Finance & Accounting
What Went Wrong at Silicon Valley Bank?
And how can it be avoided next time? A new analysis sheds light on vulnerabilities within the U.S. banking industry.
Organizations
Companies Now Have Many Tools to Monitor Employee Productivity. When Should They Use Them?
Monitoring employee productivity can make companies more efficient—and can benefit employees, too. But the practice, which makes use of a variety of methods including activity logging, tracking software, surveillance cameras, and the gathering of GPS data, also raises a host of concerns around trust, privacy, and fairness.
Marketing
Marketers, Don’t Be Too Hasty to Act on Data
Don’t like the trends you’re seeing? It’s tempting to take immediate action. Instead, consider a hypothesis-driven approach to solving your problems.
Organizations
For Students with Disabilities, Discrimination Starts Before They Even Enter School
Public-school principals are less welcoming to prospective families with disabled children—particularly when they’re Black.
Operations
At Their Best, Self-Learning Algorithms Can Be a “Win-Win-Win”
Lyft is using ”reinforcement learning” to match customers to drivers—leading to higher profits for the company, more work for drivers, and happier customers.
Organizations
Leaders, Don’t Be Afraid to Admit Your Flaws
We prefer to work for people who can make themselves vulnerable, a new study finds. But there are limits.
Social Impact
A Novel Strategy for Fighting Discrimination on Online Platforms
Profile pictures build trust on peer-to-peer platforms—but they can also breed discrimination. Small changes to profile photos could make a difference.
Careers
Don’t Panic! Tools for Dialing Down Workplace Stress
Beyond taking a personal toll, stress can reduce productivity. Here’s what managers can do.
Marketing
If Your Favorite App Disappeared, How Would You Spend That Time?
Knowing whether users migrate to other apps or simply cut back on screen time is critical for understanding competition in the “attention economy.”
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Organizations
Companies Now Have Many Tools to Monitor Employee Productivity. When Should They Use Them?
Monitoring employee productivity can make companies more efficient—and can benefit employees, too. But the practice, which makes use of a variety of methods including activity logging, tracking software, surveillance cameras, and the gathering of GPS data, also raises a host of concerns around trust, privacy, and fairness.
Marketing
Marketers, Don’t Be Too Hasty to Act on Data
Don’t like the trends you’re seeing? It’s tempting to take immediate action. Instead, consider a hypothesis-driven approach to solving your problems.
Organizations
For Students with Disabilities, Discrimination Starts Before They Even Enter School
Public-school principals are less welcoming to prospective families with disabled children—particularly when they’re Black.
Operations
At Their Best, Self-Learning Algorithms Can Be a “Win-Win-Win”
Lyft is using ”reinforcement learning” to match customers to drivers—leading to higher profits for the company, more work for drivers, and happier customers.
Organizations
Leaders, Don’t Be Afraid to Admit Your Flaws
We prefer to work for people who can make themselves vulnerable, a new study finds. But there are limits.
Social Impact
A Novel Strategy for Fighting Discrimination on Online Platforms
Profile pictures build trust on peer-to-peer platforms—but they can also breed discrimination. Small changes to profile photos could make a difference.
Careers
Don’t Panic! Tools for Dialing Down Workplace Stress
Beyond taking a personal toll, stress can reduce productivity. Here’s what managers can do.
Marketing
If Your Favorite App Disappeared, How Would You Spend That Time?
Knowing whether users migrate to other apps or simply cut back on screen time is critical for understanding competition in the “attention economy.”
Healthcare
Consumers Lose Out When Health Insurers Offer Lots of Plans
While extra choices are usually considered a good thing, insurers are able to use them strategically to maximize profits.
Marketing
Got a Niche Product to Sell? Augmented Reality Might Help.
Letting customers “try out” products virtually can give customers the confidence to take the plunge.
Healthcare
Will AI Eventually Replace Doctors?
Maybe not entirely. But the doctor–patient relationship is likely to change dramatically.
Marketing
Take 5: How Fear Influences Our Decisions
Our anxieties about the future can have surprising implications for our health, our family lives, and our careers.
Finance & Accounting
Understanding the Pandemic’s Lasting Impact on Real Estate
Work-from-home has stuck around. What does this mean for residential and commercial real-estate markets?
Finance & Accounting
What Is the Purpose of a Corporation Today?
Has anything changed in the three years since the Business Roundtable declared firms should prioritize more than shareholders?
Careers
3 Tips for Reinventing Your Career After a Layoff
It’s crucial to reassess what you want to be doing instead of jumping at the first opportunity.
Organizations
College Campuses Are Becoming More Diverse. But How Much Do Students from Different Backgrounds Actually Interact?
Increasing diversity has been a key goal, “but far less attention is paid to what happens after we get people in the door.”
Marketing
How Much Do Boycotts Affect a Company’s Bottom Line?
There’s often an opposing camp pushing for a “buycott” to support the company. New research shows which group has more sway.
Who Does a Better Job with ESG ratings, Global or Local Research Firms?
Sometimes, global raters miss important nuances about a firm’s environmental, social, and governmental activities.
Politics & Elections
Partisanship Doesn’t Just Color Our View of Facts—It Alters How We Think about Hypotheticals
New research sheds light on how polarization can shape our counterfactual thinking.
Policy
In a World of Widespread Video Sharing, What’s Real and What’s Not?
A discussion with a video-authentication expert on what it takes to unearth “deepfakes.”
Policy
Take 5: What We’ve Learned about Tackling Public-Health Crises
Covid-era research sheds light on how policymakers can guide the economy and the public through future emergencies.
Latest Podcast Episodes
Finance & Accounting
Podcast: “It’s Hard to Regulate U.S. Banks!”
Silicon Valley Bank spectacularly collapsed—and a new analysis suggests that its precarious situation is not as much of an outlier as we’d hope. On this episode of The Insightful Leader, we learn what went wrong and what should happen next.
Leadership
Podcast: Workers Are Stressed Out. Here’s How Leaders Can Help.
On this episode of The Insightful Leader: You can’t always control what happens at work. But reframing setbacks, and instituting some serious calendar discipline, can go a long way toward reducing stress.
Economics
Podcast: How Last Fall’s Climate Bill Is Creating Opportunities for Businesses
With major incentives starting to kick in, here’s how the legislation is poised to affect the economy.
Leadership
Podcast: How Letting Teams Fail Can Help Them Succeed
It can be tempting for leaders to swoop in to solve problems. On this episode of The Insightful Leader, we hear from a U.S. Army colonel about why doing so is a disservice.
Finance & Accounting
5 Takeaways on the State of ESG Investing
ESG investing is hot. But what does it actually deliver for society and for shareholders?
Economics
What Happens to Worker Productivity after a Minimum Wage Increase?
A pay raise boosts productivity for some—but the impact on the bottom line is more complicated.
Politics & Elections
4 Science-Backed Strategies to Curb Partisan Animosity
Vilification of the other side is at a fever pitch. But research suggests ways to bridge the gap.
Marketing
How Offering a Product for Free Can Backfire
It seems counterintuitive, but there are times customers would rather pay a small amount than get something for free.
Economics
How COVID Changed the Way Americans Think about Economic Inequality
For some, the pandemic laid bare the social factors that can keep people down. But not everyone adopted a new perspective.
Leadership
Your Team Doesn’t Need You to Be the Hero
Too many leaders instinctively try to fix a crisis themselves. A U.S. Army colonel explains how to curb this tendency in yourself and allow your teams to flourish.
Strategy
Transparency Requirements May Not Curb Sneaky Behavior
A new study finds that it is possible to maintain plausible deniability, even if your conversations are later made public.
Operations
Product Q&A Forums Hold a Lot of Promise. Here’s How to Make Them Work.
The key to these online communities, where users can ask and answer questions, is how many questions get useful answers.
Finance & Accounting
Investors Are Eager for Accurate ESG Information. Can Financial Analysts Provide It?
Analysts aren’t traditionally steeped in ESG, but they do have deep knowledge of the companies they cover.
Economics
How Experts Make Complex Decisions
By studying 200 million chess moves, researchers shed light on what gives players an advantage—and what trips them up.
Editor’s Picks
Politics & Elections
Why Are So Many Politicians Embracing Conspiracy Theories?
Conspiratorial thinking has always been attractive in times of uncertainty—but it’s become more mainstream. An expert explains why, and whether anything can be done.
Leadership
Leadership Lessons from Liz Truss’s Downfall
While her economic policy clearly doomed her, she also failed as a leader.
Marketing
Starbucks’s Odyssey into NFTs Desperately Needs Guidance
Starbucks is entering the metaverse. Is this the best way to do it?
Policy
What the New Climate Bill Means for the U.S.—and the World
The Inflation Reduction Act won’t reverse inflation or halt climate change, but it’s still a big deal.
Organizations
To Get Employees Back to the Office, Address These 4 Frictions
An innovation expert explains how to meet resistance head-on.
Organizations
How Comments Like “Man Up” Can Lead to Misbehavior at Work
While the problem extends beyond the workplace, organizations would be wise to consider the consequences of using emasculating language.
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Politics & Elections
How We Justify Our Unpopular Opinions
The tactic makes controversial views more palatable to others—and has implications for the rampant spread of fake news.
Politics & Elections
When Do People Protest and When Do They Just Grumble? History Offers Clues.
A tradition of anti-government uprisings can impact communities centuries later.
Policy
Why Did So Many Ukrainians Die in the Soviet Great Famine?
They perished at a much higher rate than ethnic Russians during what’s known as Holodomor. A new study suggests this was a deliberate policy decision.
Policy
Who Should Win the Tug-of-War over User Data?
It’s not always clear whether businesses or consumers should have more control. Research offers a new way of thinking through the problem.
Add Insight
to your inbox.
We’ll send you one email a week with content you actually want to read, curated by the Insight team.
Organizations
Why More Family Enterprises Are “Venturing Out”
A look at the pivot toward venture investing—and what it takes to pull it off.
Politics & Elections
China’s Future Will Reflect Russia’s
China learned from Russia’s post-1991 experience and pursued its economic liberalization with more care. But it ultimately could not avoid the political implications of pro-market policies and is now following Russia down the road to autocracy—continuing a century-long pattern of mirroring its neighbor’s historical trajectory.
Organizations
Gender-Balanced Teams Do Better Work
When it comes to teams of scientists, “men and women are both part of the recipe for success,” according to new research.
Politics & Elections
One Nation, Too Divided?
Political sectarianism is rampant in the U.S. Three experts discuss whether we can remain united.
Policy
The Thorny Challenge of Measuring Success in “Systems-of-Care” Networks
These networks, which help direct people to the medical and social services they need, must tread carefully in choosing which metrics to use in decision-making.
Finance & Accounting
What Happens to Innovation During an Economic Crisis?
The Great Depression hastened the end of the independent inventor—but not all was lost.
Finance & Accounting
Unilever Should Divest Ben & Jerry’s
An economist offers his perspective on why the food giant has some big decisions to make in the wake of a court ruling against its ice cream subsidiary.
Healthcare
How Humanizing Disease Could Be a New Public Health Tool
Anthropomorphizing a disease changes how we feel about it—and the steps we take to avoid it.
Leadership
Podcast: How Letting Teams Fail Can Help Them Succeed
It can be tempting for leaders to swoop in to solve problems. On this episode of The Insightful Leader, we hear from a U.S. Army colonel about why doing so is a disservice.
Economics
6 Takeaways on Inflation and the Economy Right Now
Are we headed into a recession? Kellogg’s Sergio Rebelo breaks down the latest trends.
Policy
Take 5: What We’ve Learned about Tackling Public-Health Crises
Covid-era research sheds light on how policymakers can guide the economy and the public through future emergencies.
Finance & Accounting
What Is the Purpose of a Corporation Today?
Has anything changed in the three years since the Business Roundtable declared firms should prioritize more than shareholders?
Careers
Podcast: What to Expect When Joining a Family-Owned Business
There are cons—but a lot of pros, too. On this episode of The Insightful Leader, we’ll explore what it’s like to work at a family business when you’re not a family member.
Careers
3 Tips for Reinventing Your Career After a Layoff
It’s crucial to reassess what you want to be doing instead of jumping at the first opportunity.
Careers
Podcast: Does Your Life Reflect What You Value?
On this episode of The Insightful Leader, a former CEO explains how to organize your life around what really matters—instead of trying to do it all.
Organizations
College Campuses Are Becoming More Diverse. But How Much Do Students from Different Backgrounds Actually Interact?
Increasing diversity has been a key goal, “but far less attention is paid to what happens after we get people in the door.”
Marketing
How Much Do Boycotts Affect a Company’s Bottom Line?
There’s often an opposing camp pushing for a “buycott” to support the company. New research shows which group has more sway.
Who Does a Better Job with ESG ratings, Global or Local Research Firms?
Sometimes, global raters miss important nuances about a firm’s environmental, social, and governmental activities.
Politics & Elections
Partisanship Doesn’t Just Color Our View of Facts—It Alters How We Think about Hypotheticals
New research sheds light on how polarization can shape our counterfactual thinking.
Economics
Podcast: China’s Economy Is in Flux. Here’s What American Businesses Need to Know.
On this episode of The Insightful Leader: the end of “Zero Covid,” escalating geopolitical tensions, and China’s potentially irreplaceable role in the global supply chain.
Economics
What Do American Businesses Need to Understand about China Right Now?
As China’s zero-Covid policy ends, it’s time to take stock of where the world’s second largest economy may be headed.
Policy
In a World of Widespread Video Sharing, What’s Real and What’s Not?
A discussion with a video-authentication expert on what it takes to unearth “deepfakes.”
Finance & Accounting
5 Takeaways on the State of ESG Investing
ESG investing is hot. But what does it actually deliver for society and for shareholders?
Leadership
Twitter Is “Running A Musk”
Elon Musk has built several visionary businesses. But after a month with Musk in command, Twitter is in trouble with users, advertisers, and the government.
Leadership
Podcast: How to Engage a Disengaged Employee
On this episode of The Insightful Leader, we hear how leaders can work with their “quiet-quitters” and rebuild morale.
Economics
What Happens to Worker Productivity after a Minimum Wage Increase?
A pay raise boosts productivity for some—but the impact on the bottom line is more complicated.
Politics & Elections
4 Science-Backed Strategies to Curb Partisan Animosity
Vilification of the other side is at a fever pitch. But research suggests ways to bridge the gap.