Book publishers cried foul – in the form of numerous legal challenges – nearly two decades ago when the Google Books project digitized and freely distributed more than 25 million works. The publishers argued that free digital distribution undermines the market for physical books, but new research from Cornell University’s Imke Reimers and a collaborator reveals that...
Commerce
Having a Bad Boss Makes You a Worse Employee
Research underscores the hidden cost of abusive leadership, revealing that employees who prioritize career advancement suffer more than employees who prioritize job security If your boss stomps and yells, criticizes you, and then proceeds to take the credit for your work – even it is an isolated incident – it can take a profound toll...
Rage Against the Machine?
Knowing How Technology and Artificial Intelligence Have—and Have Not—Affected Jobs in Recent Decades Offers Insight into How They Could Affect the Future of Work No matter how helpful it is, technology has always generated some worker anxiety. Tailors rioted against quick-stitching sewing machines in their day, and, centuries later, the invention of mechanical switching likely bred a...
Is Less More? Or Is Less Sometimes Less? Examining the Consumer Trend Toward Minimalist Packaging in Consumable Products
Researchers from Texas Christian University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and University of Georgia published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines the consumer trend towards minimalist packaging in consumable products. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Symbolically Simple: How Simple Packaging Design Influences Willingness to Pay for Consumable Products” and is authored by Lan Anh N. Ton, Rosanna...
False Pride: When Praise from Managers Makes Employees Arrogant and a Problem for Their Colleagues
In three online surveys conducted with several hundred participants, the experts looked into how interactions between managers and staff affected employees’ behavior towards one another. “As our findings show, employees who receive better treatment from their supervisor often display arrogant behavior towards their colleagues,” summarizes Dr. Benjamin Korman, who now conducts research at the University...
How to Cope When Your Values Clash with Your Co-Workers’
In our increasingly polarized society, more people may find themselves in a workplace where they are one of the few conservatives or few liberals around. A new study found that those whose values – political or otherwise – don’t match the majority in their organization felt they received less respect and as a result were...
A Ugandan Business Turns Banana Fiber into Sustainable Handicrafts
A decapitated banana plant is almost useless, an inconvenience to the farmer who must then uproot it and lay its dismembered parts as mulch. But can such stems somehow be returned to life? Yes, according to a Ugandan company that’s buying banana stems in a business that turns fiber into attractive handicrafts. The idea is...
Your Zoom Background Might Influence the First Impression You Make
In a new study, participants tended to judge faces appearing against backgrounds featuring houseplants or bookcases as more trustworthy and competent than faces with a living space or a novelty image behind them. Gender and facial expression also appeared to influence judgments. Research led by Paddy Ross, Abi Cook and Meg Thompson at Durham University,...
The Alexander McQueen Fashion House and Sarah Burton Announce the End of Their Collaboration
The Alexander McQueen fashion House and Creative Director Sarah Burton today announce the end of their collaboration after two decades together. The Spring-Summer ’24 fashion show in Paris in September will mark the conclusion of a highly successful partnership that began when Sarah Burton became Creative Director of the fashion House in May 2010, having...
Employee Surveys May Miss Out on Uncovering Toxic Leadership Practices
Standardized and overly simplistic questionnaires are only scratching the surface of what employees think of their leaders, according to new research from Binghamton University’s School of Management (SOM), and negative behavior may be slipping through the cracks. As a result, the research finds, organizations may be missing out on critical information that could be keeping toxic...