Latest Faculty Research
The strength of academic research at Bauer College has always provided a solid framework for growth that supports the business school amid shifting administrative goals and major changes in the world’s business climate.
The following top research contributions from Bauer faculty only hint at the depth and breadth of the vast expertise cultivated here and shared in academic disciplines that inform best business practices.
How Politics Influence Foreign Worker Recruitment
Faculty: Steve Sauerwald, Professor, Department of Management & Leadership
Insight: The aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” policy provided researchers with an opportunity to determine how having politicians or former politicians on corporate boards might influence an organization’s ability to hire foreign workers.
They found that when political directors sat on corporate boards, their influence resulted in more barriers to recruiting foreign workers. Shareholder meetings during periods of heightened political risk also increased those barriers. Moderating factors for the impact include having diverse boards and boards with Human Resources committees.
The findings were published in the Journal of Management in the research paper, “Political Directors and the Recruitment of Foreign Workers.”
Hey, Big Spender!
Faculty: Paolina C. Medina, Assistant Professor, Department of Finance
Insight: Researchers wondered why so many households have both liquid savings and credit card debt and conducted an experiment that tracked more than 3 million bank customers who were encouraged to save. They found that high interest credit card debt remained unchanged for the most responsive savers, giving credence to the idea that co-holding of liquid savings and credit card debt exist mainly to curb indulgent spending by oneself or a partner.
“Does Saving Cause Borrowing? Implications for the Co-Holding Puzzle,” is forthcoming in the Journal of Finance.
Distangling Partisan Marketing Messages
Faculty: Bowen Luo, Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship
Insight: The impact of positive and negative advertising in presidential elections is debated heavily, but researchers looking for definitive data have been challenged with effectively disentangling competing factors in marketing materials that drive candidate votes. Using data from the 2000 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections, Luo and other researchers develop and share a new model for discerning impact.
Their model finds interactions between incumbency status and demographic variables from surrounding counties provide the critical variation to separate ad tone. They find that positive and negative ads play fundamentally different roles, with negative ads being more effective at driving relative candidate shares, and positive ads more effective at stimulating turnout.
“Disentangling the Effects of Ad Tone on Voter Turnout and Candidate Choice in Presidential Elections,” was published by Management Science.
Deal or No Deal
Faculty: Christopher Small, Assistant Professor, Department of Accountancy & Taxation
Insight: When companies face serious legal trouble, they sometimes enter into Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) or Non-Prosecution Agreements (NPAs), deals with prosecutors that let them avoid trial in exchange for fines, reforms and cooperation. But do these agreements actually work to prevent future wrongdoing?
In a forthcoming Contemporary Accounting Research paper, Small and researchers examine what drives companies to enter these types of agreements and whether they’re likely to violate the law again afterward. By analyzing a large sample of corporate criminal cases, the researchers identify key factors influencing both the likelihood of entering an agreement and the chances of future violations.
Their findings offer practical insights for regulators designing enforcement policies and for companies seeking to strengthen compliance and reduce long-term legal risk. The research suggests that not all agreements are equally effective, and that both corporate behavior and enforcement strategies must evolve to make these deals more meaningful.
How Regulation Shapes Life-or-Death Medical Decisions
Faculty: Shubham Akshat, Assistant Professor, Department of Decision & Information Sciences , Health Systems and Population Health Sciences, Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine
Insight: In the U.S., more patients are added to the liver transplant waiting list each year than receive transplants, and every day, lives are lost while waiting. But behind each transplant is a series of complex decisions, many shaped by how transplant programs are regulated and evaluated.
In a recent study, Shubham Akshat and co-authors examine how public reporting of transplant outcomes, specifically the CMS “flagging” system, influences whether hospitals accept or reject marginal quality donor organs (such as from older donors or those with less ideal medical conditions).
Using a structural model and national transplant data from 2014–2018, the researchers find that programs under tighter scrutiny tend to decline more marginal organs, even when those could benefit sicker patients. This leads to fewer transplants overall, especially for patients in urgent need, ultimately reducing patient welfare.
The study raises important questions about how to balance transparency and performance with the realities of organ scarcity. It also offers a framework to guide future policy including potential incentives for using marginal organs and reevaluating one-size-fits-all success metrics.
“Impact of Regulation on Deceased-Donor Liver Offer Acceptance and Patient Welfare” was presented in the highly competitive healthcare Special Interest Group (SIG) track at the MSOM 2025 conference
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