MIT Sloan School Research Articles

The Power of Humble Inquiry in Delirium Care: Enhancing Communication and Collaboration for Improved Patient Outcomes

In the ever-evolving field of geriatric medicine, delirium presents enduring challenges. A promising approach to enhance care for such patients lies in the art of “Humble Inquiry”—the practice of asking genuine, curiosity-driven questions. This paper explores how this unique communication strategy, inspired by MIT Sloan School’s Edgar Schein, can be employed to revolutionize the management of delirium in older patients. Humble Inquiry opens doors to better understanding the distinctive experiences of patients and their families, fostering trust, collaboration, and allowing for tailored interventions. By providing insights into patients’ cognitive, emotional, and social needs, it promotes personalized, compassionate care. It also reduces the emotional burden on families, empowering them to be more involved in patient care. Moreover, Humble Inquiry enhances communication within healthcare teams, breaking down hierarchical barriers and promoting mutual respect and continuous learning. This is critical in delirium management, where effective teamwork ensures timely diagnosis, appropriate interventions, and seamless transitions of care. Despite its promise, the adoption of Humble Inquiry is not without challenges. Time constraints, heavy workloads, and adherence to established protocols may hinder its implementation. However, with support from healthcare organizations, professional societies, and policymakers, it can be actualized to prioritize patient-centered care. In essence, Humble Inquiry has the potential to transform delirium care by fostering a culture of curiosity, empathy, and shared understanding. The effectiveness of this approach needs rigorous evaluation, setting the stage for its broader adoption in geriatric medicine. Join us as we unveil the power of humility and inquiry in revolutionizing delirium care for older adults.

Driving growth, productivity and engagement through “good jobs strategy”

PurposeAn interview with Zeynep Ton, a professor of practice in the operations management group at MIT Sloan School of Management, about er latest book, The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay & Meaning to Everyone’s Work.Design/methodology/approachShe believes that leaders can either view their employees as a cost to be minimized, invest little in them and operate with high turnover, or they can see them as drivers of profitability and growth—investing heavily in them, designing their work for high productivity and contribution and therefore operating with low turnover.-- “the good jobs strategy.”FindingsThe secret sauce of good jobs strategy is four operational choices—focus and simplify, standardize and empower, cross-train and operate with slack—that improve productivity and contribution and make that higher investment possible.Practical implicationsThe competitive costs of low people investment are even higher than the poor operational execution costs.Originality/valueBy making the work better and increasing pay, companies can better attract and keep their talent and enforce high standards, which improve execution and service, uplifting revenue. Few have examined this important topic more closely than Zeynep Ton, a professor of practice in the operations management group at MIT Sloan School of Management, best-selling author of The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits.

Setting Gendered Expectations? Recruiter Outreach Bias in Online Tech Training Programs

Competence development in digital technologies, analytics, and artificial intelligence is increasingly important to all types of organizations and their workforce. Universities and corporations are investing heavily in developing training programs, at all tenure levels, to meet the new skills needs. However, there is a risk that the new set of lucrative opportunities for employees in these tech-heavy fields will be biased against diverse demographic groups like women. Although much research has examined the experiences of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and occupations, less understood is the extent to which gender stereotypes influence recruiters’ perceptions and evaluations of individuals who are deciding whether to apply to STEM training programs. These behaviors are typically unobserved because they occur prior to the application interface. We address this question by investigating recruiters’ initial outreach decisions to more than 166,000 prospective students who have expressed interest in applying to a midcareer level online tech training program in business analytics. Using data on the recruiters’ communications, our results indicate that recruiters are less likely to initiate contact with female than male prospects and search for additional signals of quality from female prospects before contacting them. We also find evidence that recruiters are more likely to base initial outreach activities on prospect gender when they have higher workloads and limited attention. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this research for our understanding of how screening and selection decisions prior to the application interface may undermine organizational efforts to achieve gender equality and diversity as well as the potential for demand-side interventions to mitigate these gender disparities. Funding: We gratefully acknowledge Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management for generously funding this work. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.16499 .

Setting Gendered Expectations? Recruiter Outreach Bias in Online Tech Training Programs

Competence development in digital technologies, analytics, and artificial intelligence is increasingly important to all types of organizations and their workforce. Universities and corporations are investing heavily in developing training programs, at all tenure levels, to meet the new skills needs. However, there is a risk that the new set of lucrative opportunities for employees in these tech-heavy fields will be biased against diverse demographic groups like women. Although much research has examined the experiences of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and occupations, less understood is the extent to which gender stereotypes influence recruiters’ perceptions and evaluations of individuals who are deciding whether to apply to STEM training programs. These behaviors are typically unobserved because they occur prior to the application interface. We address this question by investigating recruiters’ initial outreach decisions to more than 166,000 prospective students who have expressed interest in applying to a midcareer level online tech training program in business analytics. Using data on the recruiters’ communications, our results indicate that recruiters are less likely to initiate contact with female than male prospects and search for additional signals of quality from female prospects before contacting them. We also find evidence that recruiters are more likely to base initial outreach activities on prospect gender when they have higher workloads and limited attention. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this research for our understanding of how screening and selection decisions prior to the application interface may undermine organizational efforts to achieve gender equality and diversity as well as the potential for demand-side interventions to mitigate these gender disparities. Funding: We gratefully acknowledge Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management for generously funding this work. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.22.16499 .

Edgar H. Schein: Reflections on his Life and Career

My relationship with Ed Schein began with informal encounters during the summers of the late 1960s in Bethel, Maine, where the National Training Laboratories (NTL) held its programs. Our initial work together was co-training at NTL's Management Work Conference where I learned from a consummate professional in the sensitivity training world. Ed's contributions to the T Group movement were prolific, a significant example being the Addison Wesley Series of books on organization development. He defined the field of organizational psychology, provided the definitive work on organizational culture, and was the master of process consultation. A mild-mannered professor at MIT's Sloan School for his entire career, Ed was a copious writer, dedicated teacher, and skillful consultant.

The Effect of Managers on Systematic Risk

Tracking the movement of top managers across firms, we document the importance of manager-specific fixed effects in explaining heterogeneity in firm exposures to systematic risk. In equilibrium, manager fixed effects on systematic risk are positively related with manager fixed effects on stock returns. These differences in systematic risk are partially explained by managers’ corporate strategies, such as their preferences for internal growth and financial conservatism. The early career experiences of managers starting their first job in a recession also contribute to differential loadings on systematic risk. These effects are more pronounced when managers wield more influence, as in smaller firms and firms that do not have an independent board. Overall, our results suggest that managers play an important role in shaping a firm’s systematic risk. This paper was accepted by Victoria Ivashina, finance. Funding: A. Schoar acknowledges financial support from the MIT Sloan School of Management. K. Yeung acknowledges financial support from City University of Hong Kong and the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. L. Zuo acknowledges financial support from the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and the University of Toronto Roger Martin Award for Emerging Leaders. Supplemental Material: Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4710 .

A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Output from Indian Institutes of Management

Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are among the most prestigious business schools in India, mainly offering postgraduate, doctoral and executive education programmes in the fields of Management and Business Education. They also contribute significantly to research in the area. This article attempts to analyse the bibliometric patterns in research output of IIMs. The data for research publications indexed in Scopus during 2010-19 is downloaded and analysed to identify important patterns and trends of research output, citations, international collaboration, open access, gender distribution and social media visibility. The results are also compared with three top internationally renowned business schools (Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management and NUS Business School). Results indicate that the older IIMs like Ahmedabad and Bangalore are placed at the top in terms of publication counts and citations. Newer IIMs like Rohtak and Raipur are found to be doing well in publications as compared to other IIMs of their generation. IIM Udaipur has more than 40 % of its research output internationally collaborated and also highest citations per paper value amongst all the IIMs. However, when the IIMs are compared with three well-known international schools (two of which have mentored the initial two IIMs), there appears a large gap in several indicators, such as h-index. The paper, thus, indicates that IIMs need to improve their research output and quality to be at par with the top business schools of the world. Research themes like ‘sustainability’, ‘emerging markets’ and ‘supply chain management’ are the most prominent thematic areas observed in the research output from IIMs, which indicates that IIMs are working on research topics of contemporary relevance.

Blockchain analysis of the Bitcoin market. (Part 3)

The detailed analysis of the Bitcoin network and its main participants. The expert authors (Igor Makarov, London School of Economics, Antoinette Schoar, MIT Sloan School of Management) completed the study authorized by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the US-based private agency. The Bitcoin network is defined as a new database comprising many of public and proprietary sources to link bitcoin address to real object, and an extensive set of algorithms to extract information on market key players behavior. Three major pieces of analysis of the Bitcoin eco-system were conducted. First, the authors analyze the transaction volume and network structure of the main participants on the blockchain. Second, they document the concentration and regional composition of the miners which are the backbone of the verification protocol and ensure the integrity of the blockchain ledger. Finally, they analyze the ownership concentration of the largest holders of Bitcoin. The researchers found that 1/3 of all bitcoins issued were owned by 10,000 individual investors. They conclude that the high concentration makes the first cryptocurrency market vulnerable to hypothetical hacker attack. The translator notes that paraphrasing English text in Russian was rather challenging due to the newness of the financial agenda and introduction of the term entity extensively used in the Western countries though new to Russia. Nevertheless, it is necessary to introduce readers to the bitcoin technology which will be also practical and useful for the library and information community.

Blockchain analysis of the Bitcoin market. (Part 2)

The detailed analysis of the Bitcoin network and its main participants. The expert authors (Igor Makarov, London School of Economics, Antoinette Schoar, MIT Sloan School of Management) completed the study authorized by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the US-based private agency. The Bitcoin network is defined as a new database comprising many of public and proprietary sources to link bitcoin address to real object, and an extensive set of algorithms to extract information on market key players behavior. Three major pieces of analysis of the Bitcoin eco-system were conducted. First, the authors analyze the transaction volume and network structure of the main participants on the blockchain. Second, they document the concentration and regional composition of the miners which are the backbone of the verification protocol and ensure the integrity of the blockchain ledger. Finally, they analyze the ownership concentration of the largest holders of Bitcoin. The researchers found that 1/3 of all bitcoins issued were owned by 10,000 individual investors. They conclude that the high concentration makes the first cryptocurrency market vulnerable to hypothetical hacker attack. The translator notes that paraphrasing English text in Russian was rather challenging due to the newness of the financial agenda and introduction of the term entity extensively used in the Western countries though new to Russia. Nevertheless, it is necessary to introduce readers to the bitcoin technology which will be also practical and useful for the library and information community.

Technology Strategy and Competition Track: Pushing the Knowledge Frontier or Spilling the Beans? Corporate R&D Disclosure

Firms in knowledge-intensive industries create important intellectual assets while also aiming to appropriate value from their innovation. Survey-based research highlights that firms prefer secrecy and lead time over other appropriation methods (e.g., patents and scientific papers) in order to profit from their intellectual assets. However, firms frequently choose to disclose their intellectual assets via patenting and scientific publications. This symposium illuminates specific channels which guide firms’ R&D disclosure strategies. The studies in this symposium focus on the private incentives and performance implications for firms that share their valuable knowledge in the public domain. R&D disclosure choices create competitive implications for other stakeholders, potentially changing innovation trajectories of entire industries. The four studies in this symposium analyze antecedents and consequences of corporate R&D disclosure in various sectors such as the medical device industry and Artificial Intelligence using advanced empirical techniques ranging from synthetic control method to difference-in-differences. The studies in this symposium contribute to the innovation strategy literature concerned with strategic interactions of innovating firms. Buyers of First Resort: Guaranteed Markets and Corporate Scientific Research Presenter: SHARON BELENZON; - Presenter: Larisa Cristina Cioaca; Fuqua School of Business, Duke U. Trigger Event and the Evolution of Scientific Research Disclosure Presenter: Nuruddin Ahmed; MIT Sloan School of Management Presenter: Romel S. Mostafa; U. of Western Ontario Who gains and who loses from more information in technology markets? Evidence from the Sunshine Act Presenter: Raffaele Conti; ESSEC Business School Presenter: Lee Branstetter; Carnegie Mellon U. Presenter: Samir Mamadehussene; U. of Texas at Dallas - Jindal School of Management Presenter: Huiyan Zhang; Carnegie Mellon/ Catolica Lisbon Patent Publication and Innovation Presenter: Deepak Hegde; New York U. Presenter: Chenqi Zhu; U. of California, Irvine

Increasing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Organizations

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated social inequality within the U.S. As a result, many organizations have attempted to increase the gender and racial/ethnicity diversity of their organizations to potentially help reduce social inequality. The papers in this symposium test assumptions regarding various diversity efforts to examine the effects of these efforts on organizational perceptions and on people’s feelings of inclusion and belonging. The first paper investigates the effectiveness of asking applicants to provide diversity statements to see whether asking for these statements increases the diversity of applicants/hires and signals to applicants that the organization values equity, diversity, and inclusion. The second paper explores how disclosure of employee diversity data influences impressions of organizations. The third paper investigates concerns that dominant group members may have towards organizational diversity efforts and explores ways to garner support from dominant group members for diversity efforts. Finally, the fourth paper explores how structured evaluation processes may increase employees’ perceptions of inclusion and belonging within organizations. Together, the papers in this symposium provide insights into how managers can potentially increase diversity, equity, and inclusion within organizations. Exploring the Effects of “Personal EDI Statements” on Applicants and Organizations Presenter: Joyce He; U. of California, Los Angeles Presenter: Grusha Agarwal; U. of Toronto, Rotman School of Management Presenter: Sonia Kang; U. of Toronto Disclosing Workforce Diversity Data Increases Perceptions of Progress (Even When There Isn’t Any) Presenter: Evan P. Apfelbaum; MIT Sloan School of Management Presenter: Eileen Y. Suh; Boston U. Questrom School of Business We Need You! Diversity Messages That Enlist Dominant Group Members in Diversity Efforts Presenter: Kaylene McClanahan; U. of California, Los Angeles Presenter: Hannah Birnbaum; Northwestern Kellogg School of Management Presenter: Margaret Shih; U. of California, Los Angeles Structured Evaluations Processes Increase Employees’ Perceptions of Inclusion and Belonging Presenter: Aeroelay Chyei Vinluan; Harvard Business School Presenter: Erika Kirgios; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania Presenter: Edward Chang; Harvard Business School

Geography and Strategy in Developing Countries

Geography plays a central role in firms’ strategic choices. Deciding where to locate operations and employees, as well as whether to move or not, can have critical performance implications. At the same time, a growing literature in strategy shows that conditions in developing economies often necessitate different firm strategies. This raises an important question at the intersection of these literatures: how do choices about geography shape firm strategy in developing economies? In this symposium, we explore this new area of research through a set of cutting edge studies, each of which examines a different way in which geography and firm strategy interact in developing economies. Our discussant, Professor Lamar Pierce, will build on these presentations and his own expertise on firm strategy in Africa to synthesize and critique the studies. Following this, the host will encourage a lively debate about how geography matters for strategy and organization theory in developing economies. Location, Gendered Constraints and Business Performance Presenter: Solene Delecourt; Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley Employee Work Novelty and Communication in a Hybrid Remote Workplace Presenter: Tarun Khanna; Harvard U. Presenter: Kyle Schirmann; Harvard Business School Presenter: Christos Makridis; MIT Sloan School of Management The Impact of Capital Constraints on Strategic Misconduct Presenter: Fulton C. Eaglin; Harvard Business School Won’t you be my neighbor? Geography, networking, and entrepreneur performance in Togo Presenter: Stefan Dimitriadis; U. of Toronto, Rotman School of Management Presenter: Rembrand Michael Koning; Harvard Business School

Practical Applications of The Role of Cryptocurrencies in Investor Portfolios

In <b><i>The Role of Cryptocurrencies in Investor Portfolios</i></b>, from the Spring 2022 issue of <b><i>The Journal of Alternative Investments</i></b>, <b>Megan Czasonis</b> of <b>State Street Associates</b>, <b>Mark Kritzman</b> of the <b>MIT Sloan School of Management</b> and <b>Windham Capital Management</b>, <b>Baykan Pamir</b> of <b>Alphachain Capital</b>, and <b>David Turkington</b> of <b>State Street Associates</b> examine correlations among asset class returns, with a focus on those of stocks and cryptocurrencies. They highlight that correlation is time-varying and dependent on the frequency of data. They find that cryptocurrencies produce less of a diversification benefit than other asset classes such as bonds or gold. Their analysis provides a template for investigating the role of cryptocurrencies in investor portfolios as the market develops. The approach provides more relevant information than a single, full-sample correlation number.

Despite Challenges, QD Vision Laid the Foundation for Quantum‐Dot Displays

Despite Challenges, QD Vision Laid the Foundation for Quantum‐Dot Displays

Jack Bogle: Champion of the People

1. Andrew W. Lo 1. is the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, director of the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering, a principal investigator at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, an affiliated faculty member of the MIT

Jack Bogle: Champion of the People

1. Andrew W. Lo 1. is the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, director of the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering, a principal investigator at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, an affiliated faculty member of the MIT

Practical Applications of On the Valuation of Performance Fees and Their Impact on Asset Managers’ Incentives

<b>In</b><b><i>On the Valuation of Performance Fees and Their Impact on Managers’ Incentives</i></b>, from the Summer 2021 issue of <b><i>The Journal of Alternative Investments</i></b>, <b>Wei Dai</b> and <b>Savina Rizova,</b> both at <b>Dimensional Fund Advisors</b>,and <b>Robert C. Merton</b> at the <b>MIT Sloan School of Management</b>, remind investors that performance fees can be valued using option pricing theory. Several researchers have applied an option-based approach to the valuation of hedge fund fees and other alternative investments’ performance fees, but few, if any, have done so for long-only systematic managers. The lack of research in that space is mostly because US legislation in the early 1970s banned mutual funds from charging asymmetric incentive fees. Recently, however, more managers of long-only, systematic, separately managed accounts are charging performance fees. The authors, therefore, focus on these types of accounts while illustrating how to use option pricing theory to value a wide variety of performance fee structures. Increased adoption of performance fees in long-only managed accounts coincides with investors’ increased interest in long-only systematic strategies.

Gender, Race, and Network Advantage in Organizations

Universities and colleges often engage in initiatives aimed at enrolling students from diverse demographic groups. Although substantial research has explored the impact of such diversity initiatives, less understood is the extent to which certain application strategies may continue to favor historically privileged groups, especially white men, as they seek admission to selective programs. With this study, I begin to address this gap by investigating the gender and racial implications of application endorsements—a common, often informal, network practice of signaling support for certain applicants that is shown to significantly boost an applicant’s chances of admission. Using unique data on the applicants and matriculants to a full-time MBA program at one elite U.S. business school, I first assess whether the endorsement advantage differs across demographic groups. Building on the social networks, selection, and inequality literatures, I then identify and test three key theoretical mechanisms by which the endorsement process may potentially benefit white men more than women and racial minorities. Although I do not find evidence in the studied program that the application endorsement is valued differently by key admissions officers or that it provides a different quality signal depending on the applicant’s gender or race, I do find that white men are significantly more likely than women and minorities to receive application endorsements. I conclude by discussing the implications of this study for understanding how gender and racial differences in accessing advantageous (often informal) network processes may undermine organizational efforts to achieve demographic equality and diversity. Funding: Financial support from the James S. Hardigg (1945) Work and Employment Fund and the MIT Sloan School of Management is gratefully acknowledged.

Practical Applications of On the Valuation of Performance Fees and Their Impact on Asset Managers’ Incentives

<b>In</b><b><i>On the Valuation of Performance Fees and Their Impact on Managers’ Incentives</i></b>, from the Summer 2021 issue of <b><i>The Journal of Alternative Investments</i></b>, <b>Wei Dai</b> and <b>Savina Rizova,</b> both at <b>Dimensional Fund Advisors</b>,and <b>Robert C. Merton</b> at the <b>MIT Sloan School of Management</b>, remind investors that performance fees can be valued using option pricing theory. Several researchers have applied an option-based approach to the valuation of hedge fund fees and other alternative investments’ performance fees, but few, if any, have done so for long-only systematic managers. The lack of research in that space is mostly because US legislation in the early 1970s banned mutual funds from charging asymmetric incentive fees. Recently, however, more managers of long-only, systematic, separately managed accounts are charging performance fees. The authors, therefore, focus on these types of accounts while illustrating how to use option pricing theory to value a wide variety of performance fee structures. Increased adoption of performance fees in long-only managed accounts coincides with investors’ increased interest in long-only systematic strategies.

Practical Applications of On the Valuation of Performance Fees and Their Impact on Asset Managers’ Incentives

<b>In</b><b><i>On the Valuation of Performance Fees and Their Impact on Managers’ Incentives</i></b>, from the Summer 2021 issue of <b><i>The Journal of Alternative Investments</i></b>, <b>Wei Dai</b> and <b>Savina Rizova,</b> both at <b>Dimensional Fund Advisors</b>,and <b>Robert C. Merton</b> at the <b>MIT Sloan School of Management</b>, remind investors that performance fees can be valued using option pricing theory. Several researchers have applied an option-based approach to the valuation of hedge fund fees and other alternative investments’ performance fees, but few, if any, have done so for long-only systematic managers. The lack of research in that space is mostly because US legislation in the early 1970s banned mutual funds from charging asymmetric incentive fees. Recently, however, more managers of long-only, systematic, separately managed accounts are charging performance fees. The authors, therefore, focus on these types of accounts while illustrating how to use option pricing theory to value a wide variety of performance fee structures. Increased adoption of performance fees in long-only managed accounts coincides with investors’ increased interest in long-only systematic strategies. <b>TOPICS:</b>Real assets/alternative investments/private equity, manager selection, options, performance measurement