In academia, the impact of a research paper is often measured by its publication in a prestigious journal or the number of citations it receives from other scholars.
But broader measures of impact are emerging, such as the number of downloads of research papers by non-academic readers such as industry leaders, policy makers and curious professionals.
The download reflects real-world interests and applications, demonstrating that business research has the potential to inform practice, shape decision-making, and spark innovation in global markets.
So with the help of SSRN, a free online platform that allows users to access and share academic research, we created a table showing the most downloaded recent papers written or co-authored by business school scholars. We analyze a subset of papers downloaded by governments, businesses, and other trusted non-academic users. These serve as a proxy for the broader scope and impact of business school research.
Bridging the gap between research and publication
SSRN enables business school scholars to share their research with the wider world by providing a platform where early-stage research is immediately accessible to a wide audience, including academics, professionals, businesses, and government agencies. We aim to help you do so. We believe you can benefit from cutting-edge research before going through the traditional peer review process.
According to Michael Magoulias, director of operations, a key feature of SSRN is that it provides access to research for free and is accessible to anyone, including those outside of academia.
In fields such as finance, economics, and political science, there is often a long lag between journal submission and publication. SSRN helps fill this gap, says Magoulias. “Authors want their work to be known sooner rather than later, if only to receive constructive feedback and foster new conversations with colleagues who share their interests,” he says. I say.
The platform provides insights through metrics such as download numbers, allowing researchers and the public to understand in real time which topics are generating the most interest. “A critical mass of reader activity outside of academia, and the ready availability of editions online before they are published in journals, means that those directly involved in shaping the economy and formulating public policy “It’s a reliable and timely indication of how engaged they are,” Magoulias added.
interest rates go backwards
Topping the list of downloaded documents is “Monetary Tightening and U.S. Bank Vulnerabilities in 2023: Mark-to-market losses and uninsured depositor runs?” The study found that recent increases in U.S. interest rates have caused many banks to lose money on long-term investments, increasing the risk, especially if they hold large amounts of uninsured deposits. This situation could cause panic among depositors, as was seen with Silicon Valley Bank last year, when people rushed to withdraw their money because they feared the bank would fail. .
Authors Erica Xuewei Jiang of USC Marshall School of Business, Gregor Matvos of Kellogg School of Management, Tomasz Piskorski of Columbia Business School, and Amit Sel of Stanford University, among others, We conclude that regulatory intervention is important to prevent widespread bank failures because uninsured depositors are more likely to withdraw their deposits. This all leads to a liquidity crisis.
“We aim to influence the academic community working on financial intermediation issues and share our ideas with them about how they should think about current events and about bank stability more broadly. That’s what I wanted to convey,” Matvos explains. “But we also wanted to inform policymakers, regulators and the broader public, who will be important in shaping future responses.”
For business school research to have long-term impact, Matvos argues that not everything needs to have a direct impact. “Some of my work is aimed at a limited number of people working at the forefront of academia, but I hope that this frontier of scholarship will eventually permeate the world.
“I have to believe that efforts like this will ultimately be important in a broader sense, because such impacts are diffuse and difficult to measure. , and being able to see it in real time is very satisfying.”
AI at the center of business
The second ranked paper considers artificial intelligence (AI). Specifically, “Navigating the Jagged Technology Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of AI’s Effects on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality.” The question is whether this technology can help workers do their jobs faster and better, especially if the task is well-suited to the technology. However, they conclude that when tasks are too complex for AI, it can become even worse, leading to more struggle for workers and lower outcomes.
Author Fabrizio Dell’Acqua, Edward McForland of Harvard Business School, Ethan Mollick of Wharton and others conducted the study in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group and found that without AI access, GPT-4 GPT-4 with AI access or rapid engineering support.
The results showed that consultants using AI completed 12% more tasks, 25% faster, and achieved quality improvements of over 40%. Low-performing consultants benefited the most, with a 43 percent increase in results. In contrast, only 17 percent of consultants were high performers. Conversely, for tasks deemed to be beyond the limits of AI, the AI-assisted task was 19 percentage points less likely to achieve the correct solution.
“We thought that companies and organizations that are integrating AI into their knowledge work would be the main beneficiaries of our research, so the number of downloads of our paper was incredibly encouraging. ” says Dell’Acqua. “Other research has developed the concept of ‘falling asleep at the wheel,’ where workers become overly reliant on high-performance AI, withdraw from critical thinking, and follow recommendations without deliberation.
“Our research can help organizations avoid this pitfall while designing human-AI collaboration systems that keep employees actively engaged and leveraging their unique skills.”
Encouraged in part by the response to their paper, the researchers are running another experiment to further explore the dynamics of human-AI collaboration. “We have just scratched the surface in understanding this monumental revolution,” says Dellacqua. “We are excited to uncover additional insights that will help shape the future of work.”
home is where the heart is
Working remotely is another trend shaping that future. Yuye Ding and Mark (Shuai) Ma of the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Management, in their “return to office mandate,” found that when U.S. companies require employees to return to the office (RTO), I discovered that it is important. Managers would rather exercise control and blame others for problems than actually improve their work or profits. This measure reduced employee satisfaction and did not lead to increased profits for companies.
Analyzing a sample of S&P 500 companies, the study found that employee job satisfaction decreased significantly after mandatory RTOs, but there was no corresponding increase in financial performance or company value. Notably, managers themselves did not profess a strong belief that RTOs improve firm performance. Rather, RTOs are more likely to occur in companies with poor prior stock performance and under the direction of a male, powerful chief executive, suggesting a strategy of scapegoating employees for management deficiencies. are.
This paper has been downloaded more than 23,000 times on SSRN. Ma added that the case has been mentioned more than 100 times in the media and the authors have been interviewed by the US radio network NPR, the Washington Post, Fortune, Forbes and other news outlets around the world. “Many of the SSRN downloads come from practitioners such as policy advisors, business executives, and rank-and-file workers affected by RTO obligations,” Ma said.
“In business research, we believe it is important to study socially relevant and impactful issues and provide timely feedback on such issues. This confirmation is very rewarding and provides further motivation to continue research on this important topic.”
One way to encourage this kind of research, Marr argues, is to have more conferences that involve both practitioners and researchers. “In doing so, researchers can present their findings to support practitioners’ decision-making and learn more about what are the important issues facing practitioners and real-world decision-makers. You can,” he says.
“Through our discussions with practitioners, we were able to learn more about other issues that many companies consider when determining return-to-office obligations,” Ma explains. “For example, some practitioners believed that working in an office benefits employees’ mental health by improving work-life balance and reducing burnout. We conducted a follow-up study to see how it affected the mental health of our employees.”
sustainable investment
Another top 10 most downloaded paper: “Unproductive Sustainable Investment: The Impact of Brown and Green Companies,” by Samuel Hertzmark of Boston University’s Carroll School of Management and Kelly Hsu of the Yale School of Management. “Resilience” argues as follows while investing in “. Green” (environmentally friendly) companies are meant to help the planet, but they can actually make “brown” (polluting) companies worse off without really helping green companies much.
Basically, even if green companies borrow less, their environmental pollution will not change much. However, when “brown” companies face higher costs, they may pollute even more, suggesting that both types of companies need to better design their investment strategies to drive real improvement. Suggests.
The authors introduce a new measure called “impact elasticity” that quantifies the change in a company’s environmental impact due to a change in its cost of capital. They argue for a more nuanced approach that not only incentivizes the improvement of brown businesses, but also recognizes the significant emissions reductions that can be achieved through meaningful investment strategies in high-emitting sectors.
It also calls for a reassessment of sustainable investment practices to increase their effectiveness in achieving real environmental progress.
“Our biggest hope with this paper is that it has an impact on how sustainable investing is practiced in practice,” says Hertzmark. “By presenting facts that can be used to stimulate debate, our research can influence how these important decisions are implemented in practice and ensure that those decisions have the greatest possible impact on the climate. We want to ensure that we make an impact.
“It’s humbling to know that people find your research interesting, and hopefully it’s a sign that people are engaging with our research and changing their behavior because of it.” I hope so.”
