August 2016
Policy
How Much Do Brokerage Firms Benefit from Political Connections?
Politicians can’t trade on insider information—but the firms they talk to can.
July 2016
Data Analytics
Podcast: Did That Online Sneaker Ad Entice You to Buy? It’s Hard for Marketers to Tell.
Many measurement techniques are flawed. Kellogg and Facebook researchers share what can be done.
Marketing
Can Neuroscience Make Your Message Stickier?
A cutting edge technique pinpoints how our brains react to fear appeals in marketing.
Entrepreneurship
How to Make Your Startup Tech-Savvy
No matter the industry, it is important for entrepreneurs to be able to talk tech.
Strategy
Why Income Inequality among White Collar Workers Is Growing
Top earners benefit most from “knowledge hierarchies” in organizations.
Finance & Accounting
Chapter 7 vs. Chapter 11: Which Bankruptcy System Is Better?
In certain markets, forcing companies to liquidate could cause offices and factories to sit empty.
Leadership
Podcast: Tips for Managing Conflict at Work
From cross-cultural conflict to annoying coworkers, there are ways to deftly diffuse tension on teams.
Operations
Can Going Big on Eco-friendly Practices Really Pay Off?
The case for doing even more than swapping out lightbulbs.
5 Strategies for Leading a High-Impact Team
Why “teams are not cocktail parties,” and other words of wisdom.
Marketing
Hate Commercial Breaks? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t
There’s a hidden value to ads during TV shows.
Organizations
Video: How We Signal Trust in the Workplace
From innovating Oreos to scaling Everest, communicating trust can build your business.
June 2016
Data Analytics
How Open Data Is Changing Chicago
A Q&A with Chicago’s chief data officer about the power of big data.
Careers
An Illustrated Guide to the Value of an MBA
A professor urges graduates to both celebrate their accomplishments and remember their good fortune.
Entrepreneurship
Three Tips for Designing a Startup’s Marketing Plan
Even in R&D-focused industries, you don’t need to rely on a heavyweight to swoop in and buy your innovation.
Why Do You See the World as More Fair Than I Do?
The amount of racism or classism you perceive likely depends on how much you favor social hierarchies.
Marketing
Does Opening an Outlet Store Hurt Existing Sales?
New research challenges the notion that lower quality product lines dilute your brand.
Organizations
Appointing a Female CEO? Beware of Media Attention
Investors are skittish when new CEOs get lots of press, but only when those leaders are women.
Your Investment Tool Is Failing You
A new tool offers smart investors an improvement over the CAPM.
Innovation
What Happens to Innovation When the Financial Incentives Change?
There are ways to split the pie that encourage innovation.
Entrepreneurship
Can Your Invention Take the Heat?
An infant HIV test offers lessons for entrepreneurs designing for tough conditions.
Entrepreneurship
Podcast: What Does It Take to Bring an Ambitious Product to Market?
Tips for entrepreneurs on when to shift the finish line.
May 2016
Innovation
What It Takes for a Family Business to Innovate
The key is balancing a C-Suite skill set with an “F-Suite” mindset.
Strategy
Video: Are You Making the Wrong First Impression?
When building trust, it is not enough to demonstrate competence.
Strategy
Four Steps to Strategically Grow Your Business
Look beyond the usual suspects to identify your company’s next market.
Marketing
Shh! Don’t Tell the Customers that Their Solar Panels Will Save Them Money
Green marketers should stick to a single message. But which one?
Entrepreneurship
Keeping the Angels at Bay
Startups should be wary of accepting too much money from angel investors.
Politics & Elections
Abandoning the Electoral College Would Remake Campaign Spending
A direct-vote system could have a sizeable impact on the behaviors of voters and candidates.
Is Reading Someone’s Emails Like Entering Their Home?
How conceptions of privacy change over time and how analogies pave the way.
Policy
Can Raising the Capital Gains Tax Rate Ever Attract Investors?
The traditional view that raising rates hurts firms deserves a closer look.
Ready to Make a Risky Decision? Your Words Suggest Otherwise
Mining digital communications for emotions can lead to better decisions.
April 2016
Strategy
Video: To Build Trust with Customers, Show That You Are in It for the Long Haul
A researcher and a trusted CEO share tips to boost loyalty.
Economics
How the Wormhole Decade (2000–2010) Changed the World
Five implications no one can afford to ignore.
Marketing
5 Ways to Authentically Engage Your Customers
To improve your customer engagement strategies, “Ask not how you can sell, but how you can help.”
Policy
How Much Will You Pay Today for a Better Tomorrow?
How we answer that question has the power to shape climate-change policy.
Finance & Accounting
Why Did Car Sales Drop So Dramatically During the Financial Crisis?
Even willing buyers were affected by a credit freeze.
Wear Your Auditor on Your Sleeve
If a top-notch person conducts your audit, it pays to let investors know.
Marketing
A 10:30 Cupcake? Don’t Mind If I Do
Both consumers and marketers can benefit from knowing when self-control is lowest.
Leadership
Why Leaders Should Nurture Their Social–Emotional Intelligence
These four skills can diffuse conflict, particularly within family businesses.
Leadership
Is It Really Lonely at the Top?
The surprising links between feeling powerful and feeling connected.
March 2016
Entrepreneurship
How to Foster Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets
A Q&A with four entrepreneurs about the global startup landscape—and what governments can do to help.
Politics & Elections
Podcast: Does What Candidates Say Matter?
Understanding political rhetoric in this heated presidential race.
Finance & Accounting
Video: How to Play the Lottery Without Losing
Can we fight the poverty trap with new savings accounts that offer raffle tickets instead of interest?
Data Analytics
Is Your Digital-Advertising Campaign Working?
If you are not running a randomized controlled experiment, you probably don’t know.
Strategy
You Sent Us Business Haiku, Here Are Our Favorites
Kellogg Insight readers joined faculty in turning business wisdom into poetry.
Strategy
What Happens When a Company Loses a Patent?
A look at whether compulsory licensing can increase innovation.
How a Family Business Can Capitalize on Its Unique Culture
You need a different playbook when the CEO is your sister.
Innovation
Think You’re Out of Creative Ideas? Think Again.
We downplay the importance of persistence in creative success.
Leadership
5 Tips to Become an Authentic Leader
Sincerity can go a long way when stepping into a new role.
Marketing
How Important Is User-Generated Content?
An episode of censorship in China sheds light on the power of customers talking about brands on social media.
Cultivating Trust Is Critical—and Surprisingly Complex
Don’t rely on intuition for something this important.
February 2016
Economics
Podcast: What Happens When Employees Are Poached?
How poaching benefits companies and industries, and how you can make yourself more poachable.
Employees Are More Likely to Cheat on Their Way out the Door
The temptation to act unethically is plentiful in the gig economy.
Strategy
Let Business Be Your Muse: Turn Your Workplace Wisdom into Haiku
Join Kellogg’s strategy faculty in putting your favorite lessons into verse.
Policy
There Is a Downside to Increased Enrollment in Higher Ed
How opening the floodgates can hurt the classroom experience.
How to Protect Yourself from an Unethical Boss
To ward off immoral requests, take a lesson from vampire lore.
Entrepreneurship
Discovering the Value of the “Corporate” Entrepreneur
How one established company benefited from a dogged intrapreneur.
Marketing
Marketing Goes Off-Script
Behind the scenes with three organizations that are successfully engaging customers.
Policy
Does Democracy Curb Corruption?
A clever study investigates the link between where roads are built and who is in power.
January 2016
Leadership
Podcast: Executives, Put On Your Dancing Shoes
How lessons from the arts can help you become a more effective leader.
Marketing
"Nobody Asked for Uber"
Tim Calkins on profitable growth, strong brands, and delighting your customers.
Leadership
How Today’s Clergy Are Putting Their Faith in Management Training
Like CEOs, faith leaders face challenges running large organizations in a rapidly changing landscape.
Leadership
5 Ways to Motivate Employees
Beyond raises and reviews: Everyday ways to energize your team.
Policy
Can the Private Sector Solve the U.S. Infrastructure Crisis?
Why it may take public-private partnerships to keep our bridges from crumbling.
Operations
Going Green Can Be Good for the Bottom Line
Sustainable operations and greater growth can go hand in hand.
Marketing
How Much Do You Trust a Talking Raisin?
For some audiences, a “spokesthing” is more persuasive than a spokesperson.
Social Impact
How Hateful Rhetoric Can Create a Vicious Cycle of Dehumanization
The way we feel perceived can have dangerous consequences.
December 2015
Leadership
Podcast: Get the Most from Your Newest Team Members
Onboarding advice for organizations big and small.
Social Impact
The Danger of Dehumanizing Others
People who think other groups are less evolved are more likely to support retaliation against them.
Data Analytics
Blinded by Statistical Significance
Putting too much stock in an arbitrary threshold may lead to bad decisions.
Who Else Is Affected by Activist Investors?
Debtholders are bystanders with a lot on the line.
Operations
A Gentle Nudge Can Increase Participation in MOOCs
Reminders to collaborate benefit students in massive open online courses.
Marketing
How We Shop Differently on Our Phones
What’s in your cart? Depends on the device you are using.
Marketing
You Can Taste the Benevolence
If your customers know you donate to charity, will they like your products more?
Social Impact
Design Thinking Isn’t Always the Answer
The most durable solutions for social change come from within communities.
Leadership
How to Master Situational Leadership
A military perspective on building trust up and down the ladder.
Innovation
Does Your Company Need a “MacGyver”?
A scrappy insider might be the best innovator for your business.
November 2015
Careers
A DIY Guide to Career Growth
Eight ways to develop your potential—instead of waiting for your manager to take the lead.
Strategy
To Grow Your Company, Create Products from Services
For service-based businesses, scaling requires a strategy shift.
Marketing
When Retail Prices Cross the Line
Manufacturers should be strategic in enforcing minimum advertised price policies.
Strategy
Scaling Tips for Business Growth
A focus on your company’s unique capabilities can lead to sustainable growth.
Social Impact
Communities Are Partners, Not Beneficiaries
Advice for getting global health projects off the ground.
Finance & Accounting
Do High-Frequency Traders Deserve Their Bad Rap?
Though suspicions abound, HFTs generally help markets function and grow.
Leadership
How to Succeed as a Chief Growth Officer
Five ways leaders can challenge the status quo to encourage growth.
Does Creativity Breed Entitlement?
Companies that put creative employees on a pedestal encourage bad behavior.
Entrepreneurship
Growing a Company from Startup to Sale
A three-part podcast details how Enjoy Life Foods thrives in a market it helped create.
October 2015
Data Analytics
5 Ways to Attract and Retain Data Scientists
How directly contributing to the business can help analytics talent thrive.
Leadership
Podcast: The Power of Persuasive Storytelling
Stories hook your business audience and get them to take action.
Organizations
Poach Our Employees, Please
How hiring an employee from a related company can directly benefit both the poacher and the poached.
Marketing
What Do Customers Pay When Wholesale Prices Change?
Increases and decreases are not passed through the same way.
Entrepreneurship
When to Pass the Hat
Strategic timing can help startups get the most from their fundraising.
I (Don’t) Feel Your Pain
Having been there does not always increase empathy.
Social Impact
When Higher Pay Attracts the Wrong Job Candidates
Labeling jobs as lucrative can backfire for socially minded organizations.
September 2015
What Chinese Consumers Want
Western Companies doing business in China need to ask the right questions.
No Contract? No Problem
How the Kenyan flower industry thrives in the absence of formal contracts.
