Since the Hoffmann Institute was founded in 2018, ensuring the availability of funding through the Research and Development Committee has remained a priority. This funding supports research into critical issues that bridge business and societal issues.
Research can take the form of case studies and articles in research journals. In Part 1, we highlight some of the Hoffmann-funded academic research published in journals and other academic publications. We focus on Innovation, Health & Wellbeing and Negotiation articles in this piece.
Organisational Behaviour & Innovation
“Innovative Deviance in a Rule Bound City State” in Global Perspectives (2022) 3 (1): 36640
Funding and service provision are fundamental tenets of nonprofit organizations in Singapore. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic challenged the resilience of the nonprofit sector and beckoned the government to respond with digitalisation programs that blend into the innovative capacity of the nonprofit sector. Consequently, digitalisation has produced different versions of innovation that have helped tide nonprofits over this difficult time, in which crowdfunding has played an important role. In this article, two case studies are used to examine how nonprofits approach and situate crowdfunding in Singapore against the backdrop of the pandemic.
One organization utilizes crowdfunding as the core of their fundraising model and views it as an essential part of their operation. During the pandemic, they even used this crowdfunding model to reach marginalized communities that tend not to be the target beneficiaries of the registered nonprofit organizations in Singapore. The other organization finds itself innovating within existing fundraising mechanisms, though it has experimented with crowdfunding. The researchers argue that this case represents the strategy that most nonprofits are using during the pandemic by developing new and existing digital programs to attract potential donors. At the core of our argument, crowdfunding has the potential to expand the type of services and reach communities that tend to be overlooked or forgotten by present nonprofit structures in Singapore. By doing so, crowdfunding provides an outlet for these groups to voice their issues.
This research was produced by:
- INSEAD’s Winnie Jiang, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour
- Wayne Yeo, INSEAD Research Associate and Institutional Review Board Secretariat
- Nitin Natrajan PHD candidate at Boston College Carroll School of Management
(previously a Research Assistant at INSEAD) - Ling Han, Assistant Professor in Gender Studies Programme at The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Health and Wellbeing
“Young, Muslim and poor: The persistent impacts of the pandemic on mental health in the UK" in Social Science & Medicine, Volume 353, 2024
Based on wider research, understanding and reducing vulnerabilities in children and families post-pandemic in London, New York, and Toronto by INSEAD Professor of Economics Mark Stabile, ‘Young, Muslim and poor’ is one of the first studies to examine the pandemic’s mental health effects on the UK’s Muslim population using validated mental health measures and a wide sample size.
The article investigates whether the UK Muslim population had a different experience of the pandemic in terms of their mental health given they are one of the most discriminated communities in the UK, the lopsided health and economic impacts of the pandemic, and the socio-demographic profile of this group.
Using data to compare mental health trajectories of Muslims and non-Muslims before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and controlling for several predictors of mental health, the team found:
A gap of 1.7 points on the GHQ scale compared to non-Muslims.
The gap in mental health for Muslims persisted following the pandemic.
Younger and poorer individuals experienced worse mental health declines and had not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. This was unlike older and wealthier groups, whose mental health recovered.
Being Muslim, being young, and being poor all independently contributed to experiencing a mental health gap and to the persistence of this gap. Policymakers must now address the lasting mental health impacts of the pandemic on these overlooked groups.
This research was produced by;
INSEAD's Mark Stabile, Dean of Degree Programmes, the Stone Chaired Professor of Wealth Inequality and Professor of Economics
- Dr Miqdad Asaria, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Health Economist, and Fellow at the REAL Centre, The Health Foundation
Henrique Duarte Neves, PHD candidate at University of Mannheim
(previously a Pre-Doctoral Researcher at INSEAD in the Stone Centre for the Study of Wealth Inequality & Research Assistant at the Institute For Fiscal Studies)
“Effects of snack portion size on anticipated and experienced hunger, eating enjoyment, and perceived healthiness among children” in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 17 (1), 70
Large portion sizes encourage overconsumption and prior studies suggest that this may be due to errors in anticipating the effects of portion size, although the studies were limited to adults and energy-dense foods. The aim of this research was to investigate potential anticipation errors related to the effects of portion size on hunger, eating enjoyment, and healthiness ratings among 8-to-11-year-old children, for snacks differing in energy density and healthiness perception, and as a function of initial hunger.
In a within-subject design, 83 children aged 8 to 11 years old were first asked to anticipate how much they would enjoy, how hungry they would feel after eating, and how healthy it would be to eat a recommended serving size, a 50% larger portion, and a 125% larger portion of brownie or applesauce. Over six subsequent sessions, the children were asked to eat all of each of these portions and then rate their post-intake enjoyment, residual hunger, and healthiness perceptions. The team also measured hunger at the beginning of each session.
The study showed that for both snacks, larger portions reduced anticipated and experienced residual hunger similarly. In contrast, larger portions increased anticipated but not experienced eating enjoyment for both snacks; although larger portions increased anticipated and experienced enjoyment ratings among extremely hungry children. All children under-anticipated how much they would enjoy the smaller portion sizes. Healthiness ratings were unaffected by portion size for both snacks but differed across foods (applesauce vs. brownie).
The research shows that children anticipate the effects of portion size on hunger change accurately, overestimate the effects of portion size on eating enjoyment, and rate food healthiness on food type and not portion size. Helping children better anticipate the enjoyment from smaller (recommended) portion sizes and understand that food quantity, not just quality, matters for healthy eating may be a solution to improve portion control.
This research was produced by;
INSEAD’s Pierre Chandon, Professor of Marketing, L'Oréal Chaired Professor of Marketing, Innovation and Creativity, Academic Director, INSEAD Sorbonne University Behavioural Lab
Camille Schwartz, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, AgroSup Dijon, CNRS, INRAE, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté
Christine Lange, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, AgroSup Dijon, CNRS, INRAE, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté
Sophie Nicklaus, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, AgroSup Dijon, CNRS, INRAE, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté
Yann Cornil, Associate Professor, Marketing and Behavioural Science Division Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia,
"Experiencing nature leads to healthier food choices" in Communications Psychology, April 2024
Experiencing nature has been linked to a host of benefits for health and well-being. Here, we examine if exposure to nature influences the food choices that may contribute to nature’s benefits. Five between-subject experiments (n = 39, n = 698, n = 885, n = 1191, and n = 913) show that individuals exposed to the natural environment choose healthier foods when compared to those exposed to urban environments or a control condition. Nature’s effects are observed for various foods and beverages, across samples from three countries, and in varied contexts, such as taking a walk in a park (vs. a city street) and looking at photos of nature (vs. urban or control) scenes. These findings provide insights into the relationship between proximity to nature and health.
This research was produced by:
INSEAD’s Pierre Chandon, Professor of Marketing, L'Oréal Chaired Professor of Marketing, Innovation and Creativity, Academic Director, INSEAD Sorbonne University Behavioural Lab
Maria Langlois, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University
“Collaborer pour promouvoir des comportements alimentaires plus sains” in Harvard Business Review
Professor Pierre Chandon discusses the importance of collaboration among various stakeholders to encourage healthier eating habits. The piece emphasises that addressing dietary challenges requires joint efforts from governments, businesses, and civil society to create environments that support and facilitate healthy food choices. The article also highlights the role of public policies, corporate responsibility, and community initiatives in promoting nutritional education and access to healthier food options.
This article was produced by;
INSEAD’s Pierre Chandon, Professor of Marketing, L'Oréal Chaired Professor of Marketing, Innovation and Creativity, Academic Director, INSEAD Sorbonne University Behavioural Lab
Negotiation & Team Dynamics
“Superordinate goal dialogues between negotiating teams: When and why goal discussions between teams reduce competition and increase value creation” in Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 167, 157-169.
Although negotiations between teams can result in informational advantages resulting in higher joint gain, the presence of teams can also undermine trust, fuel competition, and impair joint gain. This research addresses this challenge by using structured dialogues to develop trust that helps to establish cooperative interdependence between teams. Building upon prior research in negotiations and intergroup relations, the team proposes that superordinate goal dialogues can increase trust and facilitate strategy to generate high quality outcomes.
Across four face-to-face negotiation studies, we document that structured dialogues about superordinate goals increase trust and teams’ use of negotiation strategy to ultimately improve joint gain. The research identified the boundary conditions that shape when superordinate goal dialogues are most likely to increase joint gain, as well as when they will not be effective. The presence of teams in negotiations can undermine trust, fuel competitive strategies and lower joint gain.
This research was produced by;
INSEAD’s Roderick Swaab, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and the INSEAD Chaired Professor of Leadership and Conflict Resolution
Robert B. Lount Jr, Professor of Management and Human Resources in the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University
Seunghoo Chung, Assistant Professor of the Department of Management and Marketing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Jeanne M. Brett, DeWitt W. Buchanan, Jr. Professor Emerita of Dispute Resolution and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management
“Hierarchical team structures limit joint gain in interteam negotiations: The role of information elaboration and value claiming” in Academy of Management Journal, October 2021
Although teams of negotiators are widely assumed to be better at unlocking integrative solutions than individual negotiators, the interteam negotiation context is characterized by unique challenges which can make effective collaboration between teams difficult. The authors extend their theoretical understanding of interteam negotiations by offering novel insights about when and why teams realize their potential in integrative negotiations. Specifically, they propose a theoretical model that explains how hierarchical team structures reduce information elaboration within teams, which reinforces “fixed-pie” assumptions that prompt the reliance on value claiming behaviours between teams and lower high-quality outcomes such as the joint gain achieved. Across four studies, each involving interactive team-on-team negotiations, the authors provide support for the hypothesized effects of formal intrateam hierarchies on joint gain and test a useful intervention to mitigate the harmful effects of hierarchically structured teams at the negotiation table. Contributions to the literatures on team negotiations, interteam collaboration, and hierarchical differences within teams are discussed.
This research was produced by:
INSEAD’s Roderick Swaab, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and the INSEAD Chaired Professor of Leadership and Conflict Resolution
Sarah Doyle, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, Eller College of Management at The Ohio State University
Robert B. Lount Jr, Professor of Management and Human Resources in the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University
Seunghoo Chung, Assistant Professor of the Department of Management and Marketing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Jacob Rathjens, Graduate Research Associate, Max M. Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University
Stay tuned for Part 2, where we will highlight additional research, specifically case studies, shaping the future of sustainability.
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