Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Business

Business Richard L. Kaplan

New law could mean bump in Social Security benefits for some public pensioners, expert says

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new law affecting Social Security benefits for workers with a public pension means some retirees will receive a modest increase in their monthly checks, according to a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign expert on U.S. tax policy and retirement issues. The bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act got rid of the Windfall Elimination Provision and […]

Business Research news Anton Ivanov

New model helps e-commerce platforms decide whether to dump underperforming products

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Online retail platforms are increasingly becoming a dumping ground for low-quality products — which, over time, only serves to tarnish the retailer’s reputation and dent sales. But new research from a team of business scholars at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Penn State points to a new model that would allow e-commerce […]

Business Bo Zhang, a professor of labor and employment relations and of psychology at Illinois

New research creates better tool to assess personality traits of job seekers

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — New research co-written by two University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign experts who study personnel psychology points to a better way of helping researchers and employers identify the differences in how people respond to personality tests. The tool — a hybrid of two existing measurement models called the “Mixture Dominance-Unfolding Model,” or “MixDUM” — could help human resources […]

Business Rosanna K. Smith, a professor of business administration at the Gies College of Business at Illinois

Paper: Ads featuring interracial couples produce mixed results for brands

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new paper co-written by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign business administration professor Rosanna K. Smith provides a more nuanced understanding of how consumers respond to interracial couples in advertisements. Photo by Fred Zwicky

Business Photo of Robert Bruno

How should labor movement handle the challenges of AI, automation at work?

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Robert Bruno is a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the director of the Project for Middle Class Renewal, a research-based initiative tasked with investigating labor policies in today’s economy. Bruno, the author of the book “What Work Is,” spoke with News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora about how the labor […]

Business University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign business administration professor Jack Goncalo

Study: Creative idea generation at work leads to indulgent behaviors afterwards

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Generating creative ideas at work tasks employees with thinking expansively and being open to thoughts and concepts they haven’t previously considered. Which, of course, provides significant benefits to business because it can lead to new and innovative ideas in the workplace. But what happens after the brainstorming party is over? New research […]

Expert viewpoints Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois and the director of the Labor Education Program in Chicago.

What’s the state of labor in the US ahead of the presidential election?

Robert Bruno is a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the director of the Project for Middle Class Renewal, a research-based initiative tasked with investigating labor policies in today’s economy. Bruno, the author of the book “What Work Is,” spoke with News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora about the […]

Expert viewpoints Michael LeRoy, an expert in labor law and labor relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Does new workplace safety rule protect workers against the dangers of extreme heat?

The Biden administration recently announced a new rule to address excessive heat in the workplace, but does it go far enough to account for working conditions and regional differences in heat and humidity? Michael LeRoy is the LER Alumni Professor and an expert in labor law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He spoke with News Bureau business […]

Business Ying Bao, a professor of business administration at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Study: Consumption-tracking technology mixed bag for consumers

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Penalty fees for consumers are prevalent in many service industries such as banking and cellular phone service, accounting for billions of dollars in “junk fees” that annually eat away at consumers’ wallets like termites. Such penalty fees can typically be chalked up to consumer forgetfulness, or to consumers underestimating their own forgetfulness, […]

Announcements

Elliott named new dean of Gies College of Business

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — W. Brooke Elliott has been selected as dean of Gies College of Business and the Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor in Business, pending approval by the U. of I. Board of Trustees. Until officially approved, her title will be dean of Gies College of Business and the Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor […]

Agriculture Short but severe episodes of flooding from hurricanes in Texas and Florida triggered a nationwide increase in flood insurance sign-ups depending on how socially connected a county was to the flooded counties, says new research co-written by U. of I. professor of agricultural and consumer economics Yilan Xu, left, and U. of I. graduate student Sébastien Box-Couillard.

Study: Social networks can influence perception of climate-change risk

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new paper co-written by a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign urban and environmental economics expert shows that social networks can play a significant role in influencing the financial behaviors and perception of catastrophic risks brought about by climate change. New research from Yilan Xu (“E-Lan SHE”), a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at […]

Business More organizational learning was associated with design-related product recalls than with process-related recalls, says new research co-written by Gopesh Anand, left, and Ujjal Kumar Mukherjee, both professors of business administration at Illinois.

Paper: Firms learn more from ‘knowledge-gap’ failures than mere ‘slip-ups’

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign business scholars finds that organizational learning from failures can vary significantly based on two factors: the nature of the failures themselves, and the innovation capabilities of the firms involved. The research investigated organizational learning from failures by dividing the failures into […]

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