Gies College of Business

Study finds workplace leaderboards can encourage – or undermine – employee generosity

Mar 26, 2026

A new Gies Business study, published in The Accounting Review, finds leaderboards that rank recognition given spur more helping—while “recognition received” can backfire. Here’s why and what to do.

Accountancy Faculty Research

PODCAST: The Pollution Shell Game - Why Divestment Doesn’t Always Leave the Planet Greener

Mar 24, 2026

Firms can sell their dirty plants but keep using that plant's output. Gies Business Professor Qiping Xu reveals the "cosmetic redrawing" of corporate boundaries and why divestment sometimes fails the planet.

Faculty Finance Podcasts Research

Why media attention on climate action can backfire for clean companies

Mar 19, 2026

New research from Gies College of Business finds that for already low-polluting public companies, increased media attention on their climate actions can reduce financial performance - even when coverage is positive.

Business Administration Faculty Research

Study reveals which factors are important in identifying cross-industry competition

Mar 16, 2026

New research from Gies College of Business explains how cultural embeddedness and social salience predict cross-industry competition.

Business Administration Faculty Research

The double bind of beauty work: Looking real in a fake-perfect world

Mar 12, 2026

Rosanna Smith, associate professor of marketing, looks at the balance between looking one’s best and being authentic in her conceptual review article, “The Double Bind of Beauty Work.”

Business Administration Faculty Research

PODCAST: How Human-Machine Teamwork is Transforming Healthcare

Mar 10, 2026

Eren Ahsen's research finds that a "delegation" model (where algorithms triage low-risk cases and flag the tricky ones for human experts) could cut mammogram screening costs by up to 30% without sacrificing clinical accuracy.

Business Administration Faculty Podcasts Research

When adjusted earnings make for smarter deals

Mar 06, 2026

Adjusted earnings are often criticized, but new research suggests they can actually lead to smarter M&A deals when used responsibly. Gies Business professor Ciao-Wei Chen explores how high-quality, transparent non-GAAP disclosures reduce information gaps and improve acquisition outcomes.

Accountancy Faculty Research

Study: How self-affirmation helps auditors use AI-supported advice

Feb 26, 2026

Two experiments show that brief self-affirmation exercises—having auditors reflect on their strengths—significantly increase their willingness to rely on AI-generated information, suggesting a simple way firms can improve AI adoption.

Accountancy Faculty Research

PODCAST: How Gig Work Fuels Entrepreneurship

Feb 24, 2026

In this episode of Research Reverb, Professor Spyros Lagaras digs into his research exploring how common it is for gig economy workers to use that experience as a pathway to entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship Faculty Finance Podcasts Research

Study: SEC reorganization, scrutiny may reduce corporate risk-taking

Feb 18, 2026

Gies Business study finds that the SEC’s 2007 expansion of regional enforcement offices, while improving oversight and reducing accounting manipulation, also made firms more risk-averse.

Accountancy Faculty Research

Unnati Narang Wins 2026 AMA TechSIG Young Scholar Award

Feb 16, 2026

The award is conferred annually by the Technology Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association to an early-career researcher whose work has made significant contributions to the theory and practice of technology-focused marketing.

Business Administration Faculty Research

Can discount grocery apps help fight hunger? New research shows promise

Feb 11, 2026

Study shows one Flashfood store reduces a county-level food insecurity rate by 0.090 percentage points, translating into approximately 860 people per county or 146,000 people across all the counties where Flashfood operates.

Business Administration Faculty Research

PODCAST: Why erasing small medical debts didn't improve financial health

Feb 10, 2026

Is erasing medical debt from credit reports just a placebo? In this episode of Research Reverb, Gies Business economist Julia Fonseca discusses research in which she and her coauthors found that withholding small medical debts from reporting had no impact on credit scores or decisions.

Faculty Finance Podcasts Research

Annual Workplace Wellbeing Report 2026 finds majority of US workers still languishing

Feb 04, 2026

Study adds new insights into how flourishing employees cope with workplace stressors and how work and ethical environments impact employee well-being.

Business Administration Faculty Research

Study: Roommate assignment can play important role in improving patient outcomes

Feb 03, 2026

Study finds placing patients with roommates who have Alzheimer’s or Alzheimer’s-related diseases (AD/ADRD) leads to a 14% higher 90-day mortality rate overall compared with placing them in private rooms.

Faculty Finance Research

Qiping Xu Wins Dimensional Fund Advisors Prize for greenwashing research

Feb 02, 2026

The Dimensional Fund Advisors Prizes are among the most prestigious in the field of finance. Winners are selected by the associate editors of the Journal of Finance, and the Distinguished Paper Prize carries with it a $10,000 award.

Faculty Finance Research

PODCAST:  From the Pitch to the Boardroom: Lessons in Global Leadership

Jan 27, 2026

In studying 355 elite national soccer teams from around the globe, Gies Business Professor Mike Szymanski finds that teams led by multicultural managers enjoy an advantage in a sport where nations from every corner of the world collide.

Business Administration Faculty Podcasts Research

Ravi Mehta honored with the Walter H. Stellner Distinguished Professor in Marketing

Jan 23, 2026

The Walter H. Stellner Professorship is a prestigious honor at the University of Illinois that recognizes excellence in the study of marketing.

Business Administration Faculty Research

Julia Fonseca wins 2025 Brattle Group First Prize for mortgage lock-in research

Jan 21, 2026

The Brattle Group Prizes in Corporate Finance recognize outstanding research published in The Journal of Finance, which is widely recognized as one of the foremost journals in its field.

Faculty Finance Research

From ChatGPT-3.5 to 4.0: Follow-up study finds better math, same financial risks

Jan 19, 2026

A follow-up study testing ChatGPT-4.0 found it shows improved organization, fewer math errors, and slightly better risk awareness than version 3.5, but still gives flawed, poorly prioritized financial advice and sometimes misleading “false empathy.”

Faculty Finance Research

Gies College of Business
515 East Gregory Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: 217-300-7327