Ideas By Year 2010

Professor Stéphane Côté

Leaders of the pack display high EQ, Rotman study finds
The ability to understand emotions is a key ingredient in people who become leaders in groups with no formal authority, a new paper has found.

Professor Oded Berman

Increased worker flexibility not always a good thing, says new Rotman paper
Companies trying to improve efficiency by building more flexibility into their workforce could end up too lean and drive costs up, says a new paper co-published by the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

Professor Claire Tsai

No Pain, No Gain? Concrete Thinking Increases Consumer Confidence
The confidence you feel when making a choice might depend on whether you’re thinking concretely or abstractly, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Professor Avi Goldfarb

Online ads can get too close for comfort
Trying to have an impact in the brave new world of web advertising? You could match an ad to a web page’s content – such as putting a car ad on an auto consumer website. Or, you could make it stand out with eye-catching pop-up graphics and video. But don’t waste your marketing budget putting the two strategies together.

Professor Sarah Kaplan

Love it or hate it, PowerPoint shapes strategy-making, says new Rotman paper
It’s been banned as a productivity killer. It’s even been recently criticized by a U.S. military General as “dangerous” for over- simplifying sophisticated problems of warfare. Say what you like about PowerPoint, but one researcher says that such critiques ignore the ways technology is used to shape idea generation and build corporate strategies.

Professor Chen-Bo Zhong

Fast food exposure can make us impatient
Fast food is not only bad for your body, but may also harm your bank account. Eating habits have shifted dramatically over the last few decades--fast food has become a multibillion dollar industry that has widespread influence on what and how we eat.

Professor Dilip Soman

Packing your troubles away actually works says new Rotman paper
Finding it hard to get over a failed love interest? Just can't get details of a bad financial move out of your head? A new study from the Rotman School of Management suggests you might want to stick something related to your disappointment in a box or envelope if you want to feel better.

Professor Chen-Bo Zhong, Professor Vanessa Bohns

Darkness Increases Dishonest Behaviour
Psychological scientists and Rotman Professors Chen-Bo Zhong, Vanessa Bohns, along with Francesca Gino of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, conducted three experiments to test whether darkness can license dishonest and self-interested behaviours.

Professor Jeffrey Callen

Earnings help predict the price of credit default swaps
Overexposure to credit default swaps (CDS) – a market-traded form of investment insurance – are believed to have contributed to last year’s financial meltdown. Trying to understand how CDS prices are determined, a team of researchers concludes that earnings have a major impact and in turn, CDS prices can seriously affect the economy.

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Rotman School of Management
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