Top Insights of 2018

Three Questions: Dr. Heidi Brooks on What Olympic Athletes Can Teach Us about Leadership
Heidi Brooks • February 22, 2018
Yale SOM’s Heidi Brooks, an expert on leadership and a passionate amateur athlete, has been watching the Winter Olympics and reflecting on what it takes to succeed at the highest levels in sports. We asked her what business leaders can learn from top athletes.

Why Do Women Inventors Win Fewer Patents?
Kyle Jensen, Balazs Kovacs, Olav Sorenson • April 09, 2018
An analysis of patent applications by Yale SOM researchers found that women inventors are less likely to have their patent applications approved than men. But that disparity dips if an examiner can’t guess an inventor’s gender from her name. The researchers argue that eliminating the disparity is crucial to increasing innovation in the economy.

Why Is My Boss Incompetent?
Kelly Shue • April 20, 2018
The Peter Principle says that hierarchical organizations suffer because effective workers are promoted until they reach their “level of incompetence.” In a new study, Yale SOM’s Kelly Shue and her collaborators set out to test the oft-cited theory by examining data from hundreds of firms using sales performance management software. The results suggest that companies promote employees based on current performance rather than expected performance as managers—but that they are aware of the trade-offs.

Values Proposition: Colonel Rich Morales ’99 on Integrity as an Organizational Foundation
Rich Morales • June 06, 2018
In this new series, leaders tell stories about drawing on their core values in critical moments. We talked to U.S. Army Colonel Rich Morales ’99 about the complexity of integrity and its roles in leadership and learning.

Can Appalachian Ohio Build a New Economy?
Ted O’Callahan • June 22, 2018
Poverty remains stubbornly rooted across Appalachia. The 32 Ohio counties spread over the Appalachian foothills suffer in comparison with their counterparts in the rest of the state by nearly every economic measure. But they’re also filled with entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and citizens seeking to build a brighter future.

What Germany’s Spectacular World Cup Failure Can Teach Us about Management
David Bach • June 29, 2018
In 2014, Germany lofted the World Cup trophy, and Yale’s David Bach highlighted some of the management principles underlying the victory. This year, things didn’t go so well, and the German side was eliminated in the initial round of the tournament. But there are always lessons to be learned—even in defeat.

Is Antitrust Enforcement Out of Date?
Fiona M. Scott Morton • July 10, 2018
U.S. antitrust laws, Yale SOM’s Fiona Scott Morton says, were written when new technology meant “typewriters and buggy whips and bicycles.” In the wake of the 2016 election, she assembled a group of economists and legal scholars to examine areas in which enforcement is out of sync with a changing economy, and to propose new ways of enforcing current laws to increase competition and protect consumers.

How Can Philanthropy Do More Good?
Aaron Dorfman • July 27, 2018
Market forces drive efficiency and innovation in the private sector. What ensures that philanthropy is helping the people who need it most? Researchers and watchdog groups are pushing for evidence-based practices. Aaron Dorfman of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy argues that foundations need to re-think their strategies and tactics.

Is CRISPR Worth the Risk?
Greg Licholai • August 21, 2018
The gene editing technology CRISPR has prompted both breathless predictions of medical breakthroughs and warnings of apocalypse. Yale Insights asked Dr. Greg Licholai, a biotech entrepreneur and a lecturer at Yale SOM, to explain CRISPR’s potential and dangers.

Yale Study Finds Twice as Many Undocumented Immigrants as Previous Estimates
Mohammad Fazel-Zarandi, Jonathan S. Feinstein, Edward H. Kaplan • September 21, 2018
Generally accepted estimates put the population of undocumented immigrants in the United States at approximately 11.3 million. A new study, using mathematical modeling on a range of demographic and immigration operations data, suggests that the actual undocumented immigrant population may be more than 22 million.

White Liberals Present Themselves as Less Competent in Interactions with African-Americans
Cydney H. Dupree • November 15, 2018
A new study suggests that white Americans who hold liberal socio-political views use language that makes them appear less competent in an effort to get along with racial minorities.