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Tag: Iowa State University

  • Iowa Board of Regents adds mental health funding to fiscal year 2027 budget requests

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    The Iowa Board of Regents approved a $1 million request for mental health support finding to be added to its fiscal year 2027 appropriations request. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

    The Iowa Board of Regents approved appropriation requests from state universities to keep general university funding flat for the upcoming fiscal year but allocate money toward certain projects and initiatives, including a regent-introduced line item to address mental health.

    After hearing Thursday from university student governments about their plans for how funds would be used, student Regent Lucy Gipple introduced a motion to add a $1 million request to the fiscal year 2027 state appropriation ask, to go toward mental health support and resources.

    Regent Greta Rouse also supported the motion, saying that mental health is something both she and the students she’s interacted with are passionate about.

    “It’s very clear that … this money will be put into good goals,” Gipple said.

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    The University of Iowa, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa have requested their general university allocations from the state be kept steady for the upcoming fiscal year, but each institution proposed programs pertaining to health care, agriculture, technology and new tuition plans.

    Brad Berg, board of regents chief business officer, said during the meeting the incremental funding requests from the three universities total $8.8 million in new appropriations. With the addition of $1 million for mental health, new funding will come in at just under $10 million if the Iowa Legislature approves the requests.

    Regent Robert Cramer said during the meeting board committees worked with university presidents to advise on what funding priorities they should target, leading to the decision to keep general funding flat in favor of asking for appropriations in specific areas.

    Regent David Barker, the only “no” vote on the board for including mental health funding, said during the meeting there may be people outside of the universities who may need mental health support more than students, and the board needs to consider its fiduciary responsibility to Iowa taxpayers.

    He commended the students on the “very well-thought-out proposal,” which has come before the board in past years, but pointed out that money allocated to this effort is money not spent on other efforts that may have a greater need.

    “We provide oversight over the universities, but our ultimate duty is to the taxpayers of Iowa,” Barker said.

    While she said she respected what Barker was saying, Rouse said the board is “here to advocate for students and the universities,” and lawmakers don’t have to fund the addition if they choose not to.

    If board members wish to support the institutions and their leaders, who presented to the board on retention rates and other data, Gipple said seeking this funding will do just that, as well as help students and hopefully avoid potential mental health crises.

    The UI’s retention rate has grown to 90.9%, university president Barbara Wilson said in her presentation to the board, after hitting its goal of 90% retention within three years instead of the projected five. She added the university admits 80% of its application pool.

    “I wouldn’t feel comfortable moving to do this if it wasn’t something I truly believed was necessary,” Gipple said.

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  • Psychology expert available to discuss new “Social Media and Adolescent Health” report

    Psychology expert available to discuss new “Social Media and Adolescent Health” report

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    The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a new report Wednesday, Dec. 13, on the mental and physical health effects from social media on adolescents. Written by a committee of 11 experts, “Social Media and Adolescent Health,” provides a comprehensive overview of the latest research related to platform design, transparency and accountability, digital media literacy among young people and adults, and online harassment. 

    Douglas A. Gentile, one of the committee members and Distinguished Professor of psychology at Iowa State University, is available to discuss the findings and recommendations.

    “The science documents that there are valid reasons to be concerned about social media and adolescent health, but we are not powerless. There are steps we can take as a country that will help us maximize the benefits while minimizing the potential harms of social media,” says Gentile.

    For the “Social Media and Adolescent Health” report, Gentile made significant contributions to the sections on addiction and problematic use and the chapter on education and training for teachers and physicians, which recommends:

    • The U.S. Department of Education should draw national attention to the importance of comprehensive digital media literacy and state boards of education should set standards for the same in grades K through 12.
    • The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation should set requirements for digital media literacy education for student teachers and as part of ongoing professional development for veteran teachers. Teacher training interventions should be designed to allow for rigorous evaluation to measure their effectiveness.
    • The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, and the Council on Social Work Education should incorporate training on the multiple effects of social media on children’s and adolescents’ well-being into professional education.

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  • Ukrainian grain farmers now raising hogs benefit from ISU expertise

    Ukrainian grain farmers now raising hogs benefit from ISU expertise

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    Newswise — AMES, Iowa – Russian attacks over the past 18 months have wreaked havoc on Ukrainian supply chains, reducing access to grain markets. The glut of inventory in the nation often called Europe’s bread basket has driven grain prices down, while reduced production capacity has increased the price of meat.

    That’s prompted some Ukrainian grain farmers to raise hogs for the first time, a more lucrative use of their harvest. An Iowa State University swine health expert is helping some of those farmers safely navigate the war-driven pivot to pork with a series of online workshops. 

    Dr. Justin Brown, an assistant teaching professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine, will wrap up the monthly series in September. Ten modules cover the basics of biosecurity along with disease identification, treatment and prevention. Each monthly session includes two modules with recorded lectures and a live Q&A, starting at 5 a.m. in Iowa so it can be held around the lunch hour in Ukraine.

    “The questions come flying in,” Brown said. “And they ask a lot of really good ones. There is definitely a thirst for in-depth knowledge.”

    Brown prepares his presentation slides in English before sending it to Oksana Yurchenko, president of the Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders, to translate into Ukrainian. He then records his lectures in English using the translated slides, which is overdubbed in Ukrainian. Yurchenko translates live to facilitate follow-up questions after the lectures are played.

    “Given what they’ve been going through. I’ve been amazed with their responsiveness,” he said. “I’m giving them information they need about swine medicine, but I’m also helping maintain some sense of normal life for them, I think.”

    When the invasion began, tending to hogs wasn’t a priority, Yurchenko said. About 15% of the nation’s commercial pig inventory was lost, leading to a 100,000-ton drop in pork production in 2022.

    “The first two or three months were chaos. We weren’t sure we’d continue to produce pork. But after the situation stabilized more, we came back to our routines,” she said.

    As grain farmers began to realize finishing pigs could convert cheap grain to needed protein, Yurchenko’s group looked to expand on its history of working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on biosecurity. The USDA awarded a small grant to cover the workshops, which are designed for farmers raising swine for the first time.

    “For these new producers, getting this information has been very, very, very important,” Yurchenko said.

    Though geared toward newcomers, the workshop participants have included longtime swine veterinarians, university researchers and students. The sessions draw up to 100 people, Yurchenko said.

    Brown’s presentations have been tailored in some ways for a Ukrainian audience. For instance, raising hogs outdoors – more common there than in the U.S. – requires different approaches, he said. But in general, Iowa State’s swine health expertise is applicable in other regions, and it’s been rewarding to help farmers in need far beyond the state’s borders, Brown said.

    “It’s our mission to disseminate knowledge, and often that happens here in Iowa. But a pig is a pig is a pig. There are some variances in genetic lines, but they get the same diseases. And the goal is the same, to safely grow food,” he said.

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  • To close the gap at the top, start with the bottom

    To close the gap at the top, start with the bottom

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    Newswise — Ames, IA — Twenty years ago, the National Football League adopted the Rooney Rule. It attempted to address racial disparity in top positions by requiring teams to interview at least one person of color for every head coach opening.

    But newly published research suggests the gap will persist unless it’s closed at the bottom. The NFL has a hierarchal labor pool, explains Andreas Schwab, co-author and associate professor of entrepreneurship at Iowa State University. Under the head coach are two coordinators who oversee defense and offense. These coordinators supervise position-specific coaches who may have their own assistant coaches.

    “To become a head coach, individuals need to move through the ranks. This paper shows that where you start in the hierarchy of coaching matters because the likelihood that coaches in that position get promoted to the next level differs,” says Schwab.

    The researchers found 79% of the promotions to head coach were from the coordinator position. While the data shows no racial disparity in promotions from coordinator to head coach, white coaches were twice as likely to be promoted from a lower-level position to a coordinator position.

    “The lower level feeds the top. If bias is embedded in the entire process, then it’s difficult to get the most capable candidates into the pool for the top position,” he explains.

    Big data dive

    The researchers collected and analyzed the career history data of more than 1,300 NFL coaches from all 32 teams between 1985 and 2015. They compared coaches who played the same position, started their careers coaching the same position, and performed equivalently based on a wide-range of objective performance measures, including:

    • Percentage of games won by the team when the coach had a chance of being promoted.
    • Offensive or defensive performance related to each coach’s primary responsibilities.
    • Coaching position-specific performance based on 52 metrics.

    The researchers also ruled out alternative explanations based on remaining differences between teams and coaches. This included whether coaches had worked for a team that went to the Super Bowl and had relatives who also coached in the NFL.

    Taking all these factors into account, the researchers found persistent racial bias in both the hiring and promoting of lower-level coaches.

    “These data analyses show where biases are hiding, and once we know that, we can think about interventions and measure their effectiveness,” says Schwab.

    The researchers say parity will be achieved only by rewarding coaches equally with promotions at the earliest stages of their careers. But Schwab emphasizes that there are no easy, quick fixes and any intervention requires adequate time to have an effect.

    Beyond the NFL

    Schwab says the NFL offers a unique opportunity to study bias in organizations. Along with a large amount of objective performance data, it provides transparency in the hiring, firing and promoting of coaching staff for an entire industry.

    In other industries, a lack of data and more subjective performance metrics often prevent solid statistical analyses of employee careers, even though biases are likely “just as relevant in other organizations,” says Schwab. “Beyond providing entertainment, the NFL can help us as a society to better understand and manage employee hiring and promotion processes.”

    Schwab co-authored the paper with Christopher Rider, University of Michigan; James Wade, George Washington University; and Anand Swaminathan, Emory University.

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  • Cutting back on social media reduces anxiety, depression, loneliness

    Cutting back on social media reduces anxiety, depression, loneliness

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    Newswise — AMES, IA — Last month, the American Psychological Association and the U.S. Surgeon General both issued health advisories. Their concerns and recommendations for teens, parents and policymakers addressed a mounting body of research that shows two trends are intertwined.

    Young people are using social media more, and their mental health is suffering.

    Researchers at Iowa State University found a simple intervention could help. During a two-week experiment with 230 college students, half were asked to limit their social media usage to 30 minutes a day and received automated, daily reminders. They scored significantly lower for anxiety, depression, loneliness and fear of missing out at the end of the experiment compared to the control group.

    They also scored higher for “positive affect,” which the researchers describe as “the tendency to experience positive emotions described with words such as ‘excited’ and ‘proud.’” Essentially, they had a brighter outlook on life.

    “It surprised me to find that participants’ well-being did not only improve in one dimension but in all of them. I was excited to learn that such a simple intervention of sending a daily reminder can motivate people to change their behavior and improve their social media habits.” says Ella Faulhaber, a Ph.D. student in human-computer interaction and lead author of the paper.

    The researchers found the psychological benefits from cutting back on social media extended to participants who sometimes exceeded the 30-minute time limit.

    “The lesson here is, it’s not about being perfect but putting in effort, which makes a difference. I think self-limiting and paying attention are the secret ingredients, more so than the 30-minute benchmark,” Faulhaber states.

    Douglas A. Gentile, co-author and distinguished professor of psychology, says their results fit with other research that’s grown out of kinesiology and health fields.

    “Knowing how much time we spend on activities each day and making something countable makes it easier for people to change their behaviors,” he says, giving Fitbits and daily steps as an example.

    Many of the participants in the ISU study commented that the first few days of cutting back were challenging. But after the initial push, one said they felt more productive and in tune with their lives. Others shared that they were getting better sleep or spending more time with people in person.

    Self-limiting may be more practical

    Gentile and Faulhaber point out other studies have investigated the effects of limiting or abstaining from social media. But many of the interventions require heavy supervision and deleting apps or using a special application to block or limit social media. Like rehab for someone who’s addicted to drugs, external accountability can help some users. But it also carries a higher risk of backfiring.

    “When a perceived freedom is taken away, we start resisting,” says Gentile. He adds that eliminating social media also means losing some of the benefits it can bring, like connecting with friends and family.

    Faulhaber says their study extends the current research on social media and provides a practical way for people to limit their use. For anyone looking to cut back, she recommends:

    1. Create awareness. Set a timer or use a built-in wellness app to see how much time you spend on social media.
    2. Give yourself grace. Recognize that it’s not easy to stick to a time limit. Social media apps are designed to keep you engaged. 
    3. Don’t give up. Limiting social media use over time has real benefits for your daily life.

    The researchers say it’s also important to be mindful of how and when we use these platforms. Future research could further explore this, along with the long-term effects from limiting social media and what people do with the time they gain.

    “We live in an age of anxiety. Lots of indicators show that anxiety, depression, loneliness are all getting worse, and that can make us feel helpless. But there are things we can do to manage our mental health and well-being,” says Gentile.

    Paying more attention to how much time we spend on social media and setting measurable goals can help.

    Jeong Eun Lee, assistant professor of human development and family studies, contributed to the paper.

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  • Building positive peace goes beyond conflict resolution

    Building positive peace goes beyond conflict resolution

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    Newswise — AMES, IA – When we think about people who have cultivated a more peaceful world, where do our minds wander? Do we see a montage of people linking arms during the Selma-to-Montgomery March or Indian peace activist Mahatma Gandhi? Is it a clip of world leaders shaking hands before a high-stakes negotiation?

    Or maybe it hits closer to home, in our own communities, the places where we work, worship or connect with others.

    “Building Positive Peace,” a collection of essays from a dozen Iowa State University faculty, underscores how all of us can play a role. The authors demonstrate this by drawing from their own disciplines – agriculture, architecture, business, education, engineering, history, music, nutrition and food systems and philosophy.

    “Peace is really about relationships. It’s a dynamic process, not a fixed state. One of our goals with this book is to spark conversations and offer a reframing of what we do and how we do it,” says Christina Campbell, the Sandra S. and Roy W. Uelner Professor and an associate professor of food science and human nutrition.

    Campbell co-edited the book with Simon Cordery, professor and chair of the history department. In their introduction, they emphasize the need to engage people from a diverse array of disciplines, not just those traditionally associated with peace studies, such as theology, international affairs and philosophy. Cordery adds that the authors often use the term “positive peace” to distinguish it from other forms and go beyond conflict resolution.

    “Peace has long been framed as the absence of war, but it’s just a starting point,” says Cordery. “How do we build a society that allows people to thrive?”

    From his perspective as a historian, Cordery says one way to get there is to acknowledge that human history is frequently presented as a series of turning points based on wars and other conflicts.

    “As a consequence, historians often ignore what people do on an everyday basis and the actual ways humanity has survived, because we have, despite our proclivity towards conflict. We could have wiped ourselves out several times throughout the millennia, but we’re still here.”

    Cordery offers an alternative approach in his essay. He points to Freemasons, friendly societies and other voluntary organizations as examples of historical research centered on positive peace, rather than conflict.

    In another essay, Campbell and her co-authors, graduate student Gretchen Feldpausch and clinical professor Erin Bergquist, explore the multifaceted benefits of home and community gardening.

    “Classical approaches to peace study may look at how hunger contributes to conflict or how conflict contributes to hunger,” says Campbell. “How can we come at it from a different angle and create the infrastructure so that people have access to healthy, culturally appropriate food in the first place?”

    Other essays explore how:

    • The arts provide multiple paths to peace (Jonathan Sturm, professor of music, emeritus.)
    • A peace spheres/framework fosters individual fulfillment and peace (J. Bahng, associate professor of education.)
    • Drinking water security to bring peace to vulnerable populations (Rameshwar S. Kanwar, Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering.)
    • A new framework can boost food supply chain sustainability (Kurt A. Rosentrater, professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering.)
    • Ecotourism can contribute to peace and intergroup cooperation (Jose Antonio Rosa, professor of marketing, emeritus; Nichole Hugo and David J. Boggs, faculty at Eastern Illinois University.)
    • Supply chain management can positively influence the production and distribution of goods and services (Frank Montabon, Dean’s Professor of Supply Chain Management.)
    • Homes can be re-imagined to be more sustainable and transcend the current climate crisis (Andrea Wheeler, associate professor of architecture.)
    • Transparency in policy making and engaging the public builds trust and moves a community toward sustainable, positive peace (Kenneth “Mark” Bryden, professor of mechanical engineering.)

    Roy Tamashiro, peace activist and professor emeritus from Webster University, also contributed an essay on envisioning a world conducive to human flourishing.

    Building momentum

    Campbell and Cordery say the book builds on conversations that started several years ago. In 2019, Campbell launched a Sustainable Peace Faculty Learning Community, which was funded by the ISU Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities. Researchers from different pockets of campus gathered bi-weekly to discuss definitions of peace and share how it related to their own disciplines. This evolved into ten of the faculty co-leading an honors seminar, now three years running.

    This fall, the cohort will host the Peace and Justice Studies Association’s annual conference at Iowa State from Sept. 15-17. They expect 400-500 attendees, including staff and faculty, students and professionals from across North America. Registration will be free for ISU students.

    The conference schedule will be updated this summer on the Peace and Justice Studies Association’s website.

    Cordery and Campbell say they hope the conference will spark a wider conversation on ISU’s campus about “what we do and how we do it.”

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  • Education boosts entrepreneurship in high growth industries

    Education boosts entrepreneurship in high growth industries

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    Newswise — AMES, IA – A new study from Iowa State indicates more education increases entrepreneurship in the U.S., especially for women.

    Economics Professor John Winters and graduate student Kunwon Ahn co-authored the recently published paper in Small Business Economics.

    “The benefits of education are often debated. Some worry it’s mostly about signaling rather than skill development, but our study provides a piece of evidence that additional years of education after high school can boost self-employment in high growth industries,” said Winters.

    To build their economic model, the researchers relied on the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Ahn and Winters examined employment and education data on nearly 8.2 million people born in the U.S. between 1963 and 1990. They then spliced their samples by state and birth year to link changes in education levels to changes in self-employment rates. 

    The researchers categorized industries as “high growth,” “low-to-middle growth” and “shrinking” based on industry employment growth data between 2006 and 2019 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.

    “Some of the high growth industries are what we’d expect: e-commerce and computer and data processing services. But they also included child care, veterinary services, and newer sub-industries in health, education and social services that emerged with smartphones and the explosion of apps,” said Winters.

    Food processing, trucking and grocery stores were among the low-to-middle growth industries. Automobiles, electronics and other sectors of manufacturing dominated the shrinking industries category, along with some retailers that sold clothing, movies and music.

    After crunching the numbers, the researchers found:

    • Additional schooling led to more self-employment in high growth industries for men and women.
    • Additional schooling led to more self-employment in low-to-medium growth industries for women but not for men.
    • Additional schooling led to less self-employment in shrinking industries for men. The researchers could not make any definitive conclusions about shrinking-industry self-employment for women because the results were not statistically significant.

    “Essentially, more education shifted the overall number of self-employed men from shrinking and low-to-medium-growth industries to high growth industries. For women, more education increased self-employment overall,” said Winters.

    Han Solo’s confidence

    As for possible explanations for the different effects education has on men and women, Winters said it may have something to do with confidence.

    “The percentage of businesses that fail early on is very high. So, nascent entrepreneurs need to be confident in order to take the leap into self-employment,” said Winters. “Think of Han Solo in Star Wars who said, ‘Never tell me the odds.’ He’s a textbook case of an overconfident entrepreneur.”

    Winters pointed to previous research showing men historically tend to be more confident and even overconfident compared to women. Along with increasing skills, education can help open doors and aspirations.

    “Education is empowering. For men who are overconfident, additional schooling may not affect their confidence much, but it can provide skills to help them in more productive and higher growth industries. For women, education may have an even greater impact on encouraging them to jump into entrepreneurship by increasing their confidence in addition to their skills,” Winters said.

    Data limitations and future research

    One of the challenges with the research project was measuring entrepreneurship. The American Community Survey asks people if they are self-employed, which Winters said is not necessarily the same as being an entrepreneur.

    “We tend to think of an entrepreneur as someone who wants to grow their business and have employees. Self-employment is broader,” said Winters.

    To shed further light on this, the researchers looked at whether the survey respondents who were self-employed had a business that was incorporated or unincorporated. Incorporating a business limits the owner’s personal liability for business debts. It provides legal protection but comes with additional paperwork and fees.

    Since businesses with more employees or aspirations to grow are more likely to be incorporated, the researchers used the legal status as a proxy for entrepreneurship. They found education increased incorporated self-employment for both women and men.

    In order to have large enough sample sizes for every state between 1963 and 1990, the researchers used employment and education data from white, non-Hispanic adults.

    “Our empirical method only allows us to look at people born in the United States, and we need large comparable groups for our approach to give accurate results,” explained Winters. 

    Winters said he’d like to see more research that explores how education can enhance entrepreneurship as a whole and for different demographic groups.

    “Education and entrepreneurship are both massively important topics, and better understanding how they work together is critical for a prosperous future,” notes Winters. “Our paper is only scratching the surface, but we hope future research sheds light on things like the influence of college major, student debt, and where entrepreneurs start their businesses.”

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  • Targeting serial returners to stem a growing problem for retailers

    Targeting serial returners to stem a growing problem for retailers

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    Newswise — AMES, IA – This holiday season is expected to set another record for online sales, according to the National Retail Federation. But if consumer habits mirror previous years, 20% to 30% of the merchandise will be returned. It’s a big financial hit and logistical challenge for retailers that cover all the shipping, sorting and processing.  

    “Supply chain managers are really good at moving things to the customer. They’re not as good at bringing things back in because it’s a jumbled, disorganized flow back into the company for a product that they may not be able to resell,” said Robert Overstreet, assistant professor of supply chain management at Iowa State University.

    To slow the backward flow and offset costs, retailers are increasingly adopting stricter return policies. Some are shortening the return window; others are adding processing fees or scrapping free shipping altogether.

    The risk with this approach, Overstreet says, is backlash from customers. He points to L.L. Bean as an example. The company ranked 16th among U.S. RepTrack’s 100 Most Reputable Companies in 2017 but fell out completely the next year after changing its return policy. L.L. Bean reduced its lifetime replacement guarantee to a year-long return window and required customers to show a receipt.

    Overstreet and his co-authors say in a newly published study that consumers are more likely to shop elsewhere if they view a return policy change as unfair or breaking a promise. They’re also more likely to complain to friends and family. But retailers may be able to retain customers and protect their reputations if they specifically target “serial returners” with the policy change.

    Serial returners include people who order multiple sizes, colors or models of a product to choose one and send the rest back. Last year, a Narvar study found that more than half of online shoppers in the U.S. buy more than they intend to keep. Another shopping behavior that’s contributed to the growth in returns is known as wardrobing or retail borrowing. Someone buys something for short-term use (e.g., a bassinet for a newborn, speakers for a one-time event) and sends it back before the return window closes.

    “With higher costs this year and increasing volumes of excess inventory, many retail giants are considering revamping their return policies,” said Overstreet. “Change is coming. But how they implement and communicate those changes will matter.”

    Targeted vs. generalized

    The researchers designed a vignette experiment featuring ABCmart, a fictionalized clothing retailer with an online presence and physical stores in all medium-to-large U.S. cities. Over 460 participants were asked to imagine they were loyal customers of ABCmart and planning to return a recent online purchase.

    Half of the participants were told the company was shortening its return window for all customers (i.e., a generalized policy.) The other half were told the shorter return window would affect only consumers who have abused the return policy (i.e., a targeted policy for serial returners.) Participants were told that they learned about the new policy because it was either 1.) widely covered on television, radio, and social media (i.e., high-intensity communication) or 2.) posted on ABCmart’s website and within their retail stores (i.e., low-intensity communication).

    The researchers found that the participants were significantly more likely to speak negatively about ABCmart when the policy change was generalized. Further, that negative word of mouth was significantly related to customer intentions to switch to a different website.

    In another survey, 100 participants were asked about their thoughts about generalized versus targeted policy changes. When the return policy change was targeted, 44% of the participants expressed positive emotions, while only 13% expressed negative emotions. The other 43% were neutral.

    Those on the positive side of the spectrum often made comments about fairness. For example: “I would feel proud of the company for taking action against people who try to cheat the system.”

    “Respondents largely understood that cheaters were increasing the price paid by everyone,” said Overstreet.

    Thirty-five percent of the participants in the targeted policy group also indicated they would talk about the policy change with friends and family. However, they said these comments would be neutral or positive. Only one participant indicated switching to another company when the returns policy change was targeted.

    However, when the return policy change was generalized, 64% of the participants expressed negative emotions, while only 2% expressed positive emotions. The other 34% were neutral. Nearly half of the participants indicated they would speak negatively about the change to family and friends (45%) and shop at another store (42%).

    Retailer communication

    Both showed the way the policy change was communicated to participants also mattered. Low-intensity communication for a targeted policy change led to the best outcome.

    “The majority of customers are not going to be affected by a policy change that targets serial returners, so there’s no benefit to wide-scale communications. Only offenders will be upset, not the whole group,” Overstreet explained.

    Pat Daugherty and Russell Laczniak, emeritus professors of supply chain management and marketing, respectively; and Tyler Morgan, assistant professor of supply chain management at Auburn University, contributed to the paper published in the Journal of Business Research. The research was funded by multiple grants from the Ivy College of Business.

    Overstreet and Daugherty are working with a Ph.D. candidate at Iowa State to develop a risk framework for returns management that includes recommended mitigation strategies.

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