The motivation of mission statements: How regulatory mode influences workplace discrimination

Despite concerted efforts to enforce ethical standards, transgressions continue to plague US corporations. This paper investigates whether the way in which an organization pursues its goals can influence ethical violations, manifested as involvement in discrimination. We test this hypothesis among franchises, which employ a considerable amount of low-income workers adversely affected by discrimination. Drawing upon Regulatory Mode Theory, we perform a linguistic analysis of franchise mission statements to determine their degree of locomotion and assessment language. EEOC archival data for the past decade reveals that regulatory mode predicts franchise involvement in discrimination. Discriminatory behavior is associated with franchises whose mission statements motivate employees to embrace urgent action (locomotion mode) over thoughtful consideration (assessment mode). Two experiments demonstrate that participants exposed to high locomotion mission statements tend to disregard ethical standards due to their need for expediency, making significantly more discriminatory managerial decisions than those exposed to high assessment mission statements

A Linguistic Examination Of Information Framing In Physician-Patient Conversations

Purpose: When discussing risks and benefits with cancer patients, physicians could focus on losses such as mortality rates and recurrence or, alternatively, gains such as survival rates and curing cancer. Previous research has shown that the way health information is framed influences individuals’ preferences and choices 1. We developed dictionaries for automated text analysis and ran exploratory analysis investigating whether and when framing manifests in actual physician-patient conversations and how often only one (gain) or another (loss) frame dominates the conversation. Methods: We analyzed transcribed consultations with patients who had low- or intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software, we calculated the number of words describing gains or losses. We ran a regression analysis exploring framing in the communications. Results: Our analysis revealed that on average, physicians use more words related to gains than losses. Furthermore, we found that the frame of the conversation shifts depending on the type of recommendation the physician offered during the consultation. Physicians who recommended immediate active treatment for prostate cancer (versus active surveillance) used marginally fewer loss words and significantly fewer words related to death. Exploratory analyses showed that words associated with losses and death were correlated with patient choice of active treatment (versus active surveillance). Conclusion: The frequency of loss words in physicians’ explanations was correlated with physicians’ recommendations and patients choices. We discuss theoretical implications and suggest directions for further research

We Ask Men to Win and Women Not to Lose: Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding

Male entrepreneurs are known to raise higher levels of funding than their female counterparts, but the underlying mechanism for this funding disparity remains contested. Drawing upon regulatory focus theory, we propose that the gap originates with a gender bias in the questions that investors pose to entrepreneurs. A field study conducted on question-and-answer interactions at TechCrunch Disrupt New York City during 2010 through 2016 reveals that investors tend to ask male entrepreneurs promotion-focused questions and female entrepreneurs prevention-focused questions, and that entrepreneurs tend to respond with matching regulatory focus. This distinction in the regulatory focus of investor questions and entrepreneur responses results in divergent funding outcomes for entrepreneurs whereby those asked promotion-focused questions raise significantly higher amounts of funding than those asked prevention-focused questions. We demonstrate that every additional prevention-focused question significantly hinders the entrepreneur’s ability to raise capital, fully mediating gender’s effect on funding. By experimentally testing an intervention, we find that entrepreneurs can significantly increase funding for their startups when responding to prevention-focused questions with promotion-focused answers. As we offer evidence regarding tactics that can be employed to diminish the gender disadvantage in funding outcomes, this study has practical as well as theoretical implications for entrepreneurship

Diversity in Entrepreneurship - An Experimental Investigation

Women and members of many racial and ethnic groups remain starkly underrepresented in entrepreneurship worldwide. Recent literature attributes women’s underrepresentation to heightened structural and normative barriers such as son-favorism or biases in startup evaluations. Diversity has also been shown to shape firm-level outcomes such as creativity or productivity. This presenter symposium advances our understanding in those two key areas - diversity and entrepreneurship. Specifically, the symposium focuses on the following two questions: First, how do we reduce barriers for women and minority groups and increase their representation and inclusion in entrepreneurship? Second, how do greater representation and inclusion of women and minority groups impact startup performance? The symposium broadens our understanding by shedding light on different stages in the entrepreneurial process and by promoting work which uses an experimental paradigm