we don’t consciously process or recognize,” according to Fisher's Timothy A.

In industries as diverse as manufacturing and health care, managers are keenly aware of the need to manage their operations through standard routines and IT solutions. However, how these firms use routines and technologies is important, according to a new study published by researchers from The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business and the Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business.

Recognizing the outstanding achievement, leadership and service from its undergraduate students, faculty, staff and alumni, Fisher College of Business recently honored the recipients of the 2018 Pace Setters Awards.

Fisher's Deborah Mitchell shares insights into branding considerations companies face when they take political stances.

Roy Lewicki, professor emeritus of management and human resources at Fisher College of Business, started focusing on apologies in the wake of JetBlue's detailed explanation of a major equipment shutdown in New York, Tiger Woods's mea culpa for extramarital affairs, and British Petroleum's attempt to atone after the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Every quarter, the National Center for the Middle Market surveys 1,000 executives. One thing we ask is whether their company’s overall performance has improved, deteriorated or stayed the same in the past year.

Unlike private foundations, which generally must distribute at least 5 percent of their investments each year to operating charities, there is no grant-making requirement for donor-advised funds. Critics call them rest stops for charity dollars. Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at Ohio State University, said it’s “crazy” that large sponsors of donor-advised funds “are not subject to the same disclosure requirements that private foundations are.”

An outsized commitment to investing in innovation is a major distinguishing characteristic of “growth champions” of the mid-market—those 10 percent of companies identified by the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM) as the biggest gainers over time.

In a recent paper, economists Söhnke Bartram, Gregory Brown and Fisher's René M. Stulz show that the increasing domination of public markets by large old companies — the superstars that economists are warning about — is responsible for the increasing correlations between stocks.

A group called the Risk Institute at Ohio State University is looking at what can be done to change habits and behaviors about cellphones and driving.

Decades’ worth of studies have shown that similarity attracts—a phenomenon known as homophily. Our research focuses on a specific aspect of this: That being one’s true self, disclosing elements of one’s personal life, and forming social connections are easier within one’s own group than they are across a demographic boundary such as racial background.

No one likes an egomaniac, but sometimes a little arrogance may be just what the C-suite needs. “To team members who expect leaders ... to take charge and give orders, humble leaders may be met with doubt,” says Fisher's Jasmine Hu.

The belief in the health power of expensive foods — or that healthy foods need to cost more — is misguided, according to Rebecca Reczek, a food psychologist and marketing researcher at Ohio State University.

Highlighting the exciting work that is being conducted around principled leadership at Fisher, the college recently met with alumni and friends in Naples, Florida, as part of its annual Winter College event.

There has been recent debate within manufacturing operations about whether firms should keep their enterprise resource planning (ERP) IT systems or ditch them in favor of stand-alone enterprise applications (SEAs) in order to minimize operational glitches. 

“The stock market is what economists call a leading indicator of the business cycle, the real economy, while the labor market is a lagging indicator,” said Fisher's Lu Zhang, who has studied correlations between stock prices and the labor market.

Drawing on research from his recently published book, Fisher’s Oded Shenkar shared his insights to a university-wide audience as part of The Ohio State University Institute for Chinese Studies’ “Re-Imagining China’s Past and Present” lecture series.