Knowledge at Wharton

We’re bringing back our “Research Doodles” series on Wednesdays this summer, sharing illustrations by The Wharton School PhD student Marissa Solomon Shandell depicting management concepts that can apply to your professional or personal growth. First up: If you want to get more done, make your goals smaller. Dividing large goals into subgoals “may reduce procrastination by creating more imminent deadlines, and … may increase goal commitment by requiring smaller, near-term sacrifices of time,” according to research by Wharton professors Angela Duckworth, Katy Milkman, and Marissa Sharif, and then-PhD students Edward Chang and Aneesh Rai. But if your goals are too small, this effort can backfire. “Subgoals can enhance progress,” Milkman told Knowledge at Wharton earlier this year. “However, as these subgoals become increasingly small, they also become less adaptable. This means that micro goals are beneficial up to a certain point, but pushing too far into the details — say, with hourly goals — would likely actually start to impede progress.” #productivity #goals #procrastination #motivation

There are "hidden costs" to climate change that show the scope of its impact is even larger than many assume, says The Wharton School professor R. Jisung Park. In the final episode of our Ripple Effect podcast's series with faculty authors, Park shares insights from his new book, "Slow Burn," on the ways the changing climate is already affecting our everyday lives: https://whr.tn/3Syc7W7 The way forward he sees is to change the narrative of "climate change as less of a binary, black-white, on-off, and more of a sliding scale," which can frame decision-makers thinking in preparing interventions. #climatechange #environmental #sustainability

Can AI be a trusted partner when it comes to brainstorming? Professor Christian Terwiesch talks about its benefits and limitations to lead this week's The Wharton School faculty in the news roundup. Swipe through for... 1️⃣ Terwiesch on brainstorming with generative AI: https://whr.tn/46vvAwr 2️⃣ Kartik Hosanagar on how boards should handle AI: https://whr.tn/3YrSR0t 3️⃣ Susan Wachter on apartment vacancies: https://whr.tn/4cZj6Qf

Stuck in a brainstorming rut? Try thinking inside this box. Penn Medicine's David Resnick explains how constraints can spawn idea generation in this Nano Tool for Leaders from Wharton Executive Education, based on a card game he co-created called "Accelerators in Innovation": https://whr.tn/4cUY5Gl #brainstorming #problemsolving #innovation #creativity

As brands and organizations increasingly come under fire for their handling of relationships with customers, it's time to rethink how we engage with customers across their journey, according to a new book co-authored by The Wharton School marketing professor Cait Lamberton. "Marketplace Dignity," the book's title, is the idea that customers seek respect and recognition from the firms they interact with, not just rational or emotional benefits. The key tenets of consumers' desire for "marketplace dignity" include feeling seen and heard, feeling in control, and feeling like they are treated as an equal. Swipe for three levers the authors have identified to effecitvely design customer engagement for dignity, based on their global studies and conversations with scholars, business practitioners, and consumers. Read an excerpt from the book for more: https://whr.tn/4bTU0AN #marketing #branding #customerjourney #consumerbehavior

While emotions may sometimes feel like they don’t belong in a workplace setting, the late Wharton professor Sigal Barsade showed that paying attention to “emotional culture” is a key predictor of organizational success. It factors into outcomes like employee wellness, engagement, motivation, as well as a business’ productivity and profitability. The second “Research Doodle” in our summer series featuring illustrations by The Wharton School PhD student Marissa Solomon Shandell spotlights Barsade’s research into this topic. “Emotional culture consists of the symbols, norms, values, and basic assumptions team members have about emotions that are acceptable to express and those that need to be suppressed in the team,” Barsade wrote in a Wharton Executive Education Nano Tool for Leaders in 2021. “As research has shown that more anger is expressed at work than happiness and joy, be sure to create an environment in which positive emotions are not only allowed but encouraged.” #emotions #culture #organizationalpsychology

When it comes to making decisions, are we immune from influence from AI? Kartik Hosanagar, co-director of the Wharton AI & Analytics Initiative, explores the boundary between suggestions and manipulation from AI algorithms in this week's faculty in the news roundup. Swipe through for... 1️⃣ Hosanagar on AI's role in decision-making: https://whr.tn/4cawWy5 2️⃣ Joao Gomes on foreign investments in national debt: https://whr.tn/3y7LWi5 3️⃣ Peter Conti-Brown on the Fed's communication: https://whr.tn/3LwXezs

In the wake of the 2023 banking crisis, what is the optimal level of deposit insurance to stave off bank runs? Many policymakers and legal scholars have since called for unlimited insurance, but a new paper provides a framework for weighing the tradeoff regulators will face in determining the coverage limits: https://whr.tn/3W98EOM While increasing coverage can help reduce the probability of bank failures, it could also embolden banks to engage in riskier behavior and thereby increase costs when banks fail. The research from The Wharton School's Itay Goldstein, and Yale University's Eduardo Davila found that the optimal deposit insurance, balancing costs and benefits, is $381,000. "The way that this policy has been set over the years was very arbitrary," Goldstein says. #wharton #banking #banks #finance

Groupthink can often lead teams to make suboptimal decisions. The Wharton School professor Michael Platt and a team of researchers wondered whether a physiological marker, like heart rate synchrony, could predict a group's ability to "override inferior, default options" in making a collective decision. Platt and his colleagues found that heart rate synchrony predicted the probability that groups would reach the correct consensus with more than 70% cross-validation accuracy. Learn more about the study and its implications: https://whr.tn/3SfjrWF #decisionmaking #teamwork #neuroscience

Training programs that develop entrepreneurial skills can help improve socioeconomic mobility, but they can also bring unintended consequences, according to a new study by The Wharton School management professor Leandro S. Pongeluppe: https://whr.tn/3zKfaE9 Analyzing of business training program in Brazilian urban slums ("favelas"), found that while they increase income and entrepreneurial opportunities, participants face continued stigma and prejudice. “Emphasizing entrepreneurship as a path out of poverty is key, and efforts should be made to reduce stigma, such as providing specific lines of credit," Pongeluppe says. "Additionally, training should include helping participants connect with potential buyers and suppliers, aiding their transition from the informal to the formal economy.”