New research by INSEAD faculty questions everything from the potential for corruption in healthcare redemption schemes to the influence of others on our dietary choices. One study explores how best to tackle the shortage of raw materials as part of the transition to clean energy. Another looks into whether CEOs can be rewarded for being lucky as well as good at their job. And there’s a new case that examines how a firm in the automotive industry adopted a new software-centric strategy to get a competitive advantage.  

How social influence impacts decision making

How can other people's opinions influence an individual’s decision-making, particularly when those decisions share a common theme? Through a series of studies, Hilke Plassmann and her co-authors* found that when people were exposed to others who valued healthy food, they also began to value food in a similar way. In fact, this newfound preference even carried over to how the participants made food choices in a real-world setting.

*Oriane Chene, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation; Philippe Fossati, Paris Brain Institute; Bernd Weber, University of Bonn; and Leonie Koban, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center.

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Can CEOs be rewarded for being lucky?

Martina Andreani and her co-authors* looked at whether CEOs were given bonuses for unexpected financial gains their companies received from changes to US tax law in 2017. The research found that CEOs whose pay was not closely watched received extra compensation for these windfalls but weren’t penalized for any related tax losses. The findings suggest they were rewarded thanks to good luck, rather than any reflection of their own performance or talent.

*Atif Ellahie, University of Utah and Lakshmanan Shivakumar, London Business School.

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Clean energy, material scarcity and urban mining

One of the biggest challenges facing the clean energy transition is the reliance on critical, but scarce, raw materials. This paper by INSEAD’s Atalay Atasu, Clara Carrera, Luk Van Wassenhove and co-author Serasu Duran, from the University of Calgary, examines two strategies to tackling this scarcity: material reduction, i.e., redesigning products to use less critical materials and urban mining, i.e., recovering critical materials from end-of-life products. They found that urban mining can be more effective when material scarcity is high, while material reduction is a better option when scarcity is low.

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The vulnerability of reimbursement schemes

Outcomes-based reimbursement schemes, which reward healthcare providers for better patient outcomes, can be vulnerable to exploitation. New research by INSEAD’s Stephen E. Chick, Sameer Hasija and Sasa Zorc from the University of Virginia found that this vulnerability depends on whether a physician's income is tied to the volume of their patient referrals. In systems where it is, such as the fee-for-service model in the United States, there's a strong financial incentive for collusion; however, systems that lack this trait, like the United Kingdom's National Health Service, are more resistant.

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Case focus: Software as a game changer

This new case by Wolfgang Ulaga and his co-authors* looks at how Bosch Rexroth, a company in the automation industry, gained a competitive advantage by creating a new open software-centric system. A key factor in the company's future growth, the system change required the firm to negotiate a significant shift from being a hardware-focused company to a software-driven one.

*Andreas Eggert, Michael Kleinaltenkamp and Florian Völkl, Free University of Berlin

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