Trending Topics: Top 10 Tepper School Stories of 2022

Political propaganda; pandemic implications on the bottom line; a new master’s degree program; and a focus on tech, energy, and sustainability: 2022 was a prolific year for the Tepper School.

Our faculty researchers and students dedicated their time and knowledge to society’s most pressing issues this past year. Below, we revisit the Tepper School’s most trending topics in 2022.

1. Republicans and Democrats See Their Own Party’s Falsehoods as More Acceptable

Research by Jeff Galak, Associate Professor of Marketing

Society recognizes that many politicians lie. In five new studies, researchers examined how conservative and liberal Americans responded to media reports of politicians’ falsehoods.

2. Carnegie Mellon Professor Launches ESG Index

Research by Nicholas Muller, the Lester and Judith Lave Professor of Economics, Engineering, and Public Policy

Investing according to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria has gained considerable momentum in recent years. Nicholas Muller created the ESG Index to serve as a credible, reliable source for accurate data on national trends in monetary damage from pollution.

3. Box Office Blues: Economics Students Tackle Impact of COVID-19 on Movie Theaters

Academic Excellence: Undergraduate Economics Program

Students partnered with the National Association of Movie Theaters for their senior project capstone course to put their classroom foundations to the test in an experiential learning, real-world application.

4. Tepper School Launches New Part-Time Accelerated MBA Program

Academic Excellence: MBA program

The two-year Part-Time Accelerated MBA provides a path for individuals with an undergraduate business degree or similar coursework to accelerate their MBA program and reduce tuition in the process.

5. Team Composition, Structure, Members’ Gender Influence Ability to Focus, Work Together

Research by Anita Williams Woolley, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory, and Rosalind Chow, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory

The ability of team members to work together across a range of tasks, called collective intelligence, varies significantly between teams. Research suggests that the quality and coordination of members’ focus impacts how a team develops its level of collective intelligence.

6. The Intelligent Future of Tech: From Tel Aviv to Pittsburgh

Academic Excellence: Undergraduate Business Administration

Undergraduate Business Administration alumnus Jordan Loev (BS 2022) used his passion and community involvement to bring awareness of high-tech opportunities to Tepper School students through the Israeli High Tech Conference.

7. MBA Energy Business Track Students Explore Green Hydrogen with Honda

Academic Excellence: MBA program

Students in the MBA Energy Business track worked with Honda to create a business model to explore the delivery of 24/7 green power to an industrial electricity user, a key issue with respect to renewable energy.

8. New Framework Accounts for How Moral Character Promotes Ethical Decision-Making

Research by Taya R. Cohen, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Business Ethics

In recent years, interest in moral character has grown, as has its role in promoting ethical behavior within organizations. A new set of studies developed the character lens perspective to account for patterns in how individuals make sense of and comprehend ethical choices and situations.

9. Firm Managers May Benefit from Transparency in Machine-Learning Algorithms

Research by Param Vir Singh, Professor of Business Technologies and Marketing

In today’s business world, machine-learning algorithms are increasingly being applied to decision-making processes, which affects employment, education, and access to credit. But firms usually keep algorithms secret, citing concerns over gaming by users that can harm the predictive power of algorithms.

10. Study Chronicles Presence of Chronic Frames of Race, Gender, and Wealth Inequality

Research by Rosalind M. Chow, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory

All social inequalities, by definition, involve one group that has more and another that has less. Do people prefer describing inequalities in terms of advantage or disadvantage?