Research at Gies

Gathering Knowledge, Powering Innovation

At Gies Business, we promise our students that an education is just the start – that here they can discover their purpose. Our faculty are at the center of that promise, guiding students to challenge assumptions, to be inventive, and to develop their own style. Our exceptional faculty conduct cutting-edge research that regularly impacts industry and helps business decisions get made.

Gies Business Research Lab

Business increasingly needs accurate, actionable research – and more and more, the research they need requires active interaction and engagement with human participants. The Gies Business Research Lab (GBRL) is dedicated to supporting Gies faculty in performing groundbreaking research on business decision-making with human subjects. The industry-leading, innovative research performed in this lab can address critical societal needs through the transfer and application of knowledge and can help organizations and individuals make effective, efficient decisions.

GBRL resources are available to all Gies researchers conducting human subjects research. GBRL focuses on responding to the emerging needs of Gies researchers. GBRL provides tangible support and structure to enhance excellence in data collection, analysis, and publication, including access to student and non-student research participants, dedicated research and participant management systems, study implementation support, and state-of-the-art lab space. GBRL is also home to our groundbreaking alumni research study participation program: the Gies Business Research Panel.

Data Science Research Service

The Data Science Research Service (DSRS) drives research within the Gies College of Business by assisting students, faculty, and staff with their data science, machine learning, computational infrastructure, and data acquisition needs. The DSRS works as a component of the Gies Disruption initiative in efforts to make Gies the most technologically-forward and data-capable business college in the world.

Illinois Strategic Organizations Initiative

The Illinois Strategic Organizations Initiative (ISOI) is developing the next generation of thought leadership in the design and management of organizations and their strategic agendas. We conduct, sponsor, and promote world-class interdisciplinary research and thought leadership on strategic organizations. Our collaborative efforts create the framework for building, fostering, and disseminating an innovative research agenda globally.

Research Stories

Shah named CAS Associate for 2021-2022

Nov 30, 2020, 11:48 by Aaron Bennett

Gies College of Business professor Sonali Shah has been named an 2021-2022 Associate for the Center for Advanced Study (CAS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, pending board of trustees approval. Shah, associate professor of business administration and Robert and Karen May Faculty Fellow, is being recognized for her exceptional scholarly achievement.

Each year, University of Illinois faculty are invited to submit scholarly or creative proposals for consideration by the Center’s permanent professors. Faculty members with winning proposals are appointed Associates and Fellows and are awarded one semester of release time to pursue their projects in the coming academic year. Professors, Associates, and Fellows are invited to participate in CAS events and have opportunities to present their work to the CAS community.

Sonali Shah_news “The CAS Associate fellowship affords me the time to uncover the factors that reduce post-harvest loss and thereby benefit smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and their communities by reducing hunger and poverty,” said Shah.

As a CAS Associate, Shah will conduct research about innovation and technology adoption. She will look at how aid agencies can create scalable, self-sustaining, system-wide interventions to improve social welfare and incomes. She will also work to uncover the factors that lead some individuals, and not others, to continue using and promoting the underlying technologies over time such that the systems continue to function. Her research is based on field data collected from smallholder farmers in Kenya & Tanzania. Over time, she intends to investigate if and how similar interventions can be used to solve critical problems in a variety of contexts.

“The Department is thrilled Professor Shah has received this honor, in recognition of the important research she is conducting on how technology adoption in farming can help reduce food loss in the global supply chain,” said Cele Otnes, head of the Department of Business Administration. “This interdisciplinary work strategically aligns with other initiatives on campus that explore critical issues related to food security and technology and innovation management.”

Established in 1959, the Center for Advanced Study is charged with promoting the highest levels of scholarship and discourse. Today CAS supports the extraordinary resources at the University of Illinois by encouraging and promoting exemplary scholarship in all areas of knowledge.

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