Law, Business And Politics

New research by Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management professor Bruce Cooil and his coauthors finds that for all the attention companies pay to achieving high satisfaction levels among their customers, what matters most is how well a company ranks in comparison to rivals. No matter how much a customer likes a company or product, if they don’t like it more than the competition, they don’t always put their money where their mouth is. Read More

The struggle against juvenile crime may come down to one simple question, says a Vanderbilt University researcher: Do we want revenge or do we want results? If we want results, says legal expert Christopher Slobogin, we should dramatically reform the system to stress community-based treatment over incarceration. Read More

Larry Bartels, arguably the most influential political scientist of his generation, researches a mix of psychology and democracy for a holistic understanding of the political process. Read More

Consumers adopt innovation only when the costs—and risks—are low, says Vanderbilt marketing professor Steve Hoeffler. Read More

Vanderbilt University has been awarded a $4.85 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to manage the newly established MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience. Read More

A Vanderbilt political science study offers fairly conclusive evidence that, in low-information races, a candidate’s name recognition alone positively affects voter support. Read More

No one in the world should be detained without due process of law, and an international legal body should be created to ensure the right, says Vanderbilt University professor Larry May. Larry May (John Russell/Vanderbilt) May, the W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt, has traced… Read More

A new poll shows the 107th Tennessee General Assembly, marked by debate on a number of controversial issues, slipped in its approval rating in the four months it was in session. Read More

Research by Vanderbilt and Claremont political scientists show a significant number of American voters remain biased against Mormons and other religious minorities. Read More

The legal safeguard habeas corpus is being used in ways it was never intended, resulting in a costly waste of scarce legal resources and taxpayer dollars, according to two researchers who have studied thousands of habeas cases. Read More

A new poll shows that Haitians have reacted to a devastating 2010 earthquake much as expected, with one notable exception. The destruction and poverty caused by the earthquake have done remarkably little to erode confidence in democracy. Read More

Vanderbilt finance professor Craig M. Lewis has been named as the new director of the SEC's Division of Risk, Strategy, and Financial Innovation and chief economist of the SEC. Read More

The reason Volkswagen’s Star Wars-themed Super Bowl ad featuring a lovable little Darth Vader worked so well may lie in its narrative complexity, says Vanderbilt marketing professor Jennifer Escalas. Read More

Vanderbilt finance professors Robert Whaley and Jacob Sagi rang the opening bell for Nasdaq OMX in New York on Tuesday, April 19, to celebrate the start of options trading on a new group of indexes the pair developed to help protect stock gains from market fluctuations. Read More

Legal experts Nancy J. King and Joseph Hoffmann propose a new approach to habeas corpus cases, in this op-ed which ran in the April 17, 2011, New York Times. Read More

A private carbon labeling system could help make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions by leveraging consumer purchasing power. Read More

A clear safety culture and “conceptual toolkit” are needed to reduce medical mistakes, research from Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management finds. Read More

Researchers discover corporations gain clear financial benefits when individual employees make political donations. Read More

African Americans have continually crossed the color line and assimilated into white communities since the 17th century, without science or surgery. A new book reveals how, and why. Read More

Try asking any Monday morning quarterback about blown fourth-down play calls in the NFL and you are guaranteed passionate opinions. In most fourth-down plays, an NFL team will punt or try for a field goal. But, occasionally, teams decide to do something that is viewed as risky – attempt a… Read More