The study identifies the world’s leading researchers and encompasses standardized data on citations, h-index, and a wide range of bibliometric indicators. Researchers are classified into 22 scientific fields and 174 sub-fields, drawing from Scopus data provided by Elsevier through ICSR Lab.

“Our faculty are more than educators – they are pioneering thought leaders shaping industries and redefining the future of business,” shared Gareth James, John H. Harland Dean of Goizueta Business School. “They tackle today’s most pressing challenges and uncover tomorrow’s greatest opportunities, driving positive impact throughout industry and the world.”

Introducing the World’s Top 2% Scientists

EmoryBusiness.com is proud to recognize these distinguished Goizueta faculty members among the top two percent of scholars in the world:

• Anandhi Bharadwaj, Goizueta Endowed Chair in Electronic Commerce and Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management

• Tarun Chordia, R. Howard Dobbs, Jr. Chaired Professor of Finance

• Ilia Dichev, Goizueta Foundation Chair in Financial Reporting, Professor of Accounting, and Director and Associate Dean of PhD Program

• Gareth James, John H. Harland Dean of Goizueta Business School and Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management

• Sandy Jap, Sarah Beth Brown Professor of Marketing

• Narasimhan Jegadeesh, Dean’s Distinguished Chair of Finance

• Wei Jiang, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Finance and Vice Dean for Faculty and Research

• Jay Shanken, Professor Emeritus (2024) in Finance

• Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Chaired Professor of Business

Insights from Goizueta’s Distinguished Faculty

As leaders in their respective fields, our distinguished faculty members bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion to Goizueta. Their journeys to academic excellence and global recognition are a testament to the school’s impact on both personal and professional growth.

EmoryBusiness.com connected with these professors to discuss their motivations, experiences, and the pivotal moments that have shaped their success.

Anandhi Bharadwaj

Q: What inspired you to choose Goizueta?

A: When I joined Emory in 1994, the business school was not yet named Goizueta—it was simply Emory Business School. At that time, Professor Benn Konsynski was the only other faculty member in my field, Information Systems, and it was his invitation and vision that initially drew me here. Professor Konsynski’s forward-thinking perspective on digital technology and its transformative role in the business world deeply resonated with me. His guiding vision not only inspired me to join the school but also fostered an environment that has kept me motivated to contribute to Goizueta’s growth and evolution over the years. The school’s commitment to innovation and excellence has only solidified my decision to remain a part of this vibrant community.

Q: How did Goizueta support your journey to becoming part of the top 2% of scholars worldwide?

A: Goizueta has been an incredible source of support throughout my academic career, providing both tangible and intangible resources that have significantly contributed to my success. On a tangible level, the school’s commitment to fostering a research-driven ecosystem has been invaluable—offering resources such as summer salary support, access to specialized databases, funding for conference travel, and more. On an intangible level, the vibrant academic community at Goizueta has been a constant source of inspiration. The flourishing PhD program has allowed me to collaborate with some of the brightest doctoral students, while the broader Emory network and the research ecosystem in Atlanta, with its concentration of world-class scholars across universities, have undoubtedly enriched my research journey.

Tarun Chordia

Q: What inspired you to choose Goizueta?

A: I moved from Vanderbilt University to Emory as an assistant professor in summer 2000. At the time Tom Robertson was the Dean and Goizueta was transitioning from a teaching to a research school while still maintaining great teaching. One of Dean Robertson’s goals was to improve the reputation of the finance area. I had a ring-side seat to what was happening in the finance department and in the school in terms of increasing the research focus of the faculty (by starting a doctoral program and subscribing to all the standard datasets). With the support of the Dean as well as the leadership in the university we were able to strategically hire senior people in the finance department such that today we are amongst the top finance departments.

Ilia Dichev

Q: What inspired you to choose Goizueta?

A: It was a combination of things: great university and business school, great group of faculty in my academic area (Accounting), the attraction of Atlanta as a growing, business-oriented city, which is very green and with warm weather year-round. Being appointed to the distinguished position of the Goizueta Foundation Chair of Financial Reporting was definitely a big factor (so, big thanks to The Goizueta Foundation!). Plus, the personal involvement of some key Goizueta people made it happen. Perhaps most importantly, on some gut level it just felt right.

Q: How did Goizueta support your journey to becoming part of the top 2% of scholars worldwide?

A: My most successful research project after arriving at Goizueta relied on personal access to CFOs of top companies. The dean and the alumni office at the time made most of these contacts possible. Plus, the school has top-notch working conditions all around. I am very grateful to Goizueta for the incredible opportunities to do quality work!

Gareth James

Q: What inspired you to choose Goizueta?

A: Goizueta Business School stood out to me as a premier institution with a compelling combination of strengths. As a Top 20 business school within a Top 20 university, Goizueta offers a world-class environment for both research and teaching. The school has built an exceptional research community, where faculty members not only produce groundbreaking work but also make a tangible impact on the business world.

Beyond the intellectual vibrancy, Goizueta provides strong financial resources that support high-caliber research, including access to top-tier data acquisition, research funding, and a rigorous PhD program. This commitment to advancing knowledge and fostering innovation makes it an ideal place for scholars who seek to push the boundaries of their fields.

Sandy Jap

Q: What inspired you to choose Goizueta?

A: I came to Goizueta 24 years ago after having been on the faculty at MIT. While MIT is an amazing place in and of itself, what attracted me to Goizueta was the possibility of being in a faculty group that really valued and understood the research that I wanted to do. I’m also not a big fan of winter. 

Q: How did Goizueta support your journey to becoming part of the top 2% of scholars worldwide?

A: While I have had opportunities to leave (I visited Wharton for a year), I have remained at Goizueta because it is less bureaucratic than larger schools and provides important summer and research support that many schools do. Goizueta is an entrepreneurial environment that allows me to take on new initiatives and directions as needed to advance my research. There is also a very supportive alumni base which is always willing to speak in my classes and connect me to the decision makers in their organization who would be willing to support my research with data. 

Jegadeesh Narasimhan

Q: What inspired you to choose Goizueta?

A: I was drawn to Goizueta because of its ambitious vision to become a leader in the field. At the time I joined, the school was making strategic hires of top scholars, strengthening its focus on rigor and academic excellence. Its growing reputation was gaining well-deserved recognition, and the school’s proposed launch of the PhD program underscored a strong commitment to long-term academic leadership. These factors offered an exciting and intellectually stimulating environment—an ideal place not only to advance my research and teaching but also to contribute to Goizueta’s progress toward its ambitious vision.

Q: How did Goizueta support your journey to becoming part of the top 2% of scholars worldwide?

A: Goizueta’s strong culture of academic excellence provided an ideal environment for impactful research. I had the privilege of working alongside colleagues who are thought leaders in the profession, engaging in stimulating intellectual exchanges. The school’s regular academic seminars brought in leading scholars, fostering a dynamic and enriching research atmosphere. The launch of the PhD program further strengthened this environment, attracting bright students and promoting vibrant research activity.

Additionally, because my research focuses on rigorous empirical testing of theory, Goizueta’s generous financial support for data and research assistance was invaluable in enabling high-quality studies. Importantly, all of us—faculty and students—collectively contributed to enhancing Goizueta’s reputation as a place of excellence. At the same time, we all benefited from its growing visibility, which expanded opportunities for collaboration and increased our scholarly impact.

Wei Jiang

Q: What inspired you to choose Goizueta?

A: It was a privilege to join a finance department already with three Top 2% scholars worldwide, reflecting a strong research environment and an intellectually vibrant community. I valued the opportunity to work alongside faculty whose seminal research I had studied extensively as a PhD student and cited as foundational to my own work. Being part of a department where groundbreaking ideas are developed and advanced was both inspiring and motivating.

Jay Shanken

Q: What inspired you to choose Goizueta?

A: The school, led by Tom Robertson, was committed to taking the (already very good) finance group to the next level and Professor Jegadeesh and I were recruited at the same time. The commitment to faculty research was backed up by a low teaching load for chaired faculty and they made me an aggressive offer. I always enjoyed working with PhD students and the fact that the school would soon be starting a PhD program in finance was definitely a consideration as well. Although Rochester’s Simon School was very strong in those days, Atlanta seemed like it would be a better place to live at that point in my life. All of these factors together resulted in my decision to move to Emory and I enjoyed my many years there. 

Q: How did Goizueta support your journey to becoming part of the top 2% of scholars worldwide?

A: It was the excellent overall academic environment and colleagues. Specifics like the low teaching load mentioned above and the nice view from my office helped.

Jagdish Sheth

Q: What inspired you to choose Goizueta?

A: There were three specific reasons. First, I wanted to move to the East Coast from the West Coast and in a moderate climate. Second, I did not want commute and wanted to have housing nearby. Finally, Emory University provided opportunities to grow the marketing area with new and innovative programs and recruit young faculty. For example, we focused on Relationship Marketing and became among the top ten marketing departments in the country.

Q: How did Goizueta support your journey to becoming part of the top 2% of scholars worldwide?

A: When I joined the Goizueta in 1991, we were an “up and coming” business school. Both President James Laney and Dean John Robson were committed to invest in professional schools and their graduate programs including the MBA and the Executive MBA programs. They had already recruited senior faculty in Finance and Management and they wanted me to lead the Marketing discipline. Over the past 30 years, Goizueta gave me opportunities both at the Goizueta and the university level to be on several committees including the Personnel Committee and Emory’s inaugural Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC). My professional growth and recognition came from the silent language of Emory culture that states that you belong here. Finally, Atlanta was emerging as a global hub city and many large companies such as Coca-Cola, Delta, UPS and Home Depot were headquartered here. Atlanta is also the capital of Georgia. This allowed me to contribute to policy work especially for the telecommunications industry.

Goizueta faculty are eminent in their respective fields, advancing global knowledge and inspiring further research. Learn more about the research projects driven by our esteemed Goizueta faculty.

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In today’s data-driven business climate, employees need to understand how to leverage technology more than ever. Digitally fluent teams contribute proficiency in a variety of technology tools that make companies more innovative, collaborative, and competitive.

Emory Executive Education helps senior leadership teams of Fortune 100 companies reimagine how to increase digital fluency among their employees.

The digital landscape today is rapidly evolving,” says Anandhi Bharadwaj, professor of information systems and operations management and Goizueta endowed chair in electronic commerce. “It’s crucial for organizations to advance digital fluency to stay competitive and.”

“Many of the companies we work with are 50 to 100 or more years old. Making a plan to advance digital fluency helps them think through how to compete and how to transform and reimagine themselves. It also helps them see opportunities in a new light.”

Bharadwaj says any digital fluency program must be endorsed at the top to be successful.

“Leaders should lead by example. They have to actively participate in digital initiatives and model the behavior they expect,” she says. “This sets a tone for the importance of digital fluency at all levels of the organization.”

Tips for Advancing Digital Fluency

Top Tips for Companies

Many of the elements of a program they created for one of their Fortune 100 clients are built around five capabilities. Bharadwaj says these capabilities will benefit companies of any size and in any industry.

• Digital-First: Foster a company culture that embraces digital innovation and transformation. This includes encouraging a mindset shift among employees to think and operate in a digitally forward manner.

• Continuous Learning: Develop a culture of ongoing learning by offering courses, workshops and training sessions on new technologies and digital trends. This helps employees stay up-to-date with the latest advances.

• Fail-Fast Innovation and Curiosity: Create an environment where it’s safe to experiment with new technologies. A fail-fast approach allows employees to follow their curiosity, learn from mistakes, and innovate without fear.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaboration between departments with different  ideas, skills, and digital expertise can lead to a more digitally fluent workforce.

• Digital Goals in Business Strategy: Make digital fluency a core component of your business strategy. This includes setting specific digital objectives and key performance indicators.

Companies also should regularly assess the level of digital fluency their employees have, Bharadwaj adds. “Solicit feedback to understand gaps and areas for improvement. Then adjust your strategies to address what you find.”

Top Tips for Individuals

In many ways, it’s up to individuals to take the lead in honing their digital skills. Becoming more digitally fluent is essential for their own professional growth and goals. A sense of curiosity helps. Digital technology is changing all the time, so professionals need to be able to adapt quickly to new information.

Bharadwaj offers these tips for individuals to improve their digital chops:

• Self-Assessment: Identify where your digital skills are strong and where they need to improve. This could involve understanding basic digital literacy, software proficiency, or more advanced technical skills.

• Clear Goals: Based on your assessment, set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your digital learning journey.

• Continuous Learning: This is where curiosity really kicks in. Dedicate time regularly to learn new digital skills. This could be through online courses, webinars, tutorials, or reading up on the latest digital trends

• Hands-on Practice: Use the technology while you’re learning about it. Work on personal projects, use new software tools at work, or experiment with new apps and platforms. Then put your skills into practice, whether in your job or through volunteer opportunities. Real-world application cements learning and demonstrates your growing expertise. Seek feedback from colleagues and mentors; constructive criticism is an effective guide.

• Online Communities: Participate in digital forums or social media groups that focus on the technology you’re learning. These platforms are a great way to ask questions and stay up to date with the technology.

Be sure to stop and reflect on what you’re learning, Bharadwaj adds. Do you enjoy it? What do you find useful? Are you curious about exploring something new? Pausing to think periodically will help you see where you need to adjust your course along the way.

“Be open to adapting your approach as you discover more about your interests and the evolving digital landscape,” she says.

Are you looking to level up your career or push your company forward? Emory Executive Education offers market-relevant professional development courses and for both individuals and organizations. Our offerings create an educational experience to fit your learning and development goals. Learn more here, and we’ll show you what it means to go above and beyond.

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Created in 2010 through a partnership between President Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela, YALI’s aim is to further empower young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, and follow-up support. Each year, approximately 1000 YALI fellows spend six weeks in the U.S. studying one of three academic tracks: business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership, or public management. The entrepreneurs who visit Atlanta are hosted by Clark Atlanta University and, as part of their time in the city, spend a day at Goizueta.

Coordinated by Benn Konsynski, George S. Craft Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management, the fellows attended several sessions led by Goizueta faculty as well as a team from Microsoft, including Bo Beaudion, director, transformation strategy; Brad Allen, cloud solution architect; Sanjeev Devarapalli, principal data & AI solutions architect; and Azim Manjee, principal cloud endpoint technical specialist. Topics included augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and the future of work, as well as monetization trends.

Beaudion kicked off the slate of sessions, speaking to the fellows about the power of technological transformation. “At the end of the day, you have to understand what the cloud is and its value contribution and what role it might play not only in your own business, but in your community and in your country,” he said, underscoring the fact that transformative thinking—doing what’s never been done before “is based on vision, but it can’t be manifested without technology.” The members of the Microsoft team highlighted several of the company’s technological offerings, including Azure, Copilot and its VR tool, HoloLens. “The YALI group was quite interested in the incorporation of AI into the work process,” Konsynski said.

Saloni Vastani, associate professor in the practice of marketing, led a session on monetization trends. “Saloni’s material was critical and informative to these entrepreneurs,” explained Konsynski. “Each of the fellows has an evolving business and is concerned with patterns of pricing, subscription, and transactional relationships.”

During lunch, several faculty members and Goizueta alumni visited with the fellows, including Anandhi Bharadwaj, Goizueta endowed chair in electronic commerce of information systems and operations management, Nana Ama Yankah 13MBA, founder and CEO, NAYA by Africa. Yankah is from Ghana. “Nana works back down the chain helping women farmers in her quality materials sourcing,” said Konsysnski. “Several fellows were particularly happy to engage her in discussion.”

Other alumni included Will Hicks 15MBA, director, digital support and transformation for global services, Baxter International, Vipul Bhatnagar 21EMBA, associate vice president, Coforge, and Joycelyn Streator 03MBA 10PhD, senior fellow, Mozilla Foundation, and director, The Chevron Leadership Academy and professor of practice, Prairie View A&M University.

After lunch, a group of students from Africa who are in the MS in Business Analytics (MSBA) program joined the fellows outside for a drone demonstration. In addition to exposing the students to image recognition, tracking, stabilization, pathing, and autonomous flight, the demonstration gave the fellows a chance to connect with current MSBA students—two of whom had applied to be YALI fellows.

The following week, Konsynski joined the fellows to deliver a session on technology transforming strategic options.

To learn more about YALI, visit https://yali.state.gov/

Check out more photos from this year’s YALI visit to Goizueta below:

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“We continue to develop principled and impactful leaders and entrepreneurs, foster innovation for a data and technology driven world, and grow a global presence fueled by local synergies,” said Gareth James, John H. Harland Dean. “I’m proud of our faculty and staff – and energized about the future of our school and students.”

Impacting Business & Beyond

Faculty and staff contribute to the Goizueta and Emory community, but also have significant impact on society and the broader business world. External awards include:

Karen Sedatole, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Accounting, was named as an editor to the Accounting Review. Sedatole was also elected to the position of president elect for the Management Accounting section of the American Accounting Association.

Emma Zhang, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was named an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. Zhang was also named an associate editor to the Journal of the American Accounting Association.

Ruomeng Cui, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was a finalist for the 2022 Management Science Best Paper Award in Operations Management for her paper, “Learning from Inventory Availability Information: Evidence from Field Experiments on Amazon.”

Panos Adamopoulos, assistant professor of information systems & operations management, was named as an associate editor at Management Science.

Giacomo Negro, professor of organization & management, was appointed as the senior editor of Organization Science and also received an honorable mention for the Robert K. Merton Award for his paper, “What’s Next? Artists’ Music After Grammy Awards.” Negro additionally served as the principal investigator for the 2022 LGBTQ Southern Survey.

Erika Hall, associate professor of organization & management, was named as an incoming associate editor at the Academy of Management Discoveries.

Dan McCarthy, assistant professor of marketing and Marina Cooley, assistant professor in the practice of marketing were recognized by Poets&Quants’.” McCarthy was also a finalist for the Weitz-Winer-O’Dell Award.

John Kim, associate professor in the practice of organization & management, was designated as one of the top instructors by Coursera for Management Consulting courses.

Vilma Todri, assistant professor of information systems & operations management, was named an associate editor to the Management Information Systems Quarterly Journal, one of the top three leading Information Systems journals.

Tonya Smalls, assistant professor in the practice of accounting, has been appointed to serve on the Inaugural Advisory Board for Make-A-Wish Georgia (MAWGA).

Leading the Future Of Emory and Goizueta

Goizueta Business School and Emory also honor academic professionals and leaders for their dedication to excellence through teaching, content development, experiential learning, scholarly inquisition, and commitment.

“We could not be prouder of our exceptional faculty and staff for their remarkable work and dedication throughout the past year,” says Anandhi Bharadwaj, who will step down as vice dean for faculty and research this summer as Professor Wei Jiang prepares to take on the role. “It has been an honor to work alongside our faculty and staff in developing the school and its programs.”

The recipients of these prestigious honors and awards are listed below:

Rajiv Garg, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was awarded the Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education. Garg was also honored as the MSBA Distinguished Core Educator.

John Kim, associate professor in the practice of organization & management, was awarded Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Giacomo Negro, professor of organization & management, received the Keough Faculty Award. Negro also received the Jordan Research Award.

Marvell Nesmith, associate dean of academic affairs & instructional design, received the Keough Staff Award.

Marina Cooley, assistant professor in the practice of marketing, was honored as the BBA Distinguished Educator and was also recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (One Year).

Omar Rodríguez-Vilá, professor in the practice of marketing, was awarded the Evening MBA Distinguished Core Educator and was also recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (Two Year).

Charles Goetz, associate professor in the Practice of organization & management, was awarded Evening MBA Distinguished Elective Educator.

Ray Hill, associate professor in the practice of finance, was recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (Classic Faculty).

Alvin Lim and David Sackin were awarded MSBA Distinguished Elective Educators.

Rob Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Organization & Management, was awarded Executive MBA Distinguished Educator (Core).

Kevin Crowley, associate professor in the practice of finance and Narasimhan Jegadeesh, Dean’s Distinguished Chair of Finance, were awarded MAF Distinguished Educators. Crowley was also awarded Executive MBA Distinguished Educator (Elective).

Giacomo Negro, Melissa Williams and Panos Adamopoulos received Goizueta research awards at the levels of full, associate, and assistant professor, respectively.

Goizueta Business School is proud to present the accomplishments of these and other faculty members within our institution. To learn more about the teaching, specialized research, and core interests of each faculty member, check out our faculty profiles and their related publications. 

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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to change how we work and learn, organizations, including business schools, are not only having to adapt to survive but also are reevaluating their business models for a new reality. 

In 2020, Goizueta faculty pivoted to online teaching and were quick to adopt new interactive tools and applications, including online case discussions, breakout room technologies, online polling, and many others, according to Anandhi Bharadwaj, vice dean for faculty and research. To strengthen the teaching transition, Goizueta established faculty forums, discussion boards, tips, and idea sharing.

“The ability to not only adapt but to innovate is critical,” said Nicola Barrett, chief corporate learning officer at Goizueta Business School. “As with other sectors, higher education and executive development is undergoing significant change from new entrants, new technologies, and changing expectations of professionals and organizations.”

“For Goizueta, the time is now to explore the benefits and possibilities of digital learning and what it means for the future of teaching,” she said. Digital learning tools provide a perfect fit for busy working professionals as more individuals appreciate the flexibility of being more productive from the comfort of their home, she notes. 

Denys Lu, Goizueta’s chief technology officer, agrees and explains that digital learning enables everyone to take a more active role in the learning process. “The way students want to learn today is very different than 10 or 20 years ago when the most important person in the room was the teacher,” he said. “Now, everyone contributes and learns from one another, including the teacher.” 

Setting the Pace for Change

If 2020 was about adapting teaching methods and keeping pace with change, 2021 is about setting the pace and exploring the future of business education. Even before the pandemic, Goizueta was looking ahead to future learning innovations. “The goal is not to use digital learning to replace all of our traditional classrooms but to reach a different audience AND provide a top-notch educational experience,” said Jaclyn Conner, associate dean for Executive MBA. Conner has been spearheading the teaching innovation efforts. 

With three next-generation global classrooms, hologram technology, and augmented and virtual reality projects being developed, Goizueta is poised to take digital learning to the next level by providing business professionals with a truly immersive, dynamic experience from anywhere in the world.  

“Digital learning offers an opportunity to expand Goizueta’s global reach and offer an amazing learning experience that other schools do not provide,” according to Lu. 

By eliminating the need for travel for many working professionals, the technology draws in a more expansive set of students both domestically and internationally with a greater diversity of thought, experience, and culture. “To really enhance the level of conversations and engagement in the classroom, you have to bring people in who are as different as possible,” he said. “That’s what digital learning enables. It breaks the barriers for people who can’t afford to travel for a length of time.”

Investing in a More Dynamic, Interactive Student Experience 

Digital learning is another important way to further develop and hone business leaders that shape and drive organizations, according to Barrett.

“The future of work and the future of learning are so intertwined with technology that we must constantly challenge ourselves to imagine more effective ways for professionals to enhance and broaden their perspectives, learn new skills and tools, and adopt more successful behaviors,” said Barrett.

Goizueta is leveraging a generous donation from The Goizueta Foundation to move forward on teaching innovations in three key areas: virtual classrooms, holograms, and virtual reality or gamification. This summer, Goizueta’s Executive Education and EMBA students will be the first to experience The Roberto C. Goizueta Global Classrooms, which create online and hybrid learning opportunities that don’t sacrifice one-to-one connection.

Goizueta has partnered with X20Media—a third-party vendor—to power the digital learning platform that drives each of the three Global Classrooms. With multiple camera angles and state-of-the-art audio, faculty and students will be able to see and hear each other through a wall of 20 to 40 high-definition monitors positioned with each student’s video feed assigned to a monitor, all in a familiar format. 

The Global Classroom technology involves a lot more than just connecting students on a Zoom-type call. Making this possible is new in-house talent hired to run a production or control room in which production members can communicate with professors in real time regarding questions and topics that arise in the online chat. This allows students to interact with each other and the instructor. Conner likens the production or control room to a sophisticated TV studio. “It’s Zoom on steroids,” she said. Goizueta’s in-house instructional designers will work with faculty to help them prepare to fully leverage the world-class platform, and each session will be recorded for those who can’t attend or want to review.

Perhaps the greatest advantage, notes Conner, is the system’s learning analytics, which are the hardest to collect in a traditional learning environment. Faculty can conduct real-time polls to get the “temperature of the room” on any given topic. “The ability to use a digital platform to capture that data to provide to the instructor in real time is revolutionary,” Conner said. “As you are teaching, managing a chat board is almost impossible. But having a system that is looking for commonalities and provides a report showing keywords mentioned a number of times by a significant number of students — that is a game-changer!” 

In addition to real-time data analytics, the system also allows for greater flexibility and collaboration through break-out room options, white-board technology, and sharing of common assets to store files and presentations. 

Expanding Reach with “Pop-up” Classrooms, Holograms, and VR

Goizueta encourages faculty and staff to explore new technology and innovative approaches to teaching by funding high-impact proposals from the Experimentation Zone. The Experimentation Zone has enabled faculty and staff the freedom to explore additional learning opportunities by proposing ideas to create virtual reality learning experiences.

Expected to be in use later this year, holograms will allow Goizueta to invite guest speakers from all over the world, appearing as if they are right in front of students. Holograms also would make “pop-up” classrooms possible in locations around the world. This method is far less expensive than sending a faculty member to far-away places like Shanghai or Rome for in-person instruction. In the long run, this technology is expected to increase flexibility for new programs and create unique opportunities for innovation. 

Additionally, gamification or the use of game-like virtual reality (VR) simulations can pave the way for immersive learning experiences without incurring the costs of associated travel to off-campus locations or relying on external partners to create these learning experiences. 

Faculty are excited to explore how VR and holograms can enhance the student learning experience, Conner said. Barrett has co-submitted and received approval for two proposals involving virtual reality, including one with Lieutenant General USA (Retired) Ken Keen, senior lecturer in Organization & Management and associate dean for leadership. They are developing a customized VR crisis leadership simulation that transports learners into “real-world” scenarios. The simulation is designed to be flexible with unexpected challenges inserted mid-simulation to test business decisions, leadership behaviors, change management, and communication strategies. The simulation allows for forward-looking learning when dealing with a crisis or challenge as opposed to case study review to see how a company handled a previous crisis. 

“This simulation will make Goizueta unique,” said Keen. “What will differentiate this innovative crisis simulation will be how it uses state of the art technology, like virtual reality and holograms, to put leaders in roles within an organization, where they must deal with both sudden and smoldering crisis events that represent current research and future challenges.”

Barrett, along with Professor in the Practice of Organization and Management Michael Sacks, also proposed a VR negotiator simulation that has the potential to revolutionize how educators teach and research negotiations while providing a potential revenue stream through corporate education.

“Our goal with both the crisis leadership simulation and the VR negotiator is to provide our executive participants with highly relevant and engaging learning situations that can better assess and build competencies and provide practice opportunities, faster, more effectively, and with less variability than the current approaches most providers use,” Barrett said. “By standardizing negotiation practice, we will be able to take biases out of the experience and better evaluate, for each learner and for each negotiation, based on multiple data points over the negotiation rather than on the outcome alone.” 

For Steve Walton, professor of Information Systems & Operations Management, having the opportunity to explore how this technology can be integrated into the educational experience makes it interesting and fun. “This creates an opportunity to think creatively about what digital learning really means.” 

Walton’s proposal to create a virtual reality experience of the Delta TechOps facility has been approved for a prototype this year. Walton regularly takes his students to the Delta TechOps facility but the VR learning experience, developed in partnership between Goizueta and Delta, would enable every section of process and systems courses across every Goizueta program to have the learning experience. It will also allow Delta to experiment with augmented and virtual reality at TechOps to further its own business.

The Future of Digital Learning

“It is an exciting time to be in higher ed as we are constantly challenged to reimagine ‘what’s next’ and how do we better help professionals, managers, and executives adopt new mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets to lead their organizations,” Barrett said. 

But investing in technology by itself is not the end goal, Bharadwaj notes. Leading in the digital learning space means figuring out how to use it to add significant value for students and organizations.

“What you want students to remember is not the technology but the experience and how it enhanced their life,” said Lu. As a result of the increased flexibility and collaboration that digital learning tools provide, we will see more and more of this type of technology, Lu noted.

For Goizueta, digital learning tools will be one more differentiator from the competition while providing greater global reach.

“Technology will continue to be an important enabler, and we will continue to invest, learn, and adopt new technologies,” said Bharadwaj. “We will use technology to increase our school’s reach, to stay connected with our students and alumni on a global scale, and to improve our range, which is our ability to do more things in more meaningful ways to improve business and society.” 

Learn more about Goizueta’s Executive MBA program and Executive Education.

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In 2017 alone, more than 70,000 U.S. citizens died from opioid overdoses, a number that eclipses the death toll due to traffic accidents, gun violence, or HIV in the same year.

Among the academic community, media and national organizations such as the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there is a growing consensus that the internet plays a key role in enabling access to illicit drugs in America.

As far back as 2005, the DEA referred to the internet as an “open medicine cabinet; a help-yourself pill bazaar to help you feel good.” But until now, the jury has been out about whether online platforms actually drive substance abuse among internet users.

Research by Anandhi Bharadwaj, vice dean for faculty and research and Roberto C. Goizueta Endowed Chair in Electronic Commerce, along with doctoral candidate Jiayi Liu 22PhD, casts compelling new light on this issue. Their paper, Drug Abuse and the Internet: Evidence from Craigslist, was published in March 2020.

By using data from Craigslist, one of the largest online platforms for classified advertisements, the researchers found a significant uptick in drug abuse in areas where Craigslist had become active in the last decade or so.

Launched in San Francisco in 1995, Craigslist is a location-specific site that has been spreading to different U.S. cities in a staggered fashion since 2000. As the site has grown, so too have the number of illicit, user behaviors that exist in tandem with the many positive services it offers. Among these are prostitution and the sale of controlled or illicit drugs.

The internet: a pipeline for narcotics

Historically the sale and purchase of illegal drugs has happened in physical spaces—streets and urban areas prone to certain boundaries and limitations, not to mention the risk of arrest or potential violence.

The internet has changed the game in two key ways.

First, there is the simple mechanism of buyer-seller matching. Dealers and buyers transact online, which is more straightforward, faster and cuts through many of the risks associated with physical interaction. Simply put, it’s easy to buy drugs online.

Second, there is the issue of anonymity. Research has documented how human beings behave differently when we believe our identity is shielded from others. We are prone to take more risks under the cloak of anonymity.

Working off these two premises, Bharadwaj and Liu hypothesized that the internet not only facilitates the sale and purchase of drugs—it must also proactively spur supply and demand. To put this to the test, they documented the U.S. cities and counties where Craigslist has become operational since 2000 and then analyzed three other key variables: total number of people admitted into drug treatment facilities in different counties between 1997 and 2008, county-level drug abuse violations, and number of deaths caused by overdose per county.

Eager to understand how this new access to drugs online might also be impacting people at a demographic and socioeconomic level, the researchers merged this data with statistics on age, ethnicity and poverty from the U.S. Census Bureau. Additionally, the authors compiled information about income and unemployment, crime and arrests from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the FBI respectively.

What they found was stunning.

Not only is there a marked increase in drug-related treatments (14.9 percent), violations (5.7 percent) and deaths (6.0 percent) wherever Craigslist becomes operational in a city or county; the momentum of increasing drug abuse also continues to grow over time in that area.

And that’s not all.

Economic disadvantages—poverty, unemployment and lower standards of education—are typically associated with a higher risk of substance abuse. But the findings suggest that in fact it’s the wealthier, higher-educated groups—especially among whites, Asians, and women—that are more likely than others to engage in drug abuse once Craigslist starts operating in an area. In fact, they conclusively found an uptick in this kind of behavior where crime and drug abuse had been less prevalent previously.

In other words, where drugs are becoming readily available online, there is a dramatic increase in new and first-time users.

These findings should spur authorities to be proactive in the way they allocate enforcement and healthcare resources, said Liu.

According to Liu, “Our results strongly suggest that beyond wider availability, the anonymity provided by online platforms like Craigslist has enabled wholly new populations to enter this market, people who were not using drugs previously.”

A key policy implication, she argued, is that these communities would benefit the most from early intervention programs designed to screen out and provide counseling to new users before drug use becomes habitual.

The study also highlights a growing need for more proactive regulation of online platforms in general, she added.

“In the early internet growth period, online platforms, forums and social media were allowed to develop and proliferate unchecked. In recent years there have been increasing calls for duty to care—providers of online services should have the responsibility to anticipate and mitigate harm or unintended consequences that their services might cause both to users and to the broader community,” said Liu. “Many popular platforms including Google, Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, Uber, and others have come under greater scrutiny in recent years. Our research adds empirical clout to a growing chorus for stricter regulations and greater monitoring of all online platforms.”

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The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis are rewriting the rules of business anew each day. What worked yesterday may not work today — or ever again. It is testing executive leadership and the strength of leaders’ past performance in creating a strong market orientation, a sound financial base, effective people-based processes and a culture of innovation, engagement and trust.

“This is not going to be a ‘flip-the-switch’ situation where we are suddenly back to where we were in late 2019,” said Nicola Barrett, chief corporate learning officer at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. “It’s critical for leaders to think about how they are going to adapt to the next normal, and then the next normal after that.”

Smart leaders are rethinking, reimagining, and reinventing their businesses, Barrett said. “By taking stock of all of the tangible and intangible assets that you have and recombining them in a way that meets both the short-term survivability challenge with new and emerging business needs on which to build for the long term.”

Emory Executive Education, the unit Barrett leads at Goizueta, has focused on how businesses find and capture new sources of growth from the ideas, research and teaching of its faculty. While it may sound counterintuitive, now is the time to identify changes to your business model, potential new products and services and explore new market segments, Barrett said. This is about defining the next normal, not just adapting to what comes next.

The urgency for forward-focused change requires a high degree of organizational and individual agility and resilience. This has implications for several factors central to organizational success: leadership; strategy; a market orientation; complex problem solving and decision-making; and the ability to execute.

“Leadership starts with having a true understanding of your purpose and values, being willing to adapt and learn and inviting and inspiring others to do the same” says Barrett, expanding on statements made by Karl Kuhnert, professor in the practice of organization and management at Goizueta, in an article about becoming a competent leader.

When there is a high degree of uncertainty, top-down, hierarchical decision-making increases business risk. Organizations can’t flex quickly enough. According to Rick Gilkey, also a professor in the practice of organization and management at Goizueta. “as complexity accelerates, organizations don’t have people with all the answers.” Successful leaders provide an environment in which employees can thrive. Investing in people and cultivating a culture of innovation, in which ideas are encouraged and examined rigorously, increases the value of their knowledge and actions.

Kuhnert and Gilkey have identified common traits in successful leaders. They found mature, effective leaders think differently: they paint on a much larger canvas than less mature leaders. For example, either/or quandaries are replaced by both/and thinking. Closely associated with thinking like a leader are behaviors like:

• Staying curious.
• Continuously scanning, looking for weak signals.
• Identifying unconventional sources.
• Disconfirming information.
• Dissenting productively.
• Seeing patterns.
• Seeking opportunities, particularly in adversity or scarcity.

Opportunities emerge when leaders listen to existing and prospective customers through frontline employees, social media and other tools that help companies stay in sync with their suppliers and buyers’ interests, Barrett said. Robert Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler professor of organization and management at Goizueta, teaches that “strategy isn’t a once-and-done. You have to be constantly thinking about, talking to and understanding your stakeholders, where they are going, and the challenges they’re facing.”

In an article about anticipating market shifts and improving organizational agility, Kazanjian said that a company misses opportunities to grow when it only makes “small tweaks instead of big shifts” in its strategy. “They don’t revisit questions about where to compete and how to compete,” Kazanjian said. “Crises, for instance, require leaders to pay immediate attention to strategic choices for both short-term survival through cost reductions and to developing new revenue sources for long-term growth. It may be that existing trends and emerging practices are accelerated by crisis, requiring organizations to more quickly alter strategies and build new capabilities for the longer term.”

Leaders must challenge themselves to ask: will the business model used by their company be relevant tomorrow? Where are disruptors most likely to originate? Technology has elevated customers’ expectations while reducing barriers to entry. “Only a few years ago, the sale price of a taxi medallion was huge, but then, thanks to technology, anyone who had a car could effectively become a cab driver,” Barrett said, noting the success of disruptors like Uber and Lyft and the widespread adoption of these services by the public.

Businesses grow when they involve customers in the creation and delivery of value, said Steve Walton, a professor in the practice of information systems and operations management at Goizueta, in an article about creating, capturing, and delivering new growth. “[The future of business] will become even more customer-centric.” In other words, leaders need to think about how customers are using their products or services and identify ways to improve the value offered to them.

“You have new, nimble, technology-enabled companies that are coming in and disrupting the value chain of traditional industries. Business leaders have to be constantly mindful of where new competition may come from,” said Anandhi Bharadwaj, endowed chair in electronic commerce and professor of information systems, operations management at Goizueta.

“You have to think of an operating model that is conceived in the digital world and then how this spawns new growth opportunities,” said Bharadwaj. “Then, think about how to build the required operating model.”

Goizueta is following Bharadwaj’s principle – accelerated due to the pandemic, Barrett said. Faculty and administrators are using technology to deliver sophisticated digital learning experiences. “While in-person learning is great, technology-enabled learning can be highly engaging and effective if designed well.”

Technology, data, social issues, speed and avenues of information dissemination have changed how to reach, understand and deliver value to customers. Big data offers marketers a substantial opportunity to connect with current and prospective customers, segment and learn what each values, and predict their behavior over time.

Data can show how customers act at any point in their buying journey, from acquisition to retention to engagement. “This creates opportunities for marketers to interact with their customers and prospective customers more than they have in the past,” said David Schweidel, a professor of marketing at Goizueta, in an article about using big-data marketing initiatives to find new growth sources.

In many organizations the role of chief marketing officer is being replaced by that of a chief growth officer, said Barrett, and “new growth opportunities emerge at the intersection of disciplines like technology, marketing and finance.” Daniel McCarthy, assistant professor of marketing at Goizueta, recommends “leveraging individual-level transactional data using best-in-class marketing science models to predict what customers will do in the future, when they’re going to make their purchases, how much they’ll spend, and how much of that spend will be retained as profit.”

Analyses like this can be directly linked to company valuations. According to Kristy Towry, John and Lucy Cook Chair and professor of accounting at Goizueta, in an article about modern managerial accounting practices, “accounting and finance cannot be a silent part of an organization. Accountants are experts in measurement and should be working across functions using forward-looking accounting skills to inform strategic decisions and help execute them effectively via good measurements and controls.”

Barrett believes that “surviving and thriving through this current global crisis not only relies on how well we have managed our organizations in the past, how adaptive we are as leaders, our strategic agility, and rigorous decision-making capability but on the culture and people practices we have in place.” Regardless of whether you are in accounting, finance, marketing, sales, strategic planning, IT or operations, ensuring your people are operating optimally is critical for your organization to operate at its full potential.

It’s also important to take note of the research into the physiology of decision-making and the impact of stress on executive functioning, productivity and performance. “Several of our faculty have research in this area, and now, more than ever, it is critical for leaders to be aware of how they and their team members are functioning mentally, emotionally and physically and how this impacts performance,” said Barrett. Citing Walton, Barrett pointed out that “when business operations are optimized through people who are doing their jobs well, better decisions are made, better data is collected, and better technologies and processes are implemented.”

Though the future is unclear, leaders must continuously learn and adapt to grow their businesses today and tomorrow. “The best leaders, as they evolve in their careers, realize they don’t have all the answers and that the way they did things yesterday may not be the best way to do them tomorrow,” Barrett said. “This pandemic has accelerated the pace at which leaders have to consider and lay the foundations for the next phase of their organizations.”

“Growth is about finding and capturing new opportunities by continually looking at your business in a new light and truly understanding your customers. We are going to have to rethink and reimagine what business and our organizations are going to be like in the next normal, however long that may be,” Barrett said. “Our goal in executive education at Goizueta Business School is to help leaders do just that by equipping them with the mindset, skill sets, and tool sets they need to be effective for their organizations.”

If you’d like to learn how you or your organization can engage with Goizueta faculty on this topic, speak with a learning advisor at 404-727-2200 or visit our website.

Emory University’s Goizueta Business School was created in 1919 as one of the nation’s first business schools. Its degree and Executive Education programs consistently rank in the top 25 in the world among major publications including Businessweek, The Economist, U.S. News & World Report, and Forbes.

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The reason companies such as Twitter are moving to distributed workforces isn’t to combat future viral outbreaks. It’s because top talent doesn’t always live within commuting distance of a company’s headquarters. And even when the majority of a company’s workforce is tethered to a physical office, most of them don’t want to be there every day. According to “The Remote Work Report,” published by Zapier.com in November 2019, “95 percent of U.S. knowledge workers want to work remotely and 74 percent would be willing to quit a job to do so.” And nearly 60 percent of knowledge workers (those employees whose main capital is information and the flow of information) say that working remotely is “one of the perks they’d most prefer to be offered” by an employer—ranking well above extras like daily free lunch or unlimited vacation time.

That said, companies wouldn’t be able to embrace remote workers without recent innovations in technology that make a remote workforce efficient and effective. From fast and consistent connectivity to improvements in webinar applications such as WebEx and Zoom, the quality of virtual communications has created a viable alternative to travel and led to changes in organizational practices and processes. This, in turn, has led to an increase in virtual employment structures, including the ability to create well-functioning virtual teams of “distributed expertise” that aren’t co-located, explained Anandhi Bharadwaj, vice dean for faculty and research, Goizueta Endowed Chair in Electronic Commerce and professor of information systems & operations management.

But integrating a remote workforce is not without challenges. The move from physically co-located environments to virtual environments can exacerbate or increase conflict. That’s because it’s easier to personalize disagreements when coworkers lack context or can’t interpret the body language of the person they’re communicating with. “Seeing someone’s expression, mannerisms and gestures is a large part of the human aspect that upholds a team’s efforts,” said Sandy Jap, Sarah Beth Brown Professor in Marketing. “It really does make a difference.”

Jap believes the best way to manage potential issues and conflicts is to share expectations regarding the team and the project up front. Sometimes just answering the simple questions of how often, when and how a virtual team will interact can get the team off on the right foot. “Research shows that not setting real, simple expectations can be the downfall,” Jap noted. “People’s assumptions about what those expectations can be are particularly faulty.”

Deconstructing conflict

When conflict does arise, Bharadwaj suggests ascertaining whether the conflict is “task related or personality related. Is it a poor choice of technology or a poor use of that technology?” she said. “You can’t just take the same process and have it work in tech-mediated environments.” If the technology isn’t set up to build team trust, it can be much harder to manage team trust, she added. For example, if some team members are physically gathered in a conference room in one place and other individual team members are participating in the meeting via satellite, the satellite-center employees may not see or understand everything that’s going on in the conference room. This can lead to misunderstanding and conflict. “It takes time to work through these issues to know how to use the technologies effectively from a cost perspective and to feel that the work is productive,” explained Bharadwaj. “Case studies document that this impacts team quality and performance.”

When various groups come together to form a larger virtual team, it’s not uncommon for some members of the team to identify more with their subgroup than with the formal group—especially if team members are located in different cities and/or countries. “Sometimes subgroups can work against each other rather than with each other for the good of the team,” said Jill Perry-Smith, Goizueta Foundation Term Professor of Organization & Management. In such cases, it’s important for the team leader to “create a systematic way of building relationships that brings the team together in a psychological way.”

The ability to identify potential problems within a team is extremely important, and those who lead virtual teams need to act as “social sensitivity managers,” said Perry-Smith. Can the team leader read the people on the team? Can he or she identify those people on the team who aren’t forthcoming about how they’re feeling? When the potential for subgroups to sabotage the formal group exists, Perry-Smith finds it helpful to create space for team members to interact face-to-face and/or have team members from different subgroups work together to solve a particular issue.

It’s also important to have a process for handling conflicts when they do arise. “At what point do we accelerate to another level or have people from outside the team get pulled into this?” asked Jap. Perry-Smith suggested establishing something akin to the
“elephant in the room” process at Kayak.com. At the travel website’s Massachusetts headquarters, there is a dedicated conference room (outfitted with a large, stuffed animal elephant) where employees go to discuss disagreements and work through conflict. “It’s critical to have a process for team members to address problems quickly and preferably one-on-one,” said Perry-Smith. A process that encourages them “to deal with the elephant in the room,” she added.

Enhancing global business

One of the most difficult things Colleen Pritchett 02MBA, president of Aerospace, Americas Hexcel Corporation, has dealt with in her 20-plus year career is turning around a business in financial crisis. Pritchett did so with the help of a virtual team. The experience made her realize how important it is “to assess the situation quickly, formulate and communicate a compelling vision and strategy to move forward and have the courage to make tough decisions quickly”—all while, she explained, “showing genuine care” for members of her team so they could work well together and succeed.

To ensure individual team members were getting what they needed, Pritchett scheduled regular one-on-one calls with team members to check in. She did her best to have the same type of discussions they’d have “if we were in the office together,” she said. Pritchett invited input, asked whether they needed support and listened. “It helped us stay connected. We learned more about one another through each interaction. It built trust,” she added.

Pritchett, who continues to lead a number of virtual teams, finds it useful to make sure there is “a clear agenda” regarding the information to be discussed prior to virtual meetings or calls so that the team can “review and absorb it—especially when English is not someone’s first language,” she said. “Team members come from different functions and different cultural backgrounds, and that diversity of thought will help the team operate more effectively and better represent the diverse needs of our global customer base and business. This open environment and discussion will help show respect for one another and help the team operate more effectively as a virtual team.”

Regardless of whether companies are ready to shift their knowledge-based workforces to virtual team structures, a global pandemic can force them to consider it as a viable alternative. “Meeting face-to-face doesn’t necessarily mean a more productive meeting,” Bharadwaj reminded. Technology gives virtual team members “more opportunities to bring more” to meetings, she said. “It’s all a question of what you’re trying to accomplish and how best to accomplish it.”

The post Empowering virtual teams now and in the future appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Market leaders including IKEA and Airbnb are successful in part because they involve customers in the creation and delivery of value, said Steve Walton, a professor in the practice of information systems and operations management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. “The future of business will become even more customer-centric.”

“It’s not simply about producing the product or service and getting it to the market like it used to be. It’s also thinking about how the customers use the product or service and understanding different use-cases to identify opportunities to deliver value to them throughout the lifecycle,” said Anandhi Bharadwaj, Goizueta endowed chair in electronic commerce and professor of information systems and operations management. “Leveraging technology and data is key, such as associating information collected from transactions with customers and with suppliers to see how the company provides value to both.”

Companies can create, capture, and deliver on new growth opportunities by incorporating these four critical elements into their operations.

Looking broadly for signs of disruption

Leaders need to protect their companies against value-chain disruptions, Walton said. The first step is to do some self-examination. Leaders must ask themselves: is the business model used by their company one that is subject to complacency or bias? Are past experiences or assumptions coloring their perspective on new ways of doing business?

Even when a company’s leadership regularly assesses its own business models and commits to innovation, it’s important to keep an eye out for opportunistic disruptors. Companies with legacy assets or mature business models, like banks and airlines, are particularly prone to disruption because they tend to protect their prior investments, Walton said. Industries with low barriers to entry also suffer disruption more frequently because competition can develop more easily.

Disruptions often come from unexpected places because of technology advancements, Bharadwaj said, noting Amazon’s continued expansion into new industries as an example. “You have new, nimble, technology-enabled companies that are coming in and disrupting the value chain of traditional industries. Business leaders have to be constantly mindful of where new competition may come from.”

Even when business leaders recognize the potential for rapid disruption in their industry, their ability to respond effectively may be limited. Response agility, or the ability to transform critical parts of the business with speed, becomes a key capability, says Bharadwaj. This requires continuous assessments of how business models work, what needs to change, how to build alliances and partnerships, sometimes even with competitors, and where resources must be moved quickly to compete with scale, speed, and scope.

Going deeper with digital transformation

Companies today are able to collect more data than ever before and use more sophisticated analytical tools to transform operations and drive growth, Bharadwaj said. “Leaders have to know how to unlock the value by ensuring collaboration and the sharing of knowledge, both when it comes to skills and best practices shared among employees, as well as data sets shared among teams and departments. Leaders should also understand emerging digital technologies that can deal with complex data sets and leverage both to unleash the organization’s creative potential.”

Until recently, companies created an operating model in the analog world. Then they looked for technology that enabled their model to work, Bharadwaj said. But she teaches today’s executives to find opportunities through technology – and then to build their operating model. “You have to think of an operating model that is conceived in the digital world, and then use that as a starting point to create new opportunities,” Bharadwaj said.

Bharadwaj challenges leaders and students in her classes to find ways to successfully implement digital transformation efforts across an organization, especially in understanding how to prepare for the transformation. Research shows that 75% of such initiatives fail despite the huge investments that companies make in them, she said, emphasizing the need for careful preparation and broad, enterprise-level buy-in.

“Not all investments in technology immediately give you the results you seek,” Bharadwaj said. You have to think critically.” For example, many companies invest in artificial intelligence tools without considering biases that may exist in their data, which could result in biased decision-making, Bharadwaj said. These projects often have to be scaled back or worse, completely scrapped, when consumers and regulators find out about the flawed systems.

Investing wisely in technology

Leaders should consider a technology’s potential to help their organization in the long term instead of investing in tools because they’re seeing some industry buzz, Walton said. “You must sort through the noise to determine what steps you take today so you are prepared when a brand-new technology really is ready.”

Walton’s early research into electronic-data-interchange (EDI), which was hot in the late 1980s and early 1990s, illustrates the perils of betting big on a technology too soon.

Because of its potential to connect companies, “everyone said EDI was fundamentally going to change the way organizations shared information, and decisions were made based on that expectation,” Walton said. But the radical change took years to be adopted. “It took another 15 years until the social and technological infrastructure for e-commerce came into place that allowed companies like Amazon to blow up the world.”

Walton cautions executives against mapping all of their business processes around “Industry 4.0,” or the digitization of the manufacturing industry, because it could be like EDI and become outdated when broader business changes occur in the future.

To remain competitive, large companies should partner and invest with smaller technology firms that provide growth opportunities by meeting customers’ evolving demands, Walton said. “Businesses should make small bets, buying a lot of options cheaply to keep their hands on the pulse of where technologies are going.”

Operating a human-centered workplace

In any new business model or growth initiative, leaders need to think beyond the technology hype and prioritize the human element. It’s necessary to rethink how people should work — and how to better optimize their skills and creativity through business models and workplace policies. Successful companies realize that a human being is not a piece of equipment that can run for 20 hours a day and still do its job well, Walton said. “Companies are rethinking policies and decisions that are having adverse impacts on the biological creatures that we are.”

Companies can maximize the value-creating potential of their workplace by focusing on human physiology, Walton said. He teaches current and future executives how to discuss and address such issues within their organizations. “It is almost cathartic for a few of them to say, ‘I have been struggling with this for years,’” Walton said. “I didn’t know how deep the struggle was.”

In his research on the physiology of decision-making and the impact of stress, Walton said issues like sleep deprivation impair productivity and performance. “If you deprive a person of 45 minutes of sleep a night for a week or two, the level of impairment that happens in the brain is equivalent to being legally intoxicated.”

Executives accustomed to putting their jobs before their well-being have the most difficulty caring for themselves and their employees, according to Walton. They will eventually change their expectations for how much they and their employees should work to be effective, Walton said, noting how companies have come to pursue workforce sustainability initiatives vigorously due to pressure from internal and external stakeholders.

“It was only four years ago that an executive would ask, ‘What is the ROI on a diversity and inclusion initiative?’” Walton said. “But nobody would dare ask that today.”

Executives have similarly asked Walton about the potential return on investment in a wellness program. “To me, a better question is, ‘Don’t you need to maximize the value-creating potential of everyone in your organization?’” he said. “Eventually, it will be accepted on its face that the critical differentiator of a well-run business is one that has people whose brains are operating as best as they can. When business operations are optimized through people who are doing their jobs well, better decisions are made, better data is collected, and better technologies and processes are implemented.”

Creating growth through operations

As technology continues to change how businesses deliver value, seeking early signs of disruption, identifying the right technologies, building a digital-first business model around them, and caring for your workforce are crucial for successfully operating a company.

“You have to be deliberate,” Bharadwaj said. “Leaders need to start by understanding what’s possible. It’s not just about the technology. The way to transform your business model and truly activate your core strategy is by reframing your legacy approaches to operations and capturing the insights of your workforce. Think through some of the consequences and then drive forward.”

If you’d like to learn how you or your organization can engage with Goizueta faculty on this topic, speak with a learning advisor at 404-727-2200 or visit our website.

Emory University’s Goizueta Business School was created in 1919 as one of the nation’s first business schools. Its degree and Executive Education programs consistently rank in the top 25 in the world among major publications including Businessweek, The Economist, U.S. News & World Report, and Forbes.

The post Operational strategies that create, capture, and deliver new growth appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Working remotely isn’t a new idea, but roughly a third of all companies have little, if any, existing remote working processes. According to Remote.co, as of 2019, 66 percent of companies allowed remote work while only 16 percent were fully remote. Having mandates aimed at combating a deadly virus compel companies to establish a distributed workforce may not be optimal, but there may be a long-term silver lining. “The Remote Work Report,” published by Zapier.com in November 2019, states that “95 percent of U.S. knowledge workers want to work remotely and 74 percent would be willing to quit a job to do so.” And nearly 60 percent of knowledge workers (those employees whose main capital is information and the flow of information), say that working remotely is “one of the perks they’d most prefer to be offered” by an employer—ranking well above extras like daily free lunch or unlimited vacation time.

That said, some companies, especially those without remote working processes, and their employees will struggle as they transition abruptly from populated office spaces to being part of a distributed workforce. Rick Gilkey, professor in the practice of organization & management at Goizueta and associate professor of psychiatry in the school of medicine, highlights two major challenges when it comes to working virtually, especially under the current circumstances. One, humans are inherently social beings, and “anything that disconnects us is problematic,” he said. “Not only for our performance [at work], but as human beings.”

The second challenge, added Gilkey, is that technologies like WebEx and Zoom aren’t meant to be an equivalent replacement for human interaction. Though recent innovations in technology have made a remote workforce more efficient and effective and led to changes in organizational practices and processes, when meeting face-to-face in a room with someone, people are able to pick up critical information via emotional intelligence. “Emotions are data,” said Gilkey. “We need that data to address the reality of the situation and make informed decisions.” Meeting with a colleague or colleagues via the internet means some emotional data will get lost, he added. “It’s like disconnecting a part of your brain,” Gilkey said.

Because it’s more difficult to read emotions by webinar than it is in person, it’s easy to make assumptions about what others are saying and what the team has agreed to. As a result, a move from physically co-located environments to virtual environments can exacerbate or increase conflict. When coworkers lack context or can’t interpret the body language of the person they’re communicating with, it’s easier to personalize disagreements.

“Seeing someone’s expression, mannerisms and gestures is a large part of the human aspect that upholds a team’s efforts,” said Sandy Jap, Sarah Beth Brown Professor in Marketing. “It really does make a difference.”

Jap believes the best way to manage potential issues and conflicts is to share expectations regarding the team and the project up front. Sometimes just answering the simple questions of how often, when and how a virtual team will interact can get the team off on the right foot. “Research shows that not setting real, simple expectations can be the downfall,” Jap noted. “People’s assumptions about what those expectations can be are particularly faulty.”

Gilkey suggested “validating and revalidating and rechecking everything,” so that when team members agree to something via WebEx or Zoom, they know that they’re all agreeing to the same thing.

Deconstructing conflict

When conflict does arise, Anandhi Bharadwaj, Vice Dean for Faculty and Research; Goizueta Endowed Chair in Electronic Commerce and professor of Information Systems & Operations Management, suggests ascertaining whether the conflict is “task related or personality related. Is it a choice of poor technology or a poor choice of use of that technology?” she said. “You can’t just take the same process and have it work in tech-mediated environments.”

If the technology isn’t set up to build team trust, it can be much harder in such environments to manage team trust, she added. For example, if some team members are physically gathered in a conference room and other individual team members are participating in the meeting via satellite, the satellite-center employees may not see or understand everything happening in the conference room. This can lead to misunderstanding and conflict. “It takes time to work through these issues to know how to use the technologies effectively from a cost perspective and to feel that the work is productive,” explained Bharadwaj. “Case studies document that this impacts team quality and performance.”

There will also be varying degrees of experience with and competence on these platforms—especially if the employees are from companies that don’t normally operate remotely. “You’ll need good IT advisors and support so that you can have conversations that give you the full range of data that you need,” said Gilkey.

When various groups come together to form a larger virtual team, it’s not uncommon for some members of the team to identify more with their subgroup than with the formal group—especially if team members are located in different cities and/or countries. “Sometimes subgroups can work against each other rather than with each other for the good of the team,” said Jill Perry-Smith, Goizueta Foundation Term professor of Organization & Management. In such cases, it’s important for the team leader to “create a systematic way of building relationships that brings the team together in a psychological way.”

The ability to identify potential problems within a team is extremely important, and those who lead virtual teams need to act as “social sensitivity managers,” said Perry-Smith. The leader needs to be able to read the people on the team and to identify those people on the team who aren’t forthcoming about how they’re feeling.

In short, “It’s critical to have a process for team members to address problems quickly and preferably one-on-one,” said Perry-Smith.

Enhancing global business now and in the future

Colleen Pritchett 02MBA, president of Aerospace, Americas Hexcel Corporation, has managed virtual global teams for years. In addition to adjusting for cultural differences, she’s learned how to balance getting the job done and making tough decisions, with “showing genuine care” for members of her team so they could work well together and succeed.

To ensure individual team members get what they need, Pritchett schedules regular one-on-one calls with team members to check in. She does her best to have the same type of discussions they’d have “if we were in the office together,” she said. Pritchett asks for input, offers support and listens. “It helped us stay connected. We learned more about one another through each interaction. It built trust,” she added.

While the virus and its many disruptions may be temporary, this international remote work experiment is sure to have long-lasting effects, perhaps making telecommuting the new norm for many workers. And despite the learning curve and potential for conflict, remote work ultimately offers the possibility of a more diverse, more satisfied workforce.

As Pritchett explained, in a virtual team, “team members come from different functions and different cultural backgrounds, and that diversity of thought will help the team operate more effectively and better represent the diverse needs of our global customer base and business.”

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She began her career as a consultant with NIIT, a global technology consulting and outsourcing firm, before pursuing a Ph.D. in management information systems at Texas A&M University—a move that eventually led her to Goizueta Business School and the Goizueta Endowed Chair in Electronic Commerce, which she currently holds.

Bharadwaj’s research explores the organizational impacts of information technology, digital innovation and the business value of IT. An extraordinarily prolific researcher, since 1990 she has published more than 70 papers. In 2018 Bharadwaj was awarded the INFORMS ISS Distinguished Fellow Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution and intellectual stewardship in the field of information systems. Starting in 2020, she will serve as vice dean of faculty and research at Goizueta.

EB: How did you become interested in researching information systems, and how would you characterize the focus of your research?

Bharadwaj: I started my career in India when computerization was just starting to take hold. This was an exciting time, as organizations were beginning to see the potential in automating their processes. Making the switch from industry into academia, I was energized by the same optimism about the potential of technology to impact business, but I wanted to dig deeper into the kinds of applications and implementation challenges that organizations were experiencing.

Doing my Ph.D. in the ’90s, I became engaged in a larger conversation around the productivity benefits of information systems. Corporations had been making sizable investments in hardware and software, including training, but were yet to see the payoff in the form of productivity gains. It was a puzzle for academics and economists that struck a chord with me. What I’d seen at a micro level in a few organizations I’d worked with seemed to be playing out on a macro level—that it takes years before you see the benefits of your investment because of the kinds of learning curves, the new skills and processes and the cultural recalibration that have to happen before you can truly leverage new technologies.

This became a question of interest to me that has underscored my research ever since: What’s behind this time lag in the productivity benefits of technology? And why do some companies do it better than others? Over time it has led me to reframe the research—to shift the focus from the economic and productivity gains per se to the kinds of technical and organizational capabilities that companies need to build to extract the business value of IT systems.

EB: What kinds of key insights has your research generated?

Bharadwaj: I have found that there is an almost universal complexity that organizations have to grapple with when introducing technology at scale. And it’s pan-industrial.

A good example is the U.S. healthcare industry. A whole decade after the introduction of the Affordable Health Care Act of 2008, hospitals are still struggling to implement a unified view of patient care. And their challenges are not that different from the challenges experienced by companies back in the early ’90s. From the organizational perspective, you’re looking at a set of almost immutable challenges that span every sector: change management, inertia, even active resistance to new ways of doing things.

Then you have to factor in the speed of innovation with new and emerging technologies and the adoption and adaptation processes that organizations have to go through before the benefits kick in—often the technologies have to be recalibrated to meet business needs. Some industries and some organizations tend to be faster and better at introducing and leveraging new technologies.

EB: What does your research tell you about this? What makes some firms more agile in adopting and adapting to new technologies?

Bharadwaj: I’ve published papers on what distinguishes agility. One of the key factors we’ve found that determine the pace and success of technology management is the role of the senior leadership, not only in being alert to new opportunities created by technological changes, but also having the commitment to follow through with the change management efforts.

A common mistake that leaders make is assuming that their role ends when they make the investment decisions. There’s an assumption that middle management will drive implementation and that change will automatically ripple through the organization. Added to that, there’s a frequent lack of foresight about the training that employees need—that and an inability to manage the fear people might feel about losing their jobs to automation or outsourcing. These are really big organizational challenges, and senior management can’t afford to take their eye off the ball.

Agile leaders are those who have a vision—a vision of how technology is going to impact their industry so that they aren’t caught flat-footed and unable to adjust when things reach a tipping point. They also have a vision of how technology will impact their firm. Agility comes when you have leaders who have this sense-making perspective and the operational capacity to absorb change and work with it.

EB: You take up your new role as dean of faculty and research in 2020. What are your thoughts on the role of research? How important is it to research technology and its impact?

Bharadwaj: I am excited to start in this new role, and it is an honor to work with such a talented group of faculty engaged in creative research and teaching. Research is fundamental to what we do as scholars and educators. Research is how new knowledge gets created, which then finds its way into classrooms through lectures and teaching materials.

As business school faculty, it is important for us to stay abreast of technological changes and understand their impact on organizations and society at large. Engaging with these themes, unearthing patterns and gaining insight informs what happens in the classroom and how we educate our students.

So there is a lot of synergy between what we research and what we then take into the classrooms to educate the next generation of managers and leaders.

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Supply network structure and systemic risk

Demand uncertainty can present a serious challenge for any business, especially when it comes to managerial decisions on inventory. But when an economic downturn happens, the challenge becomes systemic. According to research by Nikolay Osadchiy, assistant professor of information systems & operations management, and coauthors Vishal Gaur (Cornell U) and Sridhar Seshadri (Indian School of Business), systemic risk is more greatly felt depending on where a company sits in the supply chain. The trio discovered that while an economic downturn presented a serious hurdle for retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers alike, manufacturers were more prone to systemic risk given their placement upstream in the supply chain. Manufacturers had “a more dispersed customer base,” which the authors noted was more closely “associated with higher systematic risk.” Manufacturers also experienced greater systemic risk due to the effect of aggregation of orders over time. They wrote, “A market shock in one period may affect sales over several periods due to lead times and time lags in managerial decision making.” Management Science (2015)

Repo transactions and bank risk

In a research study from Edward Owens, assistant professor of accounting, and Joanna Shuang Wu (U of Rochester), the authors examine bank reporting of short-term borrowings in the repo market. Repo borrowings, otherwise known as sale and repurchase agreements, are essentially collateralized loans known for their short-term nature. The authors note that repo borrowings are typically associated with risky trading behavior, especially due to their opaque nature and role in the recent financial crisis. Owens and Wu found that current financial reporting requirements for banks might not adequately capture a full accounting of the risks associated with a bank’s repo liabilities. Specifically, end-of-quarter balance sheets may not correctly show the risk levels from repo borrowings exhibited throughout the quarter. The researchers analyzed quarter-end deviations in bank repo borrowings to better study the risk they represent. The primary research sample for the study was pulled from “13,548 bank-quarter observations across 573 unique publicly traded bank holding companies.” The authors attribute some of the deviation to what is termed “window dressing,” a step banks might take “to temporarily reduce the reported level of repo borrowings around quarter-end reporting dates.” Expected fluctuations in bank depositor and borrower activity around the end of the quarter did factor into the deviation as well. Review of Accounting Studies (2015)

Why negotiations fail

For business leaders engaged in negotiations, it’s essential to constantly analyze and revisit their negotiation strategy to avoid many of the errors typically made in the process. In the Handbook of Conflict Management Research, Erika Hall, assistant professor of organization & management, and coauthors Brian Lucas (U of Chicago) and Leigh Thompson (Northwestern U) offer a window into negotiation methods and some of the mistakes negotiators make along the way. The trio discovered and defined three specific errors that occur in negotiations, including what they label as domain myopia, the self-preoccupation effect, and the script hijack effect. Domain myopia is described as the “tendency for negotiators to fail to see meaningful parallels across negotiation situations that might appear different on the surface, but have meaningful underlying similarities.” Hall and her coauthors also describe the self-preoccupation effect, where negotiators let their emotions win the day and subsequently lose perspective. The third scenario that they define is the script hijack effect, which they describe as “the tendency for negotiators to feel compelled to follow a script, often based on stereotypes.” According to the authors, the problems they document apply across a variety of industries. Handbook of Conflict Management Research (2014)

Increased trading activity and declining returns

Improved trading technologies are changing the markets, facilitating the boom in algorithmic trading and the growth of hedge funds. Liquidity and trading volume continue to hit record levels. In a research study, Tarun Chordia, R. Howard Dobbs Professor of Finance, and coauthors Avanidhar Subrahmanyam (UCLA) and Tong Qing (Singapore Management U) analyzed whether or not increased liquidity and the trading activity of hedge funds has had an impact on financial market anomalies. Anomalies are return patterns that are inconsistent with the basic risk-return paradigm of finance. Increased arbitrage is a possible factor in attenuating the impact of anomalies, including momentum, reversals, accruals, etc. To find the link, Chordia and his coauthors studied proxies for arbitrage trading, including “the impact of the decline in the tick size due to decimalization and the impact of hedge fund assets under management, short interest, and share turnover.” The researchers referenced a wide sampling of equity market anomalies for more than three decades to show that increased liquidity and hedge fund trading activity did ultimately result in the decrease of  the “economic and statistical significance of these anomalies.” Journal of Accounting & Economics (2014)

Investor conferences and analyst advantage

In a research paper, T. Clifton Green, associate professor of finance and doctoral area coordinator, and coauthors Russell Jame 10PhD (U of Kentucky), Stanimir Markov (Southern Methodist U), and Musa Subasi (U of Maryland) focused their investigation on broker-hosted investor conferences to determine their impact on investor research. They studied 68,194 presentations by 4,394 companies at 2,749 investor conferences led by 107 brokerages for the period January 2004 to December 2010. According to the data, Green and his coauthors concluded that brokerage research analysts were more likely to provide better research for firms that participated at their conferences. Conference-hosting brokers were more likely to provide “more informative stock recommendations and more accurate earnings forecasts” than non-hosts. They discovered that firms participating in “broker-hosted investor conferences have a closer relation with the hosting analyst than with non-hosts, resulting in more private interactions (e.g., more company visits and meetings with management) and a continual flow of value-relevant information throughout the sample period.” Journal of Financial Economics (2014)

Integrating knowledge in outsourced software development

Despite the prevalence of using outside vendors to handle a company’s software development, little is known about the best way to effectively share the knowledge critical to a project’s success among the client and vendor software team members. In research from Anandhi Bharadwaj, professor of information systems & operations management (ISOM) and Goizueta Term Chair in ISOM, and coauthor Nikhil Mehta (U of Northern Iowa), the duo determined that knowledge integration on outsourced projects is further complicated by the uncertainty often inherent in software development. Bharadwaj and Mehta analyzed 139 vendor development teams taken from sixteen Indian software companies for their research. The authors found that the manner in which software teams share and protect the information resources they have impacts the knowledge integration ability of the team. Since software teams operate under conditions of resource scarcity and dependence, team leaders need to ensure that their software development teams have not only the requisite technical skills but also the ability to import needed skills and knowledge from external sources and share it effectively within the team.  An important implication of Bharadwaj and Mehta’s research is that organizations should develop holistic performance appraisal policies that assess software developers for both intergroup and within-group activities. Journal of Management Information Systems (2015)

Identity and the digital world

According to research from Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, and Michael Solomon (UNC), the idea of identity is evolving, impacted by the growing influence of the digital world. The authors’ groundbreaking study builds on a seminal paper from Russell Belk, written in 1988, which identified the role that possessions play in an individual’s life and how external elements are critical to how people self-identify. The duo uses Belk’s findings on consumer behavior, taking it a step further by applying his concepts to current day, with the online world in mind. Sheth and Solomon found that traditional boundaries between an individual’s offline and online life are increasingly blurred, resulting in what they term the “digital extended self.” People are creating a new sense of identity, courtesy of the information posted, the persona created, and the relationships developed online. They write, “A social footprint is the mark a consumer leaves after she occupies a specific digital space (e.g., today’s Facebook posts), while her lifestream is the ongoing record of her digital life across platforms (e.g., registrations in virtual worlds, tweets, blog posts).” Not surprisingly, the notion of just what defines a consumer is changing. User-generated content and online consumer reviews have altered the nature of relationships between the producer and consumer. The authors’ findings have critical implications for marketers looking to get a better understanding of consumer behavior. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice (2014)

Synergies between product placements and TV ads

As television watchers get inundated with commercials, the temptation to flip the channel grows. In the hopes of better connecting with consumers, advertisers are increasing their efforts to get product placements directly into TV shows. In a research study, David Schweidel, Goizueta Term Chair, Caldwell Research Fellow, and associate professor of marketing, and coauthors Natasha Zhang Foutz (U of Virginia) and Robin J. Tanner (U of Wisconsin) took a look at how the synergy between product placements and traditional commercials can keep viewers from flipping past the ad. The trio found that by simply putting a product in a television show and then immediately following it up with a commercial featuring the same product, viewers were more likely to stay tuned to the commercial. “The audience loss during the ad decreases by 5%,” they note. The effect was intensified when differing products from the same brand were shown in a program and then in a commercial immediately following the TV show. They write, “This indicates a positive synergy between the two activities that can reduce audience decline by more than 10%.” When products of different brands were featured in a television program and in a subsequent commercial, audience loss increased. Marketing Science (2014)

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