For the eighth consecutive year, USC Marshall School of Business faculty presented at the annual Research Fair, showcasing cutting-edge studies across five disciplines — finance and business economics, marketing, management and organization, data sciences and operations, and business communications. The event was held on February 28 on USC campus at the Ronald Tutor Campus Center and highlighted multiple prescient topics, from artificial intelligence (AI) to gender participation to data privacy.

Peer Fiss, Jill and Frank Fertitta Chair in Business Administration and associate dean of research, opened proceedings with remarks that emphasized the significance of research in the current academic climate.

“In these times, it’s particularly important to remind ourselves what our mission is at the school,” Fiss said. “Our mission is to create new knowledge and to share knowledge with others. As such, I think this research fair is a great opportunity to celebrate those things: what we do, how we create new knowledge, how we disseminate it.”

The first presentation by Tom Chang, associate professor of finance and business economics, explored how firms can employ behavioral economics to reach customers and increase responses. His research, “The Value of Behavioral Economics Research to Firms” centered on the medical field, specifically health screenings, and how companies can increase customer response rates.

By slightly adjusting the parameters of outreach methods and tracking outcomes, Chang asserted that behavioral economics can motivate patients to see their doctor and, therefore, be healthier.

“When I talk to firms or policymakers or the government, I tell them this … ‘economics has a solution to your problem,’” Chang said.

Sha Yang, Ernest Hahn Professor of Marketing, presented her talk, “Data Privacy and Ad Effectiveness” on the complicated balance of protecting customer’s privacy while still producing effective ads tailored to their needs. Yang posits that while privacy is an important ethical consideration, limited tracking could lead to repetitive marketing and a significant dip in revenue.

“Our research highlights the importance for policymakers and platforms to take a balanced approach to optimize the outcome for all three stakeholders, including consumers, advertisers, and platforms,” Yang said. “Drawing on insights into mechanisms, we can design more effective and privacy-conscious advertising strategies and policies.”

Veronica Guo, associate professor of clinical business communication, presented her research, “Leveraging Affordances: How Communication and AI Technology Drive Effective Organizational Socialization and Leadership Innovation,” which focused on the affordances created by new technologies, namely ChatGPT and synthetic human-like avatars (SHS avatars). While these advancements generate opportunities with adaptation, innovation, and power dynamics, Guo pointed out that they also have the potential to produce tension and trust issues between employees.

Guo posits, however, that there is an opportunity to use new technology to improve workplace dynamics between leaders and their employees.

“We can reimagine work with organizational communication with the technology affordance,” Guo said.

Adel Javanmard, professor of data sciences and operations, examined the effects on experiment participants’ responses based on different privacy guarantees. Similar to Yang, his talk, “Causal Inference with Differentially Private Outcomes,” explored the relationship between ensuring anonymization for consumers while maintaining the effectiveness of data harvested by advertisers.

“The users are concerned about their privacy. They don’t know if third parties or other advertisers are getting access to their data. They want the publisher to make some privacy protections for [them],” Javanmard said. “The question is how can you give the advertisers some data so they can still use it to understand the effect of their ads, but at the same time make it privacy-protected for the user?”

Sarah Townsend, vice dean for culture & community success and associate professor of management and organization, provided the final talk of the fair, “Enacting ‘Feminine’ Behaviors, Closing Gender Participation Gaps: Evidence from an Observational Field Study of MBA Classrooms.”

Townsend observed and tracked gender participation rates in MBA classrooms, examining whether certain behavioral cues from professors closed the “participation gap” between men and women. According to the research, even subtle behavioral adjustments can increase feelings of inclusion for students and can even have positive implications in the workplace.

“Professors, and leaders more generally, have the power to set norms,” Townsend said. “They can set norms that signal inclusion, the valuing of everyone, and this interpersonal connection that can then bolster the success of all students and employees.”

To watch the entire 2025 USC Marshall Research Fair, please follow this link.