Johnson School Professor Robert Frank
Releases New Book
"What Price the Moral High Ground?" Hits the Marketplace
Robert H. Frank, PhD, the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management and professor of economics at the SC Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, has recently released his new book entitled, "What Price the Moral High Ground?: Ethical Dilemmas in Competitive Environments."
Published by Princeton University Press, Frank's book challenges the notion that doing well is accomplished only at the expense of doing good. By exploring economics, psychology and biology, Frank argues that honest individuals often succeed because their commitment to principle makes them more attractive trading partners.
"I hope this new book provides insight at to the choices we make in our everyday personal lives as well the decisions we make as business people," said Frank. "I hope all readers will have a better understanding of why people make the decisions they make."
Drawing on research he has conducted and published over the past decade, Frank challenges familiar stereotypes by describing how people create bonds that sustain cooperation. He describes how people often choose modestly paid positions in the public and non-profit sectors over comparable, higher-paying jobs in the for-profit sector; how studying economics appears to inhibit cooperation; how social norms often deter opportunistic behavior; how a given charitable organization manages to appeal to donors with seemingly incompatible motives; how concerns about status and fairness affect salaries in organizations; and how socially responsible firms often prosper despite the higher costs associated with their business practices.
Frank's arguments have important implications for the conduct of leaders in private as well as public life. For, as he concludes, the better we understand personal motivation in competitive environments, the better we can structure organizations and public policies to promote our true ends.
You can read more about the book at http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/7602.html.
Professor Robert H. Frank holds a B.S. in mathematics from Georgia Institute of Technology, a M.A. in statistics and a Ph. D. in economics from UC-Berkeley. He is the H. J. Louis Professor of Management and Economics at the Johnson School and was the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy in the College of Arts and Sciences from 1991-2001. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Nepal from 1966 to 1968, chief economist for the Civil Aeronautics Board for 1978 to 1980, a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in 1992-1993, and served as the French American Foundation's Professor of American Civilization at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris in 2000-2001. Professor Frank's books include Choosing the Right Pond, Passions Within Reason, Microeconomics and Behavior, and Luxury Fever. The Winner-Take-All Society, co-authored with Philip Cook, was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times, and was included in Business Week's list of the ten best books for 1995.
The Johnson School at Cornell University, founded in 1946, is Cornell's graduate school of management. The Johnson School combines leading edge intellectual capital with "real time, real world" business practice and is among the top business schools in the world. The school is distinguished by a diverse, multinational community working closely within a small, interactive and intensely collaborative environment. The Johnson School offers a wide variety of opportunities for experiential learning, such as immersion curricula and student-run venture capital and mutual funds. Programs include MBA and doctoral degrees, a twelve-month MBA option for students with advanced degrees in science or engineering, an executive MBA and a variety of customized executive education programs. The Johnson School is located at the center of Cornell University-the largest of the Ivy League schools and one of the world's top research institutions.
Randall Sawyer
Public Relations Officer
607 255-8006
rs348@cornell.edu
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