Top Research News


Spring 2018 Research Newsletter

Hello Colleagues,

Spring has arrived in Connecticut and, with it a renewed sense of excitement, growth and accomplishment both in our classrooms and through our research commitment. I would like to share with you some of our recent milestones.


Equity Misvaluation

equity trading

How Much of a Role Should Default Options Play in Equity Values?

A large collection of finance literature argues that equity securities are subject to potential misvaluation by investors, where the sources of misvaluation are attributed primarily to behavioral biases, such as overconfidence, conservatism and others. Continue Reading


Disclosing Too Much Info Can Harm a Company’s Competitive Edge

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the New York financial district on Wall Street. (Jeff Hutchens/Edit by Getty Images)
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the New York financial district on Wall Street. (Jeff Hutchens/Edit by Getty Images)

Do more strict accounting laws, designed to help shareholders gain better insight into corporations, ultimately harm a firm’s competitive position by forcing disclosure of proprietary information?

The answer appears to be yes, according to UConn accounting Professor Ying Zhou, who has spent years analyzing the consequences of such mandates. Continue Reading


How Visual Technologies Influence Virtual Teams

Persuasion word cloud

Professor Lurie Discovers Visual Technologies Foster Persuasion, Agreement among Virtual Teams

In a business climate where colleagues may never share office space or even meet face-to-face, Marketing Professor Nicholas Lurie has found that more visual information technologies can help virtual teams build consensus under tight deadlines. Continue Reading


Does Social Media Excel When an Industry is in Crisis?

OPIM Professor Shu He has been studying firms' strategic social media adjustment in response to a competitor's crisis. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
OPIM Professor Shu He has been studying non-focal firms’ strategic social media adjustment in response to a competitor’s crisis. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

Savvy Social Media Tactics Boosted Airline Industry Following Devastating Crash

The crash of a passenger airplane is the ultimate public relations crisis for the airline industry.

But the opportunity to explore the way a distressed airline—and its competitors—handle that crisis on social media provides an outline for many different companies on the right and wrong way to address an industry emergency, said OPIM Professor Shu He. Continue Reading


Fall 2017 Research Newsletter

Hello to friends and colleagues across the country and around the world! The beginning of a new academic year is filled with energy and excitement, both for our students and our faculty. This year that momentum is augmented by a team of new faculty members who bring both extensive research accomplishments and a love of teaching to UConn.


The Power of Empathy

Kelly Herd (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
In their studies, UConn marketing professor Kelly Herd (pictured, above) and Ravi Mehta of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ask participants to design a child’s toy, select ingredients for a new kids’ cereal, and redesign a grocery cart for the elderly. Each time, the group that produced the most original products was the one instructed to imagine the target consumers’ feelings before beginning the task. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

When Product Developers Invoke Emotion, Do They Generate More Creative Ideas?

What kind of potato chip would you create, and what would you name it, if you wanted to sell the product exclusively to pregnant women? Continue Reading



A Winning Football Pool Strategy

David Bergman explains some of his research and its implications beyond the betting world. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
David Bergman explains some of his research and its implications beyond the betting world. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

Professor Bergman’s “NFL Survivor Pool” Plan Has Ramifications for Other Businesses, Too

OPIM professor David Bergman loves football, predictions, and data analytics, so it is little surprise that he would use his knowledge to plan an NFL survival-pool strategy. Continue Reading


If You Slash the Price, They Will Come!

Joseph Pancras, associate professor of marketing, used data on customer traffic, sales per transaction, and profit margin for a total of almost 14,000 transactions over a period of 49 weeks. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
Joseph Pancras, associate professor of marketing, used data on customer traffic, sales per transaction, and profit margin for a total of almost 14,000 transactions over a period of 49 weeks. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

Professor Joseph Pancras Identifies Best Sale Items to Lure Customers Away From Other Grocery Stores

If you want to increase grocery store sales, offer a discount on beer. And then place a tempting display of salty snacks right next to it—at full price.

That’s some of the well-researched advice that marketing professor Joseph Pancras and his colleagues offer grocery store executives in a newly published article in the Journal of Retailing. Continue Reading