The Costello College of Business at George Mason University is a leading center for impactful business research.
Our faculty are engaged with research that is both rigorous and relevant. Our faculty love to bring their research to the classroom, where they talk about their findings and ideas—which enriches the knowledge our students are exposed to. Our faculty research also shows up in policy and business practice, and is making an impact on the business of government and industry.
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55k
Research Citations by Costello’s Top 10 most-cited scholars
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#81
UT-Dallas North American Business School Research Rankings
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19
Costello professors holding editorial positions at academic journals
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22
Published papers in premier journals by Costello faculty in 2024-2025
Hot Topics
September 11, 2025Pharmaceutical website design can determine whether patients grasp critical risks, recall benefits, and take meaningful next steps.
April 29, 2025Two Costello College of Business accounting professors are exploring how inherent personal traits may influence business success—and their early findings will gratify the left-handed among us.
March 18, 2025A pair of George Mason University professors are helping needy nonprofits refine their messaging strategies with the help of customized chatbots.
March 11, 2025Information systems professor Nirup Menon has been researching IT and health care for decades. Now, with the help of the newest tech, he’s helping hospitals translate digital transformation into better outcomes for patients.
March 4, 2025China’s complicated and colorful e-commerce landscape gives us a sense of how livestream shopping is transforming retail. Si Xie, assistant professor of information systems and operations management, researches this new trend.
January 14, 2025In her off hours, Mariia Petryk, assistant professor of information systems and operations management, is using her data science expertise to help bring decentralized medicine to conflict zones—starting with her birth country, Ukraine.
October 11, 2023Can wearable tech resolve the crisis of underemployment among neurodiverse individuals? A multidisciplinary Mason research team is about to embark on a major study to find out.
July 26, 2023George Mason University School of Business boasts more than 60 full-time, research-active faculty across the accounting, finance, information systems and operations management, management, and marketing areas. In addition to pursuing research questions within their area of specialty, many School of Business scholars team up with peers from other disciplines to tackle complex societal problems.
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March 18, 2025A pair of George Mason University professors are helping needy nonprofits refine their messaging strategies with the help of customized chatbots.
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January 14, 2025In her off hours, Mariia Petryk, assistant professor of information systems and operations management, is using her data science expertise to help bring decentralized medicine to conflict zones—starting with her birth country, Ukraine.
November 26, 2024New research suggests there’s at least one group of people applauding the collapse of local journalism in the United States: corrupt politicians.
November 21, 2024We know from prior research that savvy investors respond to ESG data. But a pair of finance professors have discovered perhaps the most lucrative wrinkle in this strategy.-
October 1, 2024Not all organizations measure success in dollars and cents. There are also the purists, whose unswerving integrity may deliver outsized market benefits—if they aren’t fatally misunderstood first.
August 6, 2024The economic data on climate and business outcomes paints a picture of profound disruption beneath a placid-seeming surface.-
June 4, 2024The controversy about biased policing seems to draw endless fuel from race-based differences in public perception. Simply put, the vast majority of White citizens in the United States believe the police are doing a good job, including on issues of racial equality, while a similar percentage of Black citizens hold the opposite opinion. Brad Greenwood, professor of information systems and operations management, researches how digital technologies are bringing unprecedented transparency to police practices.
December 11, 2023Open-source learning materials promise to democratize education, while reducing the financial burden on students. But how can schools bring faculty on board?-
October 11, 2023Can wearable tech resolve the crisis of underemployment among neurodiverse individuals? A multidisciplinary Mason research team is about to embark on a major study to find out.
June 20, 2023Why are some firms more forthcoming than others about their social and environmental impact? It may have to do with the CEO’s personal incentives.
May 22, 2023How can you convince someone to give you their time or money free of charge? Focus on the head, not the heart.
May 10, 2023A Mason professor is the sole academic working with the U.S. government in an unprecedented effort to measure environmental-economic activity.
September 12, 2023When it comes to relationships between co-workers, organizations’ stated priorities must match what’s happening under the hood.
August 31, 2023A Mason professor finds yet another example of the value of diversity in senior management teams.
February 28, 2023Negotiation is a critical skillset in business and in society. Negotiation is a complicated, joint decision problem where parties can, potentially, make each other better off—but also have some competing interests. Einav Hart, assistant professor of management at George Mason University, suggests that our relationships and context influence how we should negotiate—and even whether it is a good idea to negotiate at all.
December 7, 2022Management professor Toyah Miller recently co-edited a special issue of Global Strategy Journal exploring how changes in our world are shifting the opportunity space for start-up founders and funders. Miller is the new research director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the School of Business and an expert in the rapidly expanding field of social entrepreneurship.
March 9, 2023The moment a brand publicizes its good works, it’s at risk of seeming cynical. A Mason professor offers research-based advice on how to generate lasting brand value from sustainability.
December 8, 2022Marketing professor Tarun Kushwaha’s recent research finds that the effectiveness of brands’ growth strategies can be correlated with the state of the economy. Analyzing 17 years of data on U.K. brands, Kushwaha concludes that brands that prioritize assortment and wider distribution are in the best position to weather the ups and downs of the macroeconomic cycle.
November 2, 2022It’s 9 am. Do you know where your team members are? Before Covid, the answer was simple: They were – or were expected to be – in the office. The pandemic erased that certainty and accelerated the pace toward work-place flexibility. As we move forward in our post-covid work environment, employees are strongly indicating their preference for flexibility and self-determination regarding their working environment. A portion of the workforce will desire to stay at home with high flexibility, whereas others will return to the office by choice.
September 20, 2022Selling is inseparable from relationship management. In the past, the one-to-one "human touch" of a salesperson compensated for the standardized nature of their wares. However, today's sales environment tends towards customized solutions and co-creation with the client, especially in the B2B space. In many cases, these trends have greatly increased the network of stakeholders whom salespeople are obliged to keep happy. Research shows that B2B customers benefit from being more involved in the process, but what about the sales force? Does their increased interpersonal burden translate to higher risk of burnout? George Mason University School of Business Marketing Area Chair Jessica Hoppner's recently published paper in Industrial Marketing Management, co-authored by Paul Mills of Cleveland State University and David A. Griffith of Texas A&M University, finds some surprising answers.
February 13, 2024Deciding whether to reveal someone else’s secrets isn’t just a moral dilemma. It can also have a serious impact on your reputation. Costello College of Business assistant professor of management, Einav Hart, explores this issue in a series of studies.
December 8, 2023No matter who you are, feeling threatened in your identity is bad for your well-being—and your career.-
October 11, 2023Can wearable tech resolve the crisis of underemployment among neurodiverse individuals? A multidisciplinary Mason research team is about to embark on a major study to find out.
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September 12, 2023When it comes to relationships between co-workers, organizations’ stated priorities must match what’s happening under the hood.
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August 9, 2023A new "mega-study" consisting of dozens of simultaneous, independently designed experiments shows that competitions have no automatic impact on our morality.
August 2, 2023Mason Management Professor Matthew Cronin, highlights two blind spots in our thinking about mental health that are hindering progress toward more mindful workplaces.-
July 26, 2023George Mason University School of Business boasts more than 60 full-time, research-active faculty across the accounting, finance, information systems and operations management, management, and marketing areas. In addition to pursuing research questions within their area of specialty, many School of Business scholars team up with peers from other disciplines to tackle complex societal problems.
June 6, 2023Understanding the mysterious resistance to remote work has been a defining theme of Management Professor Kevin Rockmann's research since 2004.-
May 12, 2023Our fears of asking questions that feel too sensitive or personal are often overblown. When phrased in the right way, they can lead to better decisions and stronger relationships.
April 28, 2023Whether it is pressing deadlines, overwork, or employees feeling they are not being supported, anger in a work environment can be unavoidable. Over time, the anger and frustration can compound, causing anger to spread through the entire team or organization, creating what George Mason University expert Mandy O’Neill calls a “culture of anger.”
March 8, 2023An explosion of digital technology made today’s hybrid workplace possible, but it couldn’t upgrade the analog infrastructure that is the human brain.
December 13, 2022Managers often struggle to motivate their teams, but that could be because they’re looking in the wrong place. Mason School of Business professor Shora Moteabbed believes that how employees relate to one another on a one-to-one basis is key to understanding—and influencing—workplace behavior.
May 7, 2025To predict how a CEO’s compensation may change through the years, you first need to know how corporate boards monitor earnings histories for potential long-term risks.
May 5, 2025Companies looking to bend reporting rules need to find accountants who will play ball. That’s why job postings can be a reliable indicator of intent.
April 30, 2025Sure, laid-off journalists can “learn to code”, but that won’t undo the damage done to local economies when their hometown newspaper folds.-
April 29, 2025Two Costello College of Business accounting professors are exploring how inherent personal traits may influence business success—and their early findings will gratify the left-handed among us.
February 27, 2025Since 2008, the meteoric rise of index funds has produced extreme consolidation of corporate ownership. So far, the outcomes for firms are a mixed bag.
January 7, 2025One accounting standard to rule them all might be a less desirable state of affairs than the ‘managed divergence’ that currently exists between U.S.-GAAP and IFRS.
December 11, 2024Burned-out auditors are getting dangerously distracted by job postings that offer a glimpse of more appealing professional pathways.-
December 4, 2024Leaked payroll data may contradict everything you thought you knew about the economic impact of high-skilled legal immigration.
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November 19, 2024The 2008 financial crisis cast a pall of pessimism over veteran CEOs that took three years to lift. David Koo, assistant professor of accounting, has found that memories of past recessions, triggered by recent ones, can weigh on chief executives’ decisions, literally for years.
August 22, 2024Artificial intelligence can perform peer firm selection—a key task for investors—at least as accurately as well-established alternative algorithms and human experts, according to research by Costello profs Long Chen and Yi Cao.-
August 6, 2024The economic data on climate and business outcomes paints a picture of profound disruption beneath a placid-seeming surface.
June 17, 2024George Mason senior associate dean and associate professor of accounting, JK Aier's prizewinning paper shows how firms can benefit from executive roles that strategically bridge the board and management.
April 3, 2024New EduRank report on university performance in research highlights eighteen George Mason University programs as the best in Virginia, with Mason's entrepreneurship ecosystem as No.1 among all public institutions.
March 28, 2024The college that now bears Donald G. Costello’s name is a fitting testament to his entrepreneurial legacy. This extends not only to coursework and outreach programs, which have long stressed entrepreneurship, but also to the faculty’s research expertise. Indeed, a number of Costello College of Business professors were key contributors to Mason’s being named the #2 university for entrepreneurship research in North America by independent ratings agency EduRank.
March 13, 2024During her time at Mason, Mason alumna Shrishti Singh has used all the tools the university provides to bring her discovery to the marketplace.-
December 11, 2023Open-source learning materials promise to democratize education, while reducing the financial burden on students. But how can schools bring faculty on board?
November 1, 2023George Mason University is No. 1 among public universities for research performance in entrepreneurship, and No. 2 overall nationally, in the latest report from EduRank.
September 25, 2023The business school’s SOAR Initiative is a critical building block in George Mason University’s efforts to advance social mobility, or an individual’s ability to improve their socioeconomic status.
April 20, 2023Fifteen teams competed for $40K in prizes at the George Mason University School of Business Patriot Pitch Competition during the in-person April 13 event on Mason’s Fairfax Campus.
March 23, 2023With $40,000 in seed funding up for grabs, George Mason University undergraduate students and recent alumni are preparing to pitch their business ideas to a panel of local business professionals and Mason alumni on Thursday, April 13 at the School of Business Patriot Pitch Competition.-
December 7, 2022Management professor Toyah Miller recently co-edited a special issue of Global Strategy Journal exploring how changes in our world are shifting the opportunity space for start-up founders and funders. Miller is the new research director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the School of Business and an expert in the rapidly expanding field of social entrepreneurship.
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December 1, 2022George Mason University’s Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) recently convened an in-person Stakeholder Roundtable on the subject of Corporate Governance. The half-day event took place at Point of View International Retreat & Research Center at Mason Neck in Lorton, VA on October 21.
October 10, 2022Join Dr. Mort as he presents insights on law and business. Friday, 10/14 from 10am - 11 am At the MIX (lower level Horizon Hall). This class will help you become aware of some legal issues you need to understand as you form a company to make, market and sell your products and services.
September 6, 2022Whether you’re looking to meet like-minded founders from different universities or looking for a teammate to launch your next big idea, meet student entrepreneurs from American, Georgetown, George Washington, George Mason, and UMD on the rooftop of Western Market THIS Wednesday, September 14th from 5:30-7:30pm. During this time, you’ll get a chance to network with one another, share stories, challenges, and ideas over a drink or two.
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February 6, 2024Mason finance professor Lei Gao, finds a “precautionary effect” at work in the minds of Republican-supporting CEOs, leading to more frequent and accurate earnings forecasts.
December 6, 2023What if you could outsource any computing task to the crowd without risking an epic fail? A newly developed set of technological tools could make this a reality.-
October 18, 2023A disproportionate number of the most innovative CEOs hail from U.S. counties with a frontier history.
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August 31, 2023A Mason professor finds yet another example of the value of diversity in senior management teams.
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July 26, 2023George Mason University School of Business boasts more than 60 full-time, research-active faculty across the accounting, finance, information systems and operations management, management, and marketing areas. In addition to pursuing research questions within their area of specialty, many School of Business scholars team up with peers from other disciplines to tackle complex societal problems.
May 4, 2023Analysts and top executives are usually not on the same page –or even reading the same book.
March 15, 2023A George Mason University professor is working on ways to measure one of the great intangibles of today’s companies: employee talent.
October 19, 2022For most drivers in the U.S., obeying a stop sign upon approaching an intersection is an unavoidable annoyance. But for Mason finance professor Jiasun Li, it’s a problem waiting to be solved. His recent working paper proposes a simple and economical improvement: removing one stop sign from every four-way intersection. According to his calculations, this would boost not only driver safety, but environmental sustainability as well.
October 12, 2022Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been on the business leadership agenda for more than 50 years, yet executives and corporate boards still demand to see the "business case" for CSR. Clearly, CSR’s familiarity as a concept has not translated into coherent ideas of where it fits into the cost-benefit calculations that motivate business strategy. A forthcoming article in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis by Lei Gao, associate professor of finance at George Mason University School of Business, Jie (Jack) He (of University of Georgia) and Juan (Julie) Wu (of University of Nebraska – Lincoln) goes beyond the business case to form cause-and-effect connections involving companies’ CSR efforts.
September 22, 2022Exceptions may prove the rule, but they must first be explained. That is why finance researchers are drawn to the distress anomaly-- a well-documented phenomenon that challenges the risk-return paradigm in equity markets. Generally, higher-risk investments are expected to yield higher returns than safer, more stable securities. In recent years, however, studies have shown that high-credit-risk securities for companies in distress – i.e. when their already-low credit rating is being downgraded -- realize abnormally low returns compared to non-distressed securities of the same or lower risk. Academics have proposed a range of rationales for this puzzle. Alexander Philipov, finance area chair and associate professor at George Mason University, says they mainly fall into two categories.