What happens when online investment trading platforms start to resemble games that keep people playing for hours, with badges and exploding confetti to reward investors for their engagement? For those who know what they’re doing, it won’t make much of a difference. New research from the University of Toronto engaging nearly 1,000 volunteers in artificial...
Commerce
The Diminishing Impact of Casino Free-Play Promotions
UNLV casino management researcher Anthony Lucas looks at the apparent diminishing returns between free-play offers and patron behavior. Free-play campaigns – or gambling money on the house – have gotten big. They are the dominant play incentive in the gaming industry, where the most money is spent to get players in the door and keep...
New Study Explores How Local Firms Should Adopt Market and Nonmarket Strategies in the Face of Foreign Direct Investment
Studies have shown how inward foreign direct investment (FDI) increases the productivity or innovation of local firms in emerging markets, but little research has explored how local firms have to strategically cope with this competition. Upon exploring these connections, a new article in the Global Strategy Journal recommends that local firms adopt a balanced approach to contend with these...
Luxury Sales Are Flattening Amid a Self-Inflicted Creativity Crisis and Price Hikes
The post-pandemic surge in global sales of luxury handbags, shoes and apparel is set to stall this year amid a creativity crisis and price hikes as brands shift focus to the biggest spending customers, a new study by the Bain consultancy said Tuesday. Bain is forecasting flat worldwide luxury sales in 2024 following a slight...
Hybrid Work Is a “Win-Win-Win” for Companies, Workers
It is one of the most hotly debated topics in today’s workplace: Is allowing employees to log in from home a few days a week good for their productivity, careers, and job satisfaction? Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford economist and one of the foremost researchers on work-from-home policies, has uncovered compelling evidence that hybrid schedules are...
Benefits of Failure Are Overrated
The platitude that failure leads to success may be both inaccurate and damaging to society, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. Researchers conducted 11 experiments with more than 1,800 participants across many domains and compared national statistics to the participants’ responses. In one experiment, participants vastly overestimated the percentage of prospective nurses,...
How Much Do You Need to Know About How Your Spouse Spends Money? Maybe Less Than You Think
Love is in the air, and wedding season is upon us. Like many elder millennials, I grew up watching sitcoms in the 1980s and ‘90s. Whenever those series needed a ratings boost, they would feature a wedding. Those special episodes taught me that weddings usually involve young lovebirds: think Elvin and Sondra from “The Cosby...
American Slavery Wasn’t Just a White Man’s Business − New Research Shows How White Women Profited, Too
As the United States continues to confront the realities and legacy of slavery, Americans continue to challenge myths about the country’s history. One enduring myth is that slavery was a largely male endeavor — that, for the most part, the buying, selling, trading and profiting from enslavement were carried out by white men alone. While...
Basic Income Can Double Global GDP While Reducing Carbon Emissions
Giving a regular cash payment to the entire world population has the potential to increase global gross domestic product (GDP) by 130%, according to a new analysis published June 7 in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability. Researchers suggest that charging carbon emitters with an emission tax could help fund such basic income program while reducing environmental...
How Midwestern States Are Courting Taiwanese Investment
Despite Illinois’s trade ties with Taiwan, other Midwest states have taken steps that Illinois hasn’t to deepen their government’s relationship with Taipei. The Midwest lies thousands of miles from the Taiwan Strait, but it’s still buffeted by turbulent cross-strait relations. Illinois and its neighbors have always had to weigh the concerns of both Taiwan and...