Business Talk

Dr. Michael Nagler, Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and a pioneer in the academic study of peacebuilding, shares key insights from his acclaimed book, The Search for a Nonviolent Future. Prof. Nagler argues that modern violence is reinforced by mass media narratives that portray people as separate and competitive, yet he sees soc...

Dr. Ericka Johnson, Deputy Head of Department and Professor of Gender and Society at Linköping University, Sweden, joins us to discuss her fascinating research, “Useful and Transparent Synthetic Data?” Synthetic tabular data is machine-generated, spreadsheet-like data that learns the statistical patterns in a real dataset and then creates new rows that resemble it without copying actual records. I...

Liz Paushter, Executive Director of the Badavas Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning at Bentley University, discusses her fascinating work, “Play-Based Learning and Faculty Development: Transforming Teaching Excellence.” She explains how her play-based approach to faculty development began with a moment of honesty in a department meeting: while faculty worried that students were afraid t...

Dr. Javiera Barandiarán, Associate Professor in the Global Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, shares key insights from her book, “Living Minerals: Nature, Trade, and Power in the Race for Lithium.” In this episode, Dr. Javiera Barandiarán, Associate Professor in the Global Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, unpacks the central arguments of...

Dr. Mark Huselid, Distinguished Professor of Workforce Analytics and Director of the Center for Workforce Analytics at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, shares key insights from his acclaimed books, “The HR Scorecard: Linking People, Strategy, and Performance.” He explains why many common HR metrics (like time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, and training hours) tend to measure tr...

Dr. Tucker Marion and Dr. Sebastian Fixson discuss their book, “The Innovation Navigator: Transforming Your Organization in the Era of AI.” In this episode of Business Talk, host Deepak Bhatt speaks with innovation scholars Dr. Tucker J. Marion (Northeastern University) and Dr. Sebastian Fixson (Babson College) about their expanded-edition book, The Innovation Navigator: Transforming Your Organiza...

Professor Tammy Madsen, W.M. Keck Foundation Chair of Strategic Management and Innovation at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, shares insights from her book, “Co-Innovation Platforms: A Playbook for Enabling Innovation and Ecosystem Growth.” Professor Tammy Madsen, W.M. Keck Foundation Chair of Strategic Management and Innovation at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara U...

Dr. Guneet Kaur Nagpal, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Ivey Business School, Western University, joins us to discuss her research, “Do Time Windfalls Drive Attention to Blockchain? Evidence from COVID-19 Lockdowns.” Drawing on online search behavior across counties in California and New York, she explains how extra discretionary time translated into a measurable rise in blockchain-related sea...

Dr. Valery Yakubovich, Executive Director of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, discusses his research titled “A Brave New World of Human Resources Research: Navigating Perils and Identifying Grand Challenges of the GenAI Revolution.” In this episode of Business Talk, Deepak Bhatt speaks with Dr. Valery Yakubovich, Executive Director of...

Professor Ted London, the Ford Motor Company Clinical Professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, shares key insights from his acclaimed book, “The Base of the Pyramid: Promise Building Businesses with Impact and Scale.” In this episode of Business Talk, Professor Ted London explains how “Base of the Pyramid” thinking has evolved from a fortune-finding mindset, treating low-...

Prof. Robin Landa, Distinguished Professor at Michael Graves College within the Robert Busch School of Design at Kean University, explores the central ideas from her book, “Branding as a Cultural Force: Purpose, Responsibility, and Resonance.” In this episode of Business Talk, Prof. Robin Landa, Distinguished Professor at Michael Graves College within the Robert Busch School of Design at Kean Univ...

Dr. Marco Marabelli, Professor of Computer Information Systems and Associate Director of the Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University, shares key insights from his acclaimed book “AI, Ethics, and Discrimination in Business: The DEI Implications of Algorithmic Decision-Making.” Dr. Marabelli explains why algorithmic decision-making often reproduces real-world inequities: machines re...

Prof. Gemma Calvert, Professor of Practice at Nanyang Business School's College of Business and Deputy Director of the Nanyang Centre for Marketing and Technology, shares key insights from her research, Multisensory Neuromarketing in the Age of AI. In an enlightening Business Talk episode, Prof. Gemma Calvert, Professor of Practice at Nanyang Business School and Deputy Director of the Nanyang Cent...

Dr. Mohamed Hussein, Assistant Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, shares insights from his study “You Versus We: How Pronoun Use Shapes Perceptions of Receptiveness,” which examines how subtle shifts in pronoun choice influence perceptions of openness in communication. His research reveals that using “we” fosters greater receptiveness and cooperation, while frequent use of “you” ma...

Dr. Martina Pasquini, Associate Professor of Strategy at IE Business School, discusses her research titled “For-Purpose Enterprises and Hybrid Organizational Forms: Implications for Governance and Strategy.” In this conversation, we explore how organizations balance their social purpose with strategic and economic objectives. The conversation examines how organizations combine commercial engines w...

Dr. Nathan Dietz, Research Professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, Research Director at the Do Good Institute, and Co Investigator with the interdisciplinary Maryland Democracy Initiative, shares insights from his research titled “Social Connectedness and Generosity: How Associational Life and Social Connections Influence Volunteering and Giving - and Vice Versa.” Dr. Na...

Dr. Melanie Brucks, Assistant Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, shares insights from her research, “Clicks, Drags, and Whips: When Taking Digital Surveys, Your Movements Matter.” She explores how subtle variations in digital survey interfaces can shape participants’ responses, and how these small differences can accumulate to create significant effects. Dr. Melanie Brucks’ researc...

Dr. Carles Lalueza-Fox, a distinguished Spanish biologist, shares key insights from his acclaimed book "Identity: What DNA Can Tell Us About Ourselves", exploring how genetics provides novel, fascinating, and objective perspectives on human identity, at a time when the concept of identity has never been more significant. Dr. Carles Lalueza-Fox, a distinguished Spanish biologist and pioneer in anci...

Dr. Maria Ballesteros-Sola, Associate Professor of Management at the MVS School of Business & Economics and Director of the Entrepreneurship & Small Business Institute, joins the conversation to share insights from her research, “The Hybrid Organization Advantage: Lessons from Social Enterprises and B Corps.” She discusses how hybrid organizations and certified B Corps effectively balance profit w...

Dr. Michelle Amazeen, Associate Dean of Research, Associate Professor of Mass Communication, and Director of the Communication Research Center at Boston University’s College of Communication, delves into the key ideas from her widely praised book Content Confusion: News Media, Native Advertising, and Policy in an Era of Disinformation. Dr. Michelle unpacks how native advertising blurs the line bet...

Dr. Heather Cairns-Lee, Affiliate Professor of Leadership and Communication at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Switzerland, shares insights from her book Clean Language Interviewing: Principles and Applications for Researchers and Practitioners. The book introduces a powerful method for asking non-leading questions to uncover authentic experiences across research, bus...

Dr. Winnie Jiang, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behaviour and The Goltz Fellow in Business and Society at INSEAD, discusses her research, “Breaking Free or Locking In: How Socially Disadvantaged Individuals Achieve or Reject an Aspired Identity in an Entrepreneurial Context,” which explores how individuals navigate the pursuit or rejection of an aspired identity when it conflicts with thei...

Dr. Teresa Amabile, Edsel Bryant Ford Professor Emerita at Harvard Business School, discusses key ideas from her book Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You, which explores retirement as a major life transition, both exciting and challenging and offers insights that go beyond finances and health, focusing instead on identity, relationships, and creating a fulfilling post-career life. Profess...

Dr. Anup Srivastava, Canada Research Chair in Accounting – Decision-Making and Capital Markets at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, discusses his research titled “Do Digital Technology Firms Earn Excess Profits? Alternative Perspectives.” In this study, he explores whether digital technology firms particularly major tech giants truly earn excess profits, and examines whether...

Dr. Peter Krapp, a Professor of Film & Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine, where he is also affiliated with the Departments of English and Music in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, explores key insights from his acclaimed book Computing Legacies: Digital Cultures of Simulation. In this episode, he reflects on how pre-internet systems, computer museums, emulation, technostal...