The Bernstein Center shares its faculty and graduate student supported research through digestible summaries that highlight real-world applications for leaders.
Mixed Signals: Employer and Employee Responses to Generative AI
Sponsored by the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership
May 2026 — In "Employer and Employee Responses to Generative AI: Early Evidence,” Bernstein Faculty Leader and research grant recipient Wei Cai explains the gap between employer's strategic adaptation to AI adoption and employee's anxiety around how AI will continue to reshape the workforce—even for white-collar workers.
Timing is Everything: Why LGBTQ+ Allyship During Pride Month Could Backfire
Sponsored by the Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics
November 2025 — In "When You Say It: How the Timing of LGBTQ+ Allyship Displays
Shapes Evaluations of Organizations,” Columbia Business School PhD candidate and research grant recipient Michael W. White reveals why the timing of corporate LGBTQ+ allyship displays significantly affects how authentic they appear to LGBTQ+ stakeholders—with potentially counterproductive results. See coverage in Harvard Business Review.
Pay it Forward: How Unfairness Repeats in Peer Evaluations
Sponsored by the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership
April 2025 — In "Pay it Forward: How Unfairness Repeats in Peer Evaluations," Bernstein Faculty Leader and research grant recipient Mabel Abraham pinpoints how people's prior experiences with being misrecognized—having gotten either more or less than they deserved—affect how they later evaluate others.
A Two-Way Street: Embracing Diversity in Digital Advertising
Sponsored by the Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics
September 2024 — In "A Two-Way Street: Embracing Diversity in Digital Advertising," research grant recipient Oded Netzer suggests social movements can influence the supply and demand of advertising and challenge the widely accepted notion of in-group favoritism within the context of diversity.
Good Influence: The Spillover Effect of New, Culture-Fit Employees
Sponsored by the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership
February 2024 — In "The Spillover Effect of Adopting a Formalized Culture-fit Measurement," Bernstein Faculty Leader and research grant recipient Wei Cai discovers that when a company hits a critical mass of new, culture-fit employees—hires that already hold company-aligned values—the performance of existing employees will improve significantly. See coverage in Industry Week.
A Unique Role: How Brands Can Transcend Polarization
Sponsored by the Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics
October 2023 — In "A Unique Role: How Brands Can Transcend Polarization," Columbia Business School PhD candidate and research grant recipient Sonia Kim shows brand preference is a stronger driver than demographics when it comes to creating a willingness to discuss controversial issues. Thus, brands can help reduce the increasing polarization in society today and foster an appreciation for differences of opinion in communities. See coverage in Sustainable Brands.
Banks Contribute to Better Health Outcomes in Developing Countries
Sponsored by the Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics
January 2023 — In "Banks Contribute to Better Health Outcomes in Developing Countries," Columbia Business School PhD candidate and research grant recipient Kim Fe Cramer, provides empirical evidence from a natural experiment in India to uncover surprising links between healthcare marketplaces and positive community outcomes. See coverage in Project Syndicate.
Fast and Ethical: Breaking the Speed Limit on Responsible Content Recommendations
Sponsored by the Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics
February 2022 — In "Scaling up Ranking under Constraints for Live Recommendations by Replacing Optimization with Prediction," Columbia Business School PhD candidate and research grant recipient Yegor Tkachenko, along with co-authors Wassim Dhaouadi (Stanford University) and Professor Kamel Jedidi (Columbia Business School), focus on digital platforms and a new, predictive approach to generate ethical content recommendations. The team highlights the importance of the user experience in regard to page-load speeds, and created their algorithm to work without perceptible slowdowns. See coverage in Venture Beat.
Money Isn't Everything: The Value of Non-Pay Attributes at Work
Sponsored by The Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership
June 2021 — In "The Gender Pay Gap: Micro Sources and Macro Consequences," Bernstein Faculty Leader and research grant recipient Christian Moser, focuses on gender equity in the labor market. Moser highlights the value both men and women place on non-pay attributes, such as benefits, hours flexibility, and parental leave, to illustrate that salary imbalance is only a portion of the gender pay gap controversy. See coverage in Thomson Reuters Foundation News.
Breaking Down Barriers: Encouraging Board Diversity Through Turnover
Sponsored by The Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership
March 2021 — In "Diversity Through Turnover: How to Overcome the Glacial Pace Toward Board Diversity?,"Bernstein Faculty Leader and research grant recipient Wei Jiang, provides an overview of recent developments in the gender diversity of U.S. corporate boards. Jiang highlights lack of board turnover as a key factor in the slow adjustment as well as proxy contests, which conversely contribute to improved gender diversity on boards. See coverage in Corporate Knights.