To wrap up the first season of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society, we invited Senior Associate Dean Jesper B. Sørensen into the studio to talk about the importance of research at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He shares insights on what motivates faculty to study what they do and how it impacts practitioners across industries.

“One of the challenges of being a great researcher is that you need to move away again from this kind of day-to-day reality.… I think a gift that a lot of our faculty have is to be able to both live in that very abstract kind of world and then make it relatable to somebody who’s not living in that world,” Sørensen says.

“Sometimes putting fundamental insights into practice is really hard. One of the hallmarks of research is trying to isolate particular mechanisms through various kinds of control. Scientists live in the world where it’s a vacuum, and so we just watch the leaf fall and we can then time it and then tell you what the answer is,” Sørensen says. “And managers live in a world where the wind is blowing and there’s all these kinds of forces getting in the way.”

In his conversation with podcast host Kevin Cool, Sørensen also shares his thoughts on three episodes from If/Then’s first season.

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society. Each episode features an interview with a Stanford GSB faculty member.

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While our team starts working on our second season, we'll still be sharing insights, bonus content, behind-the-scenes audio, and "class takeaways" from Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty throughout the summer. Stay Tuned!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Getting to elect our leaders is certainly a privilege. Yet, even in a representative democracy, the choice that citizens have is often only as good as the candidates they have to choose from. That’s why Professor Andrew B. Hall, The Davies Family Professor of Political Economy, wonders: How do we get society’s best and brightest to participate in politics?

As a political economist at Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, Hall has spent years studying what motivates people to engage in the democratic process. On this episode of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society, he shares his insights on how we can create a system that attracts a more diverse and qualified pool of candidates to run for public office and encourages greater voter participation at the local, state, and national levels.

Key Takeaways:

• Engagement starts with incentives: Whether encouraging better candidates to run for public office or driving higher voter turnout, Hall says our democratic system must incentivize citizens to actively take part in the process.
• What's at stake?: People are more likely to participate in democratic processes when they understand how the outcome directly affects them. Hall cites how homeowners are more likely to vote on local zoning issues that impact their property values.
• Adapting new technologies thoughtfully: As new technologies emerge, Hall says it's crucial to consider how they can be harnessed to improve democratic participation and address the challenges facing our political system.

More Resources

• Andrew B. Hall, The Davies Family Professor of Political Economy
• What Kinds of Incentives Encourage Participation in Democracy? Evidence from a Massive Online Governance Experiment
• Stanford GSB Insights:
• Inside a Government Where People Are Paid to Vote
• If You Lived Here, You Might Be a Voter By Now

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.