Each year our academic cousins at UT Dallas compile a faculty research productivity ranking of the world’s top 100 business schools. This year McCombs climbed two spots to no. 9 in the world, edging ahead of Columbia University and INSEAD, headquartered in France, to take the new rank. McCombs has enjoyed top-10 status in six of the past eight rankings, and in the other two instances, it came in 11th. 

We have high expectations at the school regarding the scope, quality, and influence of our intellectual capital, and the balance between knowledge creation and teaching excellence. 

Some of our success in meeting those expectations can be attributed to putting resources in the right place, including the influence of academic role models such as Laura Starks, associate dean of research and professor of finance. She notes that the best research has life far beyond academia.

“Faculty research influences other thought leaders due to high quality scholarship, influences business practice through transmission of ideas, and influences students through bringing the research into the classroom,” Starks says.

So what kind of knowledge is coming out of McCombs? Here’s a sampling of some recent research, featured on our business knowledge website TexasEnterprise.org.

Negotiating Gender Roles

In salary negotiations, women tend to agree to monetarily worse outcomes relative to men, according to research from Assistant Professor of Management Emily Amanatullah. She hopes her work can offer practical advice to women as they prepare for negotiations. Read more.

How Investors Make Decisions

Classical economics holds that investors make rational, well-informed decisions, but bubbles and busts, not to mention the recent financial meltdown, prove that’s not entirely accurate. Professor of Accounting Lisa Koonce researches behavioral accounting and the psychology that really drives investors’ choices. Read more.

To Win Over Viewers, TV Ads Should Be Structured Like Jokes

TV ad plots that employ a series of repetitions followed by a surprising "break" tend to be more successful with audiences, says Associate Professor of Marketing Raj Raghunathan. Learn more and watch famous Super Bowl commercials to see if they hit the mark. Read more.

Why Off-Site Employees Feel Virtually Disconnected

Telecommuters and other virtual employees tend to feel they are less respected in their organizations than on-site coworkers, according to research from Associate Professor of Management Caroline Bartel. Isolation negatively affects employees regardless of how long they have worked at a company. Learn what elements of the job may be part of the problem. Read more.

Helping Companies Get the Most Out of Giving

Donation campaigns, such as a yogurt company giving to breast cancer research, are big business. U.S. firms spent $1.55 billion on cause-related marketing alliances in 2009. Professor of Marketing Wayne Hoyer’s research finds that campaigns are more successful when there is a natural fit between the company and the cause. Read more.

I hope you can spend some time exploring the research McCombs is producing and find something of value for your career or business. Congratulations to our hard-working faculty, graduate students, and staff who are at the top of the field when it comes to creating knowledge and sharing it with the world.

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UT Dallas tracks faculty publications in 24 leading business journals over a five-year period and awards points based on university affiliation at time of publication. The current ranking covers 2007 to 2011. McCombs faculty authored 229 articles in these leading journals over the current five-year window. The top-three schools in both rankings this year are The University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and the University of Michigan.