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Companies Big and Small Can Benefit From a Clear Remote Work Strategy
As remote work evolves into a regular work mode that satisfies employment needs for both employer and employee, it is important for businesses to have a well-thought-out remote work strategy, says Timothy Golden, professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Golden, who teaches in the Lally School of Management, believes that creating the right norms and expectations from the start provides an important boost for achieving success in remote work. “If these norms — informal and often unspoken expectations for how people should act and behave — are not set correctly right from the start, then remote work can be much more challenging than it needs to be,” Golden said. In many companies, creating a position of a Chief Remote Officer (CRO) — a position similar to a CFO or COO but with a focus on leading remote work programs — can be a step toward future stability. According to Golden, other aspects to consider range from methods of employee communication and performance assessments, to the compatibility of a combination of hybrid, in-person, and remote work modes in the framework of an organizational business model. Remote work and telecommuting have been the focus of Golden’s body of research for more than 20 years. He is available to discuss remote work strategies and other aspects of working from home from the business perspective as well as the viewpoint of the remote workers.
Presidential plantations – are they leaving out slavery when telling the story of America’s history?
The presidential plantations once belonging to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe are picturesque destinations for tourists who want to learn more about these Founding Fathers from Virginia. But these museums often fail to adequately tell the stories of the enslaved people who lived and toiled there. UMW Professor of Geography Stephen Hanna's research on the topic was recently highlighted in Northern Virginia Magazine. Do plantation museums do justice to the memory of the enslaved? Local professor Stephen Hanna wanted to find out, so in 2014 he joined a team of researchers associated with TourismRESET, a world-wide network of scholars who study and challenge social inequity in tourism. Hanna, who teaches geography at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, received a grant from the National Science Foundation, enabling him to lead undergraduate students through multi-year research on how narratives and exhibits about enslaved populations and slavery were presented or absent at 15 different plantation sites. The goal was to present their findings to museum managers and thus facilitate more historically accurate and meaningful tours. His team is in the final stages of publishing a book summarizing their data and findings, to be released in March 2022. The full article is attached below and is well worth the complete read. If you are a journalist covering this critical topic about American history, then let us help with your questions and stories. Dr. Hanna is available to speak with media regarding this topic. Simply click on his icon to arrange an interview.
Could Vitamin-A bring back your sense of smell after Covid?
Researchers at the University of East Anglia and James Paget University Hospital are launching a new project to see whether Vitamin A could help people regain their sense of smell after viral infections including Covid-19. Smell loss is a common symptom of Covid-19, but even before Covid, many viruses had been causing smell loss and distortion and while most people naturally regain their sense of smell within a couple of weeks, many have been left with on-going smell disorders. Previous research from Germany has shown the potential benefit of Vitamin-A, and the UEA team will explore how this treatment works to help repair tissues in the nose damaged by viruses. They hope that the study, which has been funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), could one-day help improve the lives of millions around the world who suffer from smell loss, by returning their fifth sense. Smell loss expert Prof Carl Philpott from UEA’s Norwich Medical School and James Paget University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “The huge rise in smell loss caused by Covid-19 has created an unprecedented worldwide demand for treatment. “Even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, smell loss was thought to affect an estimated five per cent of people, with viruses accounting for 1 in 10 of those. “And around one in ten people who experience smell loss as a result of Covid-19 report that their sense of smell has not returned to normal four weeks after falling ill. “It’s a big problem, and our previous research has shown the impact of smell loss – including depression, anxiety and isolation, as well as risk of danger from hazards such as gas and spoiled food, and changes in weight due to reduced appetite. “A key problem for patients and their clinicians is the lack of proven effective treatments. “A recent study from Germany showed that people treated with vitamin A nasal drops improved twice as much as those in the untreated group. “We want to find out whether there is an increase in the size and activity of damaged smell pathways in patients’ brains when they are treated with vitamin A nasal drops. “This would show recovery of the damage caused by common viral infections, including Covid-19, in the nose.” The research team will work with patients who have lost their sense of smell due to a viral infection. They will either receive a 12-week course of nasal vitamin A drops or inactive equivalent drops, and have their brains scanned before and after the treatment. The scans will be compared to those of a control group who have not been treated with vitamin A drops. Prof Philpott said: “The patients will be smelling distinctive odours - roses and rotten eggs - while special MRI brain scans are taken. “We will look for changes in the size of the olfactory bulb - an area above the nose where the smell nerves join together and connect to the brain. “We will also look at activity in areas of the brain linked to recognising smells,” he added. Duncan Boak, Founder and Chair of Fifth Sense, said: “At Fifth Sense we have engaged with thousands of people who have experienced changes in their ability to smell or taste as a result of the Covid 19 virus. They join an already large community of people with a smell disorder that pre-dates the pandemic. “The question we are most often asked is about available treatments to support recovery. Not being able to smell is not only physically distressing but can affect the enjoyment of social occasions and present hazards and risks that might never have been previously considered such as not being able to detect gas leaks or spoiled food. “Research into potentially successful interventions is vital to help people feeling the impact of smell disorders that affects the quality and enjoyment of their life.” To take part in this trial, patients need to be referred to The Smell and Taste Clinic at the James Paget University Hospital by their GP. Recruitment is expected to begin in December 2021. To find out more visit https://rhinology-group.uea.ac.uk/apollo-trial or contact apollo.trial@uea.ac.uk. The NIHR is the largest funder of research in the country, and is the research partner of the NHS and social care. To find out more about other NIHR research happening near you, visit www.bepartofresearch.uk.
A missed opportunity - hospital doctors must stop 'risky' medicines
Hospital doctors and pharmacists should stop ‘risky’ medicines before patients leave hospital - according to researchers at the University of East Anglia. One in two older people are prescribed a medicine which over time has become inappropriate or unnecessary. In a recent National Overprescribing Review titled ‘Good for you, good for us, good for everybody’, the government called on doctors and pharmacists working in GP surgeries to tackle the problem of overprescribing. But research from UEA’s School of Pharmacy has found that nine out of 10 older hospital patients and their family believe that inappropriate or unnecessary medicines should also be spotted and stopped whilst they are in hospital. And the team say that by the time people are back under their GP care, a major opportunity has been missed. Prof Debi Bhattacharya, from UEA’s School of Pharmacy, said: “We know that half of older people admitted to hospital arrive having been prescribed a medicine that over time has become inappropriate for them. These medicines will have more risks than benefits. “And their side effects cause problems, like making them feel drowsy, nauseous or have trouble getting to sleep. These problems impact a person’s quality of life to the extent that they can cause re-hospitalisation. “Our research has shown that very few patients have one of these ‘risky’ medicines stopped whilst in hospital. “Continuing medicines when they are not needed unnecessarily harms people and wastes NHS money. “The time is right to undertake research into ways of safely increasing the number of inappropriate and unnecessary medicines that are stopped,” she added. To tackle the problem, Prof Bhattacharya is leading a £2.4 million trial to stop risky medicines in hospital - in collaboration with researchers at the Universities of York, Newcastle, Leeds and Leicester, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Patient and Public Engagement lead for CHARMER, Katherine Murphy, said: “We are working with hospitals and GP organisations across England to see whether the new strategy works, helps people, causes no harm, and is good value for the NHS. “And for this trial to be meaningful to people, we need to make sure that we look at the things that matter to them when testing whether stopping a medicine has had a positive outcome.” The research team recently surveyed 200 people including patients, informal carers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and researchers to find out what they should look at in the trial. On reviewing the results Katherine Murphy said: “It was good to see that what people really want us to look at is whether patients can do the things that they want to do, not how much patients can do. “Being able to walk up a flight of stairs, for example, may be important to some patients but not to others. We need to make sure that medicines are prescribed that support people to get the best quality of life. In the trial, we also need to make sure that the way that we stop risky medicines causes no harm and is good value for the NHS.” For more information about the CHARMER study visit https://www.uea.ac.uk/web/groups-and-centres/charmer/about-the-research The research has been funded by the National Institute of Health and Social Care research.
How rabbits help restore unique habitats for rare species
European wild rabbits are a ‘keystone species’ that hold together entire ecosystems – according to researchers at the University of East Anglia. Our campus is home to hundreds of rabbits and Prof Diana Bell, from our School of Biological Sciences, has been researching them for more than 30 years. Now, she is one of the lead researchers on a new report which aims to restore and protect at-risk wildlife habitats which are rabbit dependent. The report shows how their grazing and digging activity keeps the ground in a condition that is perfect for sustaining other species that would otherwise move on – or die out. But their numbers are declining regionally, nationally and globally. And they are even being classed as endangered in their native region, the Iberian Peninsula. The findings come as efforts to save England’s most threatened species from extinction are turning the tide for wildlife in Norfolk and Suffolk thanks to the Shifting Sands project. Shifting Sands is one of 19 projects across England that make up the national Back from the Brink initiative. Together, these projects aim to save 20 species from extinction and benefit over 200 more. Lead partner of the rabbit work-stream and rabbit expert Prof Diana Bell, from UEA’ School of Biology, said: “The Breckland-based Shifting Sands project was set up to save some of the region’s rarest wildlife. “After several years of hard work by this multi-partner project, the fortunes of species classed as declining, rare, near-threatened or endangered are now improving in the Brecks. “The project has seen species recover in record numbers – including endangered beetle and plants, one of which is found nowhere else in the world. “Rabbits are incredibly important because their grazing and digging activity keeps the ground in a condition that is perfect for sustaining other species. “Sadly, rabbit populations have declined dramatically in the UK and across Europe, and the European wild rabbit is now listed as endangered in its ancestral Iberian Peninsula range. Their decline is largely due to a spill-over of new viruses from commercially bred rabbits. “The Shifting Sands project has shown us how important rabbits are to entire ecosystems, and it is vital that these habitats are conserved and protected. “We encouraged a rabbit revolution in the Brecks and we have produced a toolkit in partnership with Natural England to help landowners of similar rabbit-dependent habitats to do the same.” “Simple cost-effective ways of encouraging rabbits include creating piles of felled branches, known as brush piles, and banks of soil.” Monitoring over the past three years has shown the interventions are working, with evidence of significantly higher amounts of rabbit activity. Prof Bell said: “Our work resulted in evidence of rabbit activity in significantly higher numbers. 91 per cent of brush piles showed paw scrapes and 41 per cent contained burrows. Even when burrows did not form, the brush piles helped expand the range of rabbit activity.” The UEA research team worked in collaboration with Natural England, Forestry England, Plantlife, Breckland Flora Group, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Butterfly Conservation, Buglife, the Elveden Estate and the RSPB to deliver this ambitious partnership project. It has seen five kilometres of ‘wildlife highways’ created, more than 100 specimens of rare plants re-introduced, habitat created and restored across 12 sites, species encouraged, and landscape-management practices improved. As a result, seven species of plant, bird and insect are increasing in number and many more are benefiting in turn. Among those species recovering are rare plants such as the prostrate perennial knawel that is unique to the Brecks, basil thyme and field wormwood. The endangered wormwood moonshiner beetle, lunar yellow underwing moth and five-banded digger tailed wasp are also increasing. All these species are identified in the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plan as being priorities for conservation. The open habitat maintained by rabbits supports two rare plants: the prostrate perennial knawel – found nowhere else in the world – and field wormwood. Pip Mountjoy, Shifting Sands project manager at Natural England, said: “The Brecks were described by Charles Dickens as “barren”. They are anything but. Their 370 square miles of sandy heathland, open grassland and forest support almost 13,000 species, making it one of the UK’s most important areas for wildlife. “That wildlife is under threat. Felling trees and encouraging a species that is often considered a pest may seem a strange solution. But in this instance, carefully managed ‘disturbance’ is exactly what this landscape and its biodiversity needs.” “The project’s interventions have provided a lifeline for this unique landscape, and shown how biodiversity can be promoted by ‘disturbing’ places – not just by leaving them alone. “ “These rare habitats are becoming overgrown and species are declining as a result of changing land management practices and human impacts. It’s our responsibility to restore and maintain these spaces for nature. Some of these species exist only here and, if lost, will be lost forever.” Established in 2017 with £4.7m from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £2.1m from other bodies, Back from the Brink was the first nationwide co-ordinated effort to bring together charities, conservation organisations and government bodies to save threatened species. More information about the Brecks, Shifting Sands, Back from the Brink and a toolkit to help rabbit conservation is available via www.naturebftb.co.uk.
Cyber-attacks are rising to the top of American concerns
With the rising occurrence of cyber-attacks across America, institutions, banks, government agencies and top-tier companies are now either falling victim or feeling vulnerable to attack from online enemies abroad. It’s a topic that is now front and center that has most leaders regardless of poltical party in agreement - and media across the country are starting to cover with more depth and seriousness. Most Americans across party lines have serious concerns about cyberattacks on U.S. computer systems and view China and Russia as major threats, according to a new poll. The poll by The Pearson Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that about 9 in 10 Americans are at least somewhat concerned about hacking that involves their personal information, financial institutions, government agencies or certain utilities. About two-thirds say they are very or extremely concerned. Roughly three-quarters say the Chinese and Russian governments are major threats to the cybersecurity of the U.S. government, and at least half also see the Iranian government and non-government bodies as threatening. October 11 – Associated Press "I am really interested in the security of our critical infrastructure systems," said Dr. Michael Nowatkowski. " If an attacker were able to shut those systems down, great harm would result. This is a national security issue." If you’re a journalist look to know more or have been assigned to cover any aspect of cyber-security in the country, then let our experts help with your coverage. Dr. Michael Nowatkowski is an Associate Professor with the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Augusta University. He also serves as the Head of the Cyber Program of Study. Nowatkowski is available to speak with media regarding the emerging threat of cyber-security in America, simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
Aston University’s Dr Ozlem Arikan looked at the impact of the style of corporate information on investor decisions Companies arguably avoid being specific by using ‘boilerplate language’ to avoid negative reactions of the investors Dr Arikan’s research suggests that boilerplate information is not useful for investment decisions and investors lose trust in managers who use boilerplate language New research from Aston University has found boilerplate language used by managers is preventing their non-professional investors from making sound decisions. Dr Ozlem Arikan examined the impact of the style of corporate information on non-professional investor decisions. The term ‘boilerplate’ refers to standardised text, copy, documents, methods or procedures that may be used over again without making major changes to the original. In the context of risk disclosures as studied by Dr Arikan, boilerplate description of risks entails a generic list of risks that are common to all industry, rather than including details relating to risks specific to that entity. Regulators are concerned about generic disclosures which they label as boilerplate; they warn that disclosures which do not have enough details do not help investors to make sound decisions. An example of a boilerplate can be found in Google’s risk disclosure which cites social media companies as its main competitors without specifying Facebook, an obvious competitor to Google in terms of generating online advertising revenues. Dr Arikan found that although some investors are less likely to invest in a company when its disclosure is specific, this only happens when they had some knowledge about the issue disclosed. However, when the disclosed risk materialises, investors rate boilerplate managers as less credible than specific managers and are less likely to invest in these companies. Dr Ozlem Arikan, senior lecturer in accounting at Aston Business School, said: “My research suggests the Financial Reporting Council has been right all along about ‘boilerplate language’ preventing non-professional investors from making sound decisions, and it is not good for companies either. “When companies are evasive about their risks, they neither help themselves nor their investors. “Companies arguably avoid being specific to avoid negative reactions of the investors. For example, Google presumably avoids mentioning Facebook as it does not want to make Facebook’s threat to its business too explicit. However, my research suggests that companies do not necessarily avoid negative reactions by being boilerplate. “Regulators may wish to guide companies in how to make more specific disclosures, which are more useful to investors in their decision-making than their boilerplate counterparts. “Importantly boilerplate language does not give enough warnings to investors as those who read a boilerplate risk warning are more surprised when the risk materialises and they correct their previous decisions to a greater extent than investors who read the specific information” You can read the full paper, The effect of boilerplate language on nonprofessional investors’ judgments, HERE. You can find out more about Dr Arikan’s previous research HERE.
Corporate Social Responsibility Builds Investor Trust
There’s little doubt that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a good thing for businesses. Whether it’s taking positive action on society, communities, the climate, or the planet, strong corporate citizenship tends to play well with the public, the media, and consumers alike. And that can translate into wins in terms of brand equity and reputation. What is perhaps less clear are the concrete business returns that ethical business practices may or may not generate. Or, whether doing the right thing can create value for firms beyond image, brand, and customer or employee engagement. To shed light on this, Goizueta Assistant Professor of Accounting Suhas A. Sridharan, has taken a rather novel approach. Together with colleagues from the universities of LUISS Guido Carli, Nazarbayev University, and IDC Herzliya, Sridharan has published a new study using measures of disclosure credibility to understand whether CSR builds investor trust and drives tangible benefits for corporations. Corporate Social Responsibility Does Reap Rewards “Disclosure credulity refers to how much your investors trust the information your organization provides – how much faith they have in your company’s ability to accurately convey opportunities for growth, and perhaps more critically, to navigate risk and uncertainty,” says Sridharan. “Because CSR and responsible business practices have a role in addressing a range of risks–from climate change and environmental factors to socio-economic or political uncertainty and the impact on supply chains, talent and so on–we reasoned CSR can impact investor trust and disclosure credibility. And disclosure credibility, in turn, can impact investor decision-making and business outcomes.” To study disclosure credibility, and capture shifts in investor sentiment towards firms, Sridharan and her colleagues decided to use the link between share prices and company earnings announcements–the public statements on profitability that firms are obliged to make over different periods. “Earnings announcements are among the most salient and recurring areas of corporate disclosure, and managers and investors pay very close attention to them,” Sridharan says. “Because of the nature of the information they contain, they have a direct link to security price discovery – the price that firms and investors will agree to buy and sell shares in the company. Simply put, earnings announcements can be used to examine how much investors value a firm.” As reports, earnings announcements are also highly complex and typically time-consuming to process. Because of this, Sridharan and her colleagues opted to look at just how quickly or slowly investors were reading announcements and responding to them – and how quickly or slowly stock prices were adjusting to reflect earnings news within a five-day window after earnings announcements, as well as a longer period to allow for potential overreaction or error. More Disclosure Credibility Equals Faster Results Sridharan explains, “The intuition we brought to the study was that the more investors trust a firm’s disclosures, the more efficient or faster they will be to process its earnings report; in other words, the more they will be likely to take the report on face value and less inclined to dig into the finer minutiae or question its findings.” Adopting this approach, she and her colleagues then compared and contrasted investor response to earnings reports from different firms, with greater or less involvement in CSR activities. In total, they looked at a large-scale sample of more than 19,000 annual earnings announcements from just under 3,000 U.S. firms over a 25-year period, between 1992 and 2017. Using Morgan Stanley Capital International environmental, social, and governance ratings, they were also able to determine the degree of firm-level CSR across their dataset during this period. Crunching the numbers, Sridharan and fellow researchers were able to arrive at a concrete conclusion: CSR measurably increases investor trust and disclosure credibility. “When we estimated our regression models, we found clear evidence that corporate social responsibility does indeed contribute to the average speed of price discovery around earnings announcements; and it does so positively. Our results reveal that CSR increases the speed with which stock prices incorporate earnings news. Breaking it right down, we see that a one unit increase in CSR activities corresponds to 1.96 percent increase in the average timeliness or efficiency of reported earnings.” In other words, investors are reacting more quickly and favorably to performance reports made by organizations with more demonstrated social responsibility. “We know that these types of announcements are lengthy and dense; they take time to process,” Sridharan says. “So, the intuition here is that when your firm plants a flag on responsibility and accountability, investors are more likely to take your disclosures at face value – they’re more likely to trust what you’re saying.” Organizations would do well to take this finding on board, says Sridharan; especially in today’s climate of high volatility and uncertainty. Having investors on board is critical in weathering the bad times along with the good, she adds, and CSR can be a game-changing tool in building that necessary trust. The Wild West of the Regulatory Landscape Sridharan’s paper also informs the regulatory landscape around corporate responsibility which is still in its infancy and which she likens to something of a “Wild West.” “The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators are increasingly focused on improving the functioning of capital markets and understanding the role of CSR,” she says. “The SEC has included an examination of climate and ESG-related risks among its 2021 examination priorities which also underscores a growing investor interest in these issues. At the same time, research is showing that CSR can be misused or simply deployed to benefit managers looking to score reputational points with stakeholders–at the expense of shareholders. By demonstrating that investor perceptions of firms are materially shaped by firms’ CSR activities, our study highlights the importance of–and helps build the case for–monitoring and regulating firms’ CSR activities.” Suhas A. Sridharan is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. Sridharan studies investors' use of information to assess risk and resolve uncertainty, particularly around issues of political economy. She is available to speak with media about the importantance of CSR - simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.
Emory Experts - Ad-blockers Shave $14.2 Billion Off Consumer Spending, Says New Research
Digital advertising is big business. So big, in fact, that it is well on track to become the most dominant form of advertising. Estimates suggest that spending on digital ads in the U.S. alone will reach a staggering $201 billion by 2023 – more than two-thirds of total spend. And it makes sense. With consumers increasingly shopping online, advertisers continue to ramp up their use of data and technologies to find innovative new ways to reach target audiences. The Flip Side to Digital Advertising Success The sheer ubiquity of online advertisements is driving a corollary upswing in the use of another digital technology. Ad blockers are easy-to-install and free-to-use software that consumers can deploy to hide unwanted ads on their screens, and they are gaining huge popularity worldwide. The numbers are hard to determine, but some evidence points to anywhere from 600 million to two billion Internet users having downloaded some form of ad-blocking in the last three years or so – well over 11% of the global internet population. Also hard to gauge is the impact on advertising revenue that ad-blockers are having – that is, until now. A new paper by Vilma Todri, assistant professor of information systems and operations management at Goizueta, sheds stunning light on the effect of ad-blocking on online search and purchasing behaviors among internet users. And what she has found should give advertisers serious pause for thought. According to her analysis, ad-blockers decrease consumer online spending by an average of 1.45%. Now, assuming that around 615 million internet users have downloaded some kind of ad-blocking software in recent years, the actual impact puts the loss in revenue from digital advertising around the $14.2 billion mark, year over year. And that’s not all. Todri also finds that ad-blocking seems to have the effect of limiting consumer spending disproportionally on certain brands over others. Users who opt out of seeing digital ads tend to continue to purchase mostly those products or services they are already familiar with, and not engage with new brands; they are less likely to use different search channels or visit new e-commerce websites as a result of ad-blocking. Analyzing Customer Engagement from 300 Million Internet Visits To get at these insights, Todri analyzed data from a U.S. web behavior dataset spanning a three-year period, from January 2015 to December 2018. She looked at web-wide visits, transaction behaviors and demographic identifiers across a total of 92,000+ users and more than 300 million internet visits. To measure the effect of ad-blocking, Todri matched all of this data with an ad-blocker dataset from the same source – a well-known U.S. measurement and analytics company – which shows that around 10% of users had installed an ad-blocker at some point during this three-year window. Crunching the numbers, Todri finds that the effect of using ad-blocking software on these users is to reduce their online search engine sessions by 5.6%. They also spend 5.5% less time visiting e-commerce websites. In other words, consumers who opt out of seeing ads end up browsing and shopping significantly less than others. And in terms of what these users are buying, the data shows that they are much less likely to spend on brands they don’t know or have not experienced before (and conversely, more likely to stick to familiar brands.) Digging even deeper, Todri also finds that this negative effect penalizes the brands that invest most heavily in advertising online more that those that don’t. In other words, ad-blockers are hurting those who advertise online most. Todri’s paper is the first to expose the quantitative, negative impact of ad-blocking on consumer spending. And her findings should be on the radar of any company looking to market its products and services online, she says. “The data clearly shows that ad-blockers reduce online spending by 1.45%, which amounts to something in the order of $14.2 billion in lost revenue given that about 600 million people around the world have installed this kind of software,” she says. “And the figures suggest that it’s the brands that heavily invest on online advertising who are bearing the brunt of this drop-off in consumer spending.” Search Behaviors, Interrupted “Advertisers also need to look at the fact that ad-blockers inhibit search behaviors,” adds Todri. “The figures point to a drop of around 5% when users have installed ad-blockers, which in turn means that they are not discovering and spending on new brands. They’re sticking with what they already know.” There’s an imperative here for companies to interpret these findings and reflect on what they say about ad-blocking, and also about what constitutes “acceptable advertising practices,” she says. “It’s reasonable to assume that people who use ad-blockers simply don’t like ads and aren’t influenced by them. Yet the data points to a different conclusion: if consumer purchasing falls after installing ad-blockers, it would suggest that advertising does work – seeing advertisements does drive searching and purchasing behaviors. So taken together, there’s a likely imperative here for advertisers to find new formats in terms of reaching their targets, and to strengthen their organic channels and social presence online.” Digital advertising clearly does impact search and purchasing behaviors, says Todri, so firms need to get creative while being cognizant of the fact that some consumers find current advertising practices annoying. Vilma Todri is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Previously, she worked for Google where she was developing integrated cross-platform advertising strategies for large business clients that partnered with tech giant. Vilma is available to speak with media about this subject – simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.
It’s a topic that gets a lot of attention, people getting out of prison and returning to normal life. It’s a hard story to tell as there are so many challenges, obstacles to overcome and stigmas to break as those who have served their time and are looking to fit back into the life they used to know. Recently, Georgia Southern’s Maxine Bryant, Ph.D., was interviewed by the Savannah Morning News for "When is the debt paid? Formerly incarcerated individuals face challenges with re-entry." Here’s an excerpt: According to Rehabilitation Enables Dreams, or RED, a nonprofit restorative justice program based in Atlanta, Georgia, two out of three people released from prison in Georgia are rearrested within three years. Landing employment is only one of the issues formerly incarcerated people face in efforts to reintegrate into society. Finding shelter and earning an education are, in many cases, equally difficult, said Maxine Bryant, Ph.D., assistant professor in Georgia Southern University's Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. “What I think is missing is addressing the trauma that many people find themselves behind bars have been subject to before going to prison,” Bryant said." October 04 - Savannah Morning News If you are a journalist and would like to learn more about this program or this topic – then let our experts help. Maxine Bryant’s research interests focus on factors contributing to the successful community reintegration of released prisons. Specifically, she has written and presented on transitional jobs for newly released prisoners, the role of the Black church in successful offender reintegration, the impact of unaddressed childhood trauma and barriers to successful offender reintegration. She is available to speak with media any time – simply click on her icon to arrange an interview today.
