# data[].attributes.body
Day 1: Photo by Owen Beard on Unsplash
Day 2: Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash
Day 4: Photo by RawFilm on Unsplash
Day 5: Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Day 6: Photo by Johanna Bragge
Day 7: Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash
Day 8: Image by Markus Spiske from Pixabay
Day 9: Photo by Elena Mazurova
Day 10: Image by Lynn Greyling from Pixabay
Day 12: Photo by Alexander Abero on Unsplash
Day 13: Image by aymane jdidi from Pixabay
Day 14: Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
Day 15: Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay
Day 16: Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash
Day 17: Image by Radoan Tanvir from Pixabay
Day 18: Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash
Day 19: Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash
Day 21: Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
Day 22: Image by janeb13 from Pixabay
Day 23: Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
Day 24: Photo by Johanna Bragge

# data[].attributes.body
Outsourcing is considered a key strategy to improve costs, competitiveness, productivity, profitability and, especially in the case of public sector, efficiency. This paper compares service outsourcing decisions between public and private organizations and investigates their differences against a theoretical decision-making framework. Findings indicate that public sector organizations trail behind private sector organizations in how the decision-making process is conducted and resourced. Read more here.

# data[].attributes.body
This year has certainly put forth the complexities of balancing multiple conflicting criteria in the decision-making of every country, organization or human being. This managerial book written by two ISM professors (emeritus) presents their group’s research extending 40 years, and it discusses the following topics:

1. The use of intuition vs. more analytic approach

2. How do humans make decisions when facing conflicting criteria

3. Why humans err and how to avoid well-known pitfalls

4. Psychological aspects of managerial decision-making

5. How to make better decisions and how to make wise decisions (the essence of

multiple criteria decision-making)

6. How to put visual representations into good use

7. How to negotiate wisely

You can access the book via Springer’s database. Enjoy the holiday season!

# data[].attributes.body
Companies invest heavily to verify the background details of the job applicants, yet the process to do this is often costly, time-consuming, and inefficient. To resolve this problem, this research presents a working prototype of a solution using Design Science Research Methodology where the hash values of all the original documents of a job applicant provided by various organizations are saved on a consortium blockchain.

# data[].attributes.body
This study explores how the stock market reacts to corruption (bribery or kickback) events within the supply chain. Seeing corruption as sustainability risk for target focal firms, the study finds that the market reacts more negatively to corruption events that occur upstream with suppliers than downstream with customers. Read full paper here.

# data[].attributes.body
Outcome of equity crowdfunding campaigns often exceeds original fundraising goals, leading to market inefficiency. Synthesizing extant literature on crowdfunding and herding, the initial herd made visible by funding progress indicator was identified as the main cause of overfunding. Based on this, a research model was validated and further advanced for examining how dimensions of the initial herd affect overfunding in equity crowdfunding. Read full paper here.

# data[].attributes.body
The research investigates optimal routing for exporting paper goods from Russia by rail. The paper applies linear programming to a set of dispatches from North-West Russia. Results reveal that improvements can be made to increase revenue and reduce lead times, although carbon emissions are relatively low. See the research presentation here.

# data[].attributes.body
Having troubles with your logistics subcontractor or alliance partner? Read this review that utilizes the evidence-based management approach to find answers how to better manage the external resources of your organization! The research is conducted in joint collaboration with Industrial Engineering and Management researchers.

# data[].attributes.body
To address the calls for research that uncovers the complex interplay of IT users’ coping strategies, we conducted a mixed methods study that examined mobile application users’ coping strategies after highly negative incidents. We developed a model that explains how users navigate between problem-focused strategies, emotion-focused strategies, and appraisals. Read more here.

# data[].attributes.body
Taking loans enables companies to quickly develop innovative products, extend their market share, or even cover operational costs when profit is low. Companies developing software or digital services could also take Technical Debt to achieve these goals. Similar to financial debt, Technical Debt has extra costs (interest) and could burden a firm to the point of threatening its future operations. This recent article reveals that aside from its costs, Technical Debt reduces developers’ morale and productivity.

# data[].attributes.body
By studying an insurer-owned hospital, this paper explores how vertical integration incentivizes production of positive health outcomes (faster recovery) instead of high care volume (number of operations). The research finds a significant 9% difference in total costs of an occupational injury between the vertically integrated hospital and its fee-for-service compensated competitors and links this to the case hospital’s stronger incentive and managerial control for conservative care over often unnecessary but profitable surgical operations. Full paper here.

# data[].attributes.body
We all know prospect theory – losses carry more value than gains. And price increases are more painful than decreases. However, it may be a surprise that changes in demand, reflecting a change in product’s value caused by a price change does not always behave as one may expect. Read full paper here.

# data[].attributes.body
Organizations, particularly new digital service companies, are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to support service development and delivery. Yet, how the collaboration between humans and AI unfolds has not received much attention. This research presentation introduces an ongoing multi-case study to investigate the use of AI in different organizational tasks and, in particular, how the division of labor between humans and AI is coordinated.

# data[].attributes.body
The use of more complicated procurement contract structures is motivated by the need for better coordination of uncertain supply and demand as well as to share capacity risks across the supply chain. This paper studies optimal procurement in a case where the buyer must match supply against uncertain demand using a combination of low-cost order-in-advance procurement contracts and a high-cost real-time balancing mechanism.

# data[].attributes.body
Evaluation of abatement costs is critical in setting reduction goals and devising climate policy. However, reliable forward-looking assessment of the short-term effects of climate policy remains a major challenge. The researchers estimate the marginal CO2 abatement costs for 30 Chinese provinces using the convex quantile regression and present a forward-looking assessment of the abatement costs based on China's CO2 reduction plans and economic growth goals. More here.

# data[].attributes.body
The paper explores ways to improve university teaching through enhancing its productivity. It presents a practical six-step systematic approach that enables moving away from traditional lecturing, towards flipped learning pedagogy to enable better student-teacher interaction and improved learning results. Read the full paper here.

# data[].attributes.body
Digital platforms mediate more and more of people’s daily activities. Although the societal impacts of digital platforms are in some aspects negative, they also contain the potential to promote positive societal change, especially in the global South. However, in this context access to platforms remains a challenge as people might lack the required devices and resources to use the platforms. More here.

# data[].attributes.body
In the research behind today’s calendar door, the researchers study athletes' perceptions towards the transition to electronic judging systems. The research selects an area of sports that is undergoing a somewhat disruptive change in the way athletes are evaluated: gymnastics.

The results show that gymnasts are quite positive towards the implementation of these systems, although they expressed some uncertainties and risks of the technology. Read the full paper here.

# data[].attributes.body
Organizations are deploying artificial intelligence (AI) applications to process vast quantities of data and to support managers in their decision making. The algorithms developed through these AI applications are often inscrutable as it is difficult to trace and explain how the algorithm generates its outcome. Researchers from ISM department co-operated with the Danish Business Authority to study the organization’s practices around the use of inscrutable algorithms. Read the recently published research here.

# data[].attributes.body
Forests not only produce wood but also preserve biodiversity and store massive amounts of carbon. This multi-dimensionality, however, makes it difficult to find optimal forest management strategies with existing methods. This research combines the latest research in Machine Learning and Forest Science into a highly-scalable AI optimization tool for efficient and sustainable forest management.

The joint research project between Aalto Business School and University of Helsinki has recently received €500.000 from Business Finland to further academic research, and to explore commercialization opportunities.

# data[].attributes.body
COVID-19 is an unprecedent virus that had killed more than 1.2 million people by November 2020. There is, however, little research on examining the performance of hospitals that are in the forefront in the battle against the pandemic. In this paper, researchers empirically estimate the production function of COVID-19 caused death among hospital inpatients, and subsequently assess performance of hospitals based on the regression residual. Full paper here.

# data[].attributes.body
The attitudes and value priorities of university-level business students can have considerable societal impact as they often end up having key managerial and executive positions in companies and governmental institutions. According to a research involving researchers from the ISM department, attitudes to sustainable development are equally or even more favorable among business students when compared against comparable nationwide sample. Read the full paper here.

# data[].attributes.body
In preparation of future research articles, ISM department also takes part in research initiatives on current societal topics in cooperation with other universities. An example of this is the doctoral course that was organised to further study the applications designed for Covid-19 contact tracing. Some of the ideas and thoughts obtained from the course were further formulated into research projects by the participating doctoral students. Read more by clicking the document below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nordic Academy of Management - Covid-19 crisis initiative

# data[].attributes.body
Watching Netflix and other streaming services has become a favorite hobby for many. But how have researchers conceptualized binge watching? This review finds continuity and viewer autonomy as two fundamental attributes of it, and defines binge watching as “a consumption of more than one episode of the same serialized video content in a single sitting at one’s own time and pace.” Read more here and happy holidays!

# data[].attributes.body
Resources for healthcare interventions are limited, which calls for prioritising patient segments in allocating resources to maximize the expected contribution to the chosen population-level objective. The researchers build a model for the optimal allocation of resources in view of two such objectives: maximizing the aggregate health of the population and limiting differences in the health outcomes for different patient segments. More here..