Research Spotlight

Research Spotlight: David Hsu on Sidestepping the Startup Integration Trap

A person in a suit standing in a bright office environment with large windows. Startup acquisitions by established firms are becoming more common, especially in fast-moving industries like tech and healthcare. But integrating a newly-acquired startup presents challenges, and can end up quashing creativity and worsening innovation outcomes. A new study, funded in part by the Mack Institute and conducted by Mack Core Team…Read More

New in Nature: ChatGPT Decreases Idea Diversity in Brainstorming

A digital illustration of a human brain overlaid with circuit patterns, symbolizing artificial intelligence or the connection between the human mind and technology.

Mack Institute predoctoral fellow Lennart Meincke, Wharton Professor Gideon Nave, and Mack Institute Co-Director Christian Terwiesch have published a new paper on AI and creativity in the prestigious journal Nature Human Behaviour. Building on growing research into how artificial intelligence can support idea generation, their study reveals a crucial tradeoff:…Read More

Research Spotlight: Walter W. Zhang on the “Black Box” of Algorithmic Decision-Making 

Headshot of a person wearing a suit and tie, smiling, against a blurred background with soft lighting.

Algorithms shape countless decisions in our digital lives, powering everything from personalized ads to loan approvals. Many of the most powerful algorithms are so-called “black box” algorithms, meaning that no one, not even the developers building them or the businesses deploying them, fully understands how they work.  While these hyper-complex…Read More

Research Spotlight: David Hsu on Effective Industry-University Collaboration

A person in a formal suit standing in a modern, brightly lit office hallway, with large windows in the background.

Collaboration between industry and academia drives innovation forward, but creating a successful partnership—and measuring its impact—is more challenging than it might appear. We spoke to Wharton’s David Hsu about his new paper, forthcoming in Management Science, on what makes industry-university collaboration successful, the importance of viewing innovation as a long-term…Read More

Research Spotlight: Serguei Netessine on the Entrepreneurs Bringing Light To Rural Rwanda

A rural landscape with a few people walking along a path surrounded by greenery in the foreground. In the background, there is a building with a peaked roof and a large mountain with a cloud-covered summit.

One tenth of the world’s population has no access to electricity — and eighty percent of that population lives in Africa, where half the continent is still unelectrified. Wharton’s Serguei Netessine together with co-authors recently published a paper studying an innovative new approach to bringing electricity to off-grid Rwandans via…Read More