Management Talk: Sunita Sah (Cornell)

Event time: 
Friday, December 9, 2016 - 11:30am
Location: 
Classroom 4210 See map
165 Whitney Avenue
Event description: 
Marketing Seminar Series
Presents
 
Sunita Sah
John and Norma Balen Sesquincentennial Fellow
Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations
Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University
 
 
“Conflict of Interest Disclosure and Appropriate Restraint:
The Power of Professional Norms”
Conflicts of interest present an incentive for professionals to give biased advice. Disclosing, or informing consumers about, the conflict is a popular solution for managing such conflicts. Prior research, however, has found that advisors who disclose their conflicts give more biased advice. Across three experiments, using monetary incentives to create real conflicts of interest, I show that disclosure can cause advisors to significantly decrease or increase bias in advice based on the context in which the advice is provided. Drawing from norm focus theory and the logic of appropriateness literature, this investigation examines how professional norms cause advisors to either succumb to bias (by believing that disclosure absolves them of their responsibility—caveat emptor) or restrain from bias (by reminding advisors of their responsibility towards advisees). Professional norms significantly alter how disclosure affects advisors—increasing bias in advice in business settings but decreasing bias in medical settings. These findings not only disconfirm previous assumptions regarding conflict of interest disclosures but also highlight the importance of context when understanding the potential and pitfalls of disclosure. 
 
Friday, December 9, 2016
11:30a.m. – 1:00p.m.
165 Whitney Ave
Classroom 4210
 
 
 
Lunch will be served