Research at the Bernstein Center

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The Bernstein Center is proud to support distinguished faculty and doctoral students in their innovative and relevant research work. Each project is pertinent to the Center's mission and long-term vision, providing insightful conclusions that help shape the future of values-based leadership and ethical decision-making. Explore our research grant recipients:

2024-25 Grant Recipients Sponsored by The Bernstein Center

  • Abdullah Althenayyan, PhD Candidate, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "Junk Fees, What Are They, and How They Affect Fairness Perceptions and Purchase Decisions"
  • Katie Boland, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Understanding Loss at Work and in Life"
  • Vanessa Burbano, Sidney Taurel Associate Professor of Business, Management Division
    • Research Project: "The Effect of Corporate Activism on Government Relations"
  • Dante Donati, Assistant Professor of Business, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "Trolls or Allies? The Impact of Comments on Social Media Campaigns"
  • Amanda Dos Santos, PhD Candidate, Finance Division
    • Research Project: "Beyond the Aggregate: The Heterogeneous Effects of FX Shocks"
  • Brandon Freiberg, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Automation and the Democratization of Technology Startups"
  • Aastha Mittal, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "To Share or Not to Share? Managing Personal Identity in Professional Settings"
  • Michael Morris, Chavkin-Chang Professor of Leadership, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Lame Ducks and Loose Ethics: Proximity to Term Limits Tempts Officials to Sell Out"
  • Vicki Morwitz, Bruce Greenwald Professor of Business, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "How Fees and Surcharges Affect Consumers and Competitions"
  • Mike White, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Projects: "Motivated LGBTQ+ Allyship: How Perceived Motives Shape (in)Authentic Allyship Perceptions"
    • "Awe Increases Racial Diversity in Professional Networks by Activating Values of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion"


2024-25 Grant Recipients Sponsored by The Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership

  • Mabel Abraham, Barbara and Meyer Feldberg Associate Professor of Business, Management Division
    • Research Projects: "Paying—and Punishing—It Forward: How Misrecognized Evaluators Reproduce Their Unmeritocratic Experiences in Peer Evaluations"
  • Daniel Ames, Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Professor of Business, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Listen Up!: Tackling Barriers to Listening during Ethical Disagreement"
  • Wei Cai, Assistant Professor of Business, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Generative AI and Workplace Culture"
  • Moran Cerf, Adjunct Professor of Business, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "How Leaders Can be Better Trained to Make Critical, Life-Altering, Ethical Choices"
  • Adam Galinsky, Paul Calello Professor of Leadership and Ethics, Management Division
    • Research Project: "The Universal Roots of Inspiring Leadership"
  • Genevieve Gregorich, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "The Strategic Consequences of Sociopolitical Activism"
  • Shunsuke Matsuno, PhD Candidate, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Leadership and Conformity and in Organizations"
  • Christine Nguyen, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "The Effect of Status on Apology Likelihood and Quality"
  • Joaquin Peris, PhD Candidate, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Voluntary Disclosure and the Internal Information Environment of the Firm"

2023-24 Grant Recipients

Sponsored by The Bernstein Center

  • Silvia Bellezza, Associate Professor of Business, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "The Uneven Fluidity of Gender-Fluid"
      • *Co-Sponsored by Columbia Business School's Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Nandil Bhatia, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Institutional Investors, Network Ties, and Shared Sensemaking Under Uncertainty"
  • Thomas Bourveau, Associate Professor of Business, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "The Impact of Mandatory Board Diversity Disclosure: Evidence from the NASDAQ Rule"
  • Maayan Malter, PhD Candidate, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "Disability Research in Consumer Behavior"
  • Daniel Russman, PhD Candidate, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "Diversifying the Wealth of Wellness: Exploring Mindful Health Consumption in Marginalized Communities"
      • *Co-Sponsored by Columbia Business School's Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Meha Sadasivam, PhD Candidate, Finance Division
    • Research Project: "Getting the Green Signal(s) - Climate Beliefs and Asset Prices"
  • Li Yang, PhD Candidate, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Innovation in Firms: Experimentation and Strategic Communication"


Sponsored by The Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership

  • Laura Boudreau, Assistant Professor of Business, Economics Division
    • Research Project: "Secure Reporting Systems to Support Healthy Workplace Culture"
  • Wei Cai, Assistant Professor of Business, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "The Origin of Organizational Culture"
  • Donna Hitscherich, Senior Lecturer in Discipline in Business, Finance Division
    • Research Project: "Women in Finance: In Our Own Backyard"
  • Maren Hoff, PhD Candidate, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "The Vicious Cycle of Status Insecurity"
  • Rebecca Ponce de Leon, Assistant Professor of Business, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Companies of the People, By the People, For the People? Investigating Support for Participatory Practices in Workplaces"
  • Isaac Raymundo, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Status and Promotion Systems"

2022-23 Grant Recipients

Sponsored by The Bernstein Center

  • Melanie Brucks, Assistant Professor of Business, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "The Great Equalizer: Does Virtual Interaction Reduce Gender Disparities in Classroom Participation?"
      • *Co-Sponsored by Columbia Business School's Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Brian Lee, PhD Candidate, Finance Division
    • Research Project: "Car Dealership Financing and Financial Distress Outcomes"
  • Lan Luo, PhD Candidate, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "Decomposing the Impact of Gender on Facial Discrimination: Using GANs for Modular Stimuli"
  • Oded Netzer, Vice Dean for Research; Arthur J. Samberg Professor of Business, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "Diversity in U.S. Advertising in Times of Racial Unrest"
      • *Co-Sponsored by Columbia Business School's Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion


Sponsored by The Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership

  • Vanessa Burbano, Sidney Taurel Associate Professor of Business, Management Division & Dan Wang, Lambert Family Associate Professor of Social Enterprise, Management Division
    • Research Project: "How do firms' reputations shape their responses to social movements? Evidence from the Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate movements"
  • Wei Cai, Assistant Professor of Business, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Nurturing Organizational Culture through Employee Selection"
  • Anthony Le, PhD Candidate, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Mandatory Financial Reporting and Employees' Labor Market Outcomes"
  • Mike White, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Organizations Recruit More Inclusive Employees via Costly Diversity-Focused Claims"

2021-22 Grant Recipients

Sponsored by The Bernstein Center

  • Valerie Purdie-Greenaway, Columbia Business School Affiliate; Associate Professor of Psychology
    • Research Project: "The Social Life of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Brain: What Makes DEI Research Findings Credible in Organizations?"
  • Lisa Yao Liu, Assistant Professor of Business, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "How Do Competing Regulators Regulate Conflict of Interest (COI) Disclosure? Evidence from Fairness Opinion Providers' COI Disclosures"
  • Sonia Kim, PhD Candidate, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "If you Like the Brand I know, We Can Have a Conversation: The Effect of Brand Preference on Willingness to Discuss Controversial Social Issues"
  • JunJun Quan, PhD Candidate, Finance Division
    • Research Project: "Long-Short Fight Under the Influence of Passive Governance"
  • Stefan Walz, PhD Candidate, Finance Division
    • Research Project: "Financing Climate Change: Bank Lending and Dirty Firms"
       

Sponsored by The Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership

  • Wei Cai, Assistant Professor of Business, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Inclusive Leaders"
  • James T. Carter, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "The Ricky Business of Organizational Claims: Effects of (In)consistency between Organizational Claims and Outcomes"
  • Brandon Freiberg, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Spillover Effects of Diversity Initiatives"
  • Jean Joohyun Oh, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Working Class Founder: The Effects of Social Class Origins on Entrepreneurship"
       

Learn more about our 2021-22 grant recipients.

2020-21 Grant Recipients

Sponsored by The Bernstein Center

  • Kim Cramer, PhD Candidate, Finance Division
    • Research Project: "Access to Banks and Household Resilience"
  • Ran Liu, PhD Candidate, Finance Division
    • Research Project: "Imperfect Data Processing and Capital Market Opening in China"
  • Vrinda Mittal, PhD Candidate, Finance Division
    • Research Project: "Role of Nonbank Lending for Middle-Market Firms"
  • Kunjue Wang, PhD Candidate, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Foreign Currency and Firm's Operating Decisions"
  • Naz Koont, PhD Candidate, Finance Division
    • Research Project: "Branch Quality and Bank Market Power: Demographic Determinants"
       

Sponsored by The Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership

  • Sophie Cho, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Formation of Organizational Values in Entrepreneurial Firms"
  • Qingkai Dong, PhD Candidate, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Financial Statements: Microscopes on Micro-governments"
  • Maayan Malter, PhD Candidate, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "Role of Identity and Moral Trade Offs"

 

Learn more about our 2020-21 grant recipients.

2019-20 Grant Recipients

Sponsored by The Bernstein Center

  • Shayan Dashmiz, PhD Candidate, Finance Division
    • Research Project: "Concavified Contracts: A Remedy for Managerial Risk-Taking"
  • Jenna Song, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Empty Claims or Real Commitments? Decoupling and the Gender Pay Gap"
  • Yegor Tkachenko, PhD Candidate, Marketing Division
    • Research Project: "Toward an Ethical Clearing House: Scalable Ranking Under Ethical Constraints"
  • Dan Wang, David W. Zalaznick Associate Professor of Business, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Does Diversity Bolster Social Activism Against Corporations? An Experimental Study"
       

Sponsored by The Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership

  • Wei Jiang, Arthur F. Burns Professor of Free and Competitive Enterprise, Finance Department
    • Research Project: "Women in the Boardroom: Why does Change come at a Glacial Pace?"
  • Zaijia Liu, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Reactions to Observed Norm Violations: Differences between Moral and Conventional Domains and the Differential Role of Internalization"
  • Christian Moser, Assistant Professor of Business, Economics Department
    • Research Project: "The Value of Leadership and Workplace Attributes in the Labor Market"
       

Learn more about our 2019-20 grant recipients.

2018-19 Grant Recipients

Sponsored by The Bernstein Center

  • Vanessa Burbano, Sidney Taurel Associate Professor of Business, Management Division
    • Research Project: "Employee Unethical Behavior and Social Responsibility: What Motivates Misconduct on the Job?"
  • Fabrizio Dell'Acqua, PhD Candidate, Management Division
    • Research Project: "CSR and Political Access: A Randomized Field Experiment."
  • Minh Phan, PhD Candidate, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Bank Executives' Short-Termism and Financial Stability."
  • Shiva Rajgopal, Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Does Financial Misconduct Pay Off Even When Discovered?"
  • Jing Wen, PhD Candidate, Accounting Division
    • Research Project: "Evidence from Basel III on Heightened Capital Requirements: Risk Mitigation from the Banking Industry to Other Industries."

Learn more about our 2018-19 grant recipients.

Go in depth with some of our researchers and check out Research Briefs for Leaders.