Business & Management

The Making of an Expert: The Joy Factor
Gallery
The Making of an Expert: The Joy Factor

Behavioral Theory & Insights, Business & Management, Society & Everyday Life

The Making of an Expert: The Joy Factor

The pursuit of expertise has been a longstanding goal for us humans. Drawing from key research on how we build skills, we highlight the intrinsic connection between joy and the development of expertise in one’s field. By understanding joy as a vital component of expertise, we propose the concept of joyful expertise – a holistic approach to skill development. Potential contributors to joyful expertise include social connection, grit and resilience building, finding aligned environments, and the prioritization of holistic well-being.

By Shaye-Ann Hopkins|2024-03-21T02:43:32+00:00March 20th, 2024|Categories: Behavioral Theory & Insights, Business & Management, Society & Everyday Life|Tags: connection, expert, expertise, flow, happiness, joy, skill development|

Pricing Strategy: How Our Brains Keep Us Stuck
Gallery
Pricing Strategy: How Our Brains Keep Us Stuck

Business & Management, Marketing & Consumer Behavior

Pricing Strategy: How Our Brains Keep Us Stuck

Pricing strategy is a funny area of business that everyone seems to hate. What role does the brain play in this, and how can you leverage behavioral economics to overcome your brain’s natural tendencies?

By Melina Palmer|2023-12-04T06:45:36+00:00December 4th, 2023|Categories: Business & Management, Marketing & Consumer Behavior|Tags: Bikeshedding, marketing, Optimism Bias, Planning Fallacy, price, pricing, time discounting|

Make or Break: The Behavioral Science of Innovation
Gallery
Make or Break: The Behavioral Science of Innovation

Behavioral Theory & Insights, Business & Management, Marketing & Consumer Behavior

Make or Break: The Behavioral Science of Innovation

Successful innovation requires far more than a market gap, a visionary, funding, and new technology. Innovation is a behavioral process from start to finish. It relies on the decision-making processes and behaviors of both producers and consumers, as well as the surrounding support system. Behavioral science, the science of how we make decisions, has invaluable practical insights for innovation on all fronts.

By Melina Moleskis|2022-12-06T01:37:52+00:00December 5th, 2022|Categories: Behavioral Theory & Insights, Business & Management, Marketing & Consumer Behavior|Tags: behavioral economics, behavioral science, confirmation bias, consumer behavior, decision making, Innovation, overconfidence, survivorship bias|

Dark Patterns Powered by Machine Learning: The Role of Behavioral Science Ethics
Gallery
Dark Patterns Powered by Machine Learning: The Role of Behavioral Science Ethics

Business & Management, Government & Civic Behavior, Technology & Digital

Dark Patterns Powered by Machine Learning: The Role of Behavioral Science Ethics

Dark patterns, the “sludges” of the digital world, aim to distort consumers’ decision-making process. Dark patterns powered by machine learning represent an even higher threat, in that they don’t just trick users to do something, but alter human behavior in a durable, undetectable, and indefensible way. This article examines the main issues linked to machine learning powered dark patterns and seeks to outline possible solutions.

By Borbála Dömötörfy|2022-11-22T01:30:08+00:00November 22nd, 2022|Categories: Business & Management, Government & Civic Behavior, Technology & Digital|Tags: behavioral science ethics, dark pattern, ethics, human machine interaction, machine learning, regulation, self-regulation, ux design|

A Practitioner’s Guide to Leveraging Behavioral Insights
Gallery
A Practitioner’s Guide to Leveraging Behavioral Insights

Behavioral Theory & Insights, Business & Management, Marketing & Consumer Behavior

A Practitioner’s Guide to Leveraging Behavioral Insights

Many behavioral interventions offer win-wins to firms, governments, and other stakeholders. However, research has shown that experts do a poor job predicting the effectiveness of behavioral interventions. This article aims to help calibrate forecasts of an intervention's effectiveness. I outline six steps to help assess whether a published effect is likely to be useful in practice.

By David Comerford|2022-10-27T03:05:05+00:00October 25th, 2022|Categories: Behavioral Theory & Insights, Business & Management, Marketing & Consumer Behavior|Tags: behavior change, behavioral design, behavioral economics, behavioral science|

Using Behavioral Science to Improve a Referral Program
Gallery
Using Behavioral Science to Improve a Referral Program

Business & Management, Technology & Digital, Work & Employment

Using Behavioral Science to Improve a Referral Program

How do you use a referral program to motivate people? We ran a large-scale experiment aimed at increasing referral volumes at our staffing company. The details of the experiment were motivated by concepts in behavioral science, specifically something called present bias. Many of our colleagues were surprised by what we found.

By Ben Tengelsen|2022-12-06T01:59:46+00:00August 14th, 2022|Categories: Business & Management, Technology & Digital, Work & Employment|Tags: incentives, present bias, referral|

Planning Your First Field Experiment in Business
Gallery
Planning Your First Field Experiment in Business

Business & Management, Research Methods

Planning Your First Field Experiment in Business

Experiments (aka A/B tests) are the bread and butter of behavioral scientists. However, running experiments requires much more than knowing statistics, especially when you’re running “field” experiments and not purely digital ones. In this post, I’ll give you four recommendations to get your experiment right.

By Florent Buisson|2022-12-06T01:57:24+00:00June 29th, 2022|Categories: Business & Management, Research Methods|Tags: A/B test, experimentation, randomization, RCT, scaling|

The Behavioral Economics of Price-Setting
Gallery
The Behavioral Economics of Price-Setting

Business & Management, Marketing & Consumer Behavior

The Behavioral Economics of Price-Setting

Prospect theory proposes that when making decisions people use a reference point to frame prospective alternative outcomes as either potential gains or losses; when considering prospective gains, they are risk-averse and prefer certainty, but when considering prospective losses, they are risk-prone and prefer to risk the possibility of larger but uncertain losses. However, when setting prices people make decisions that contradict prospect theory: they are risk prone when cutting prices with the prospect of revenue gains, and risk averse when raising prices that they associate with perceived revenue losses.

By Gerald Smith|2022-02-17T05:21:38+00:00December 7th, 2021|Categories: Business & Management, Marketing & Consumer Behavior|Tags: availability heuristic, bias, framing, loss aversion, management, marketing, pricing, prospect theory, salience|

Is It Loyalty or Habit?
Gallery
Is It Loyalty or Habit?

Business & Management, Marketing & Consumer Behavior

Is It Loyalty or Habit?

Marketing theories on loyalty mostly dismiss the idea that consumer's repeated usage of the brand may be a result of a habit, rather than any emotional commitment to the brand. As a result, loyalty marketing often misses one vital component of generating customer stickiness - trying to convert brand choice into a habit. Neuro-imaging suggests that as actions are repeated, the activity in areas of brain involved in decision making actually decreases. This calls for an additional perspective of looking at loyalty as creating a habit loop. It may not involve significant additional resources, but can substantially enhance the effectiveness of the loyalty programs or marketing.