Cornell University The Johnson School at Cornell University

Research

The BSL is used by faculty in almost every area of business research. Experimental research in business tends to be highly interdisciplinary. Here are a number of questions that BSL researchers have been examining:

Financial Markets

  • Do "Day Traders" make markets more or less efficient? (Bloomfield, O'Hara and Saar)
  • Does improved disclosure increase firms' stock prices? (Bloomfield, O'Hara and Zhou)
  • How does the cost of information affect market behavior and investor welfare? (Bloomfield and Zhou)
  • Why do firms "smooth" earnings? (Bloomfield and Hales)
  • What causes trading volume in markets-and is it rational? (Hales)
  • How do investors interpret patterns of returns, growth and other financial statistics? (Eisenstein)

Negotiations

  • How does changing the process of planning in negotiations alter negotiation outcomes (Mannix and Proell)
  • How does previous bargaining experience affect bargaining success? (O'Connor, Arnold and Burris)

Teams, Groups and Firms

  • How are financial markets like small groups? (Bloomfield, Libby and Nelson)
  • How do relationships between superiors and subordinates affect group decision-making?

Managerial Decision-Making

  • How can students be taught how to avoid the "sunk-cost fallacy?" (Shanteau)
  • How do firms use cost accounting systems to make production and sales decisions? (Bloomfield)
  • Why do people fool themselves by distorting information to support the leading alternative during a decision?
  • How do decision makers manage to bias their evaluation of information when they believe that they're not doing it and would stop it if they could?

Consumer Behavior

  • How do consumer theories influence consumer judgment and inference-making? (Teifel & Stayman)
  • How does positive mood impact consumer judgment and cognitive processes (Isen and Labroo)
  • How do Popular Products and Brand Names Induce Mood? (Isen, Labroo, and Durlach)
  • Responsiveness to change in a prisoner's dilemma (Labroo, Isen, and Shanteau)
  • How does context affect behavior in on-line auctions (Labroo and Babbes)