Business in review: 5 most popular articles on Do Better

Why do companies need to make talent recruitment and employee satisfaction a priority? How can companies boost innovation? What is the role of emotions in decision making?

Reaching the peak of the holiday season, Do Better offers a compilation of the most-read articles on business and management published this year. Check them out for insights and ideas on how to manage teams, improve business performance and attract the best talent.

Why tech companies can’t afford the gender gap

In this interview, Caroline Ragot, co-founder of Women in Mobile, talked with Do Better about why tech firms need to invest in female talent, how women can reduce the pay gap, why gender-biased algorithms can hinder hiring processes and why men also experience discrimination in their careers.

Only 10% of American executive roles in tech were held by women in 2018 according to the Entelo Women in Tech Report. Data from tech career marketplace Hired also shows that women receive job offers that pay less than their male counterparts 63% of the time – despite applying for the same jobs at the same companies.

"We don't have enough women holding positions in artificial intelligence, data science and machine learning," warned Ragot, who added that "diversity is known to drive innovation and profitability."

How your emotions shape your decision making

Jordi Quoidbach's research findings summarised in this article show how affective considerations – positive or negative emotional states – impact our actions. People tend to engage in pleasure-enhancing activities when they feel bad; whereas they tend to engage in less immediately rewarding behaviours, that might lead to longer-term payoffs, when they feel good.

They call this the hedonic flexibility principle and the authors think this behaviour may have evolved to help us prioritise. "The key idea is that when in a negative emotional state, people's priority shifts towards getting into a positive emotional state," write the researchers.

"But when in a positive emotional state, people's priority shifts towards taking care of relatively unpleasant tasks that might be important for their long-term well-being."

How to optimise the financing of innovation

A study of data from 146 large European firms belonging to the main European stock market indexes investigated the relationship between internal and external financing and the amount of innovation carried out by the firms receiving the financing.

This article by Xavier Ferràs reviews the conclusions of the study in order to explain the way large firms finance research and its relation to their ability to invest in innovation. "Businesses that focus on new products or services by seeking external investment find more attractive prospects," concludes professor Ferràs, who adds that "the size of the firm, and the sector within which it operates, impact on the profitability of innovation."

Podcast: Communication lessons from Andrew Cuomo – and retail challenges in times of crisis

The fourth most-read story on business was a podcast by Esade professor Esteve Almirall and Michelle Greenwald, communication analyst and adjunct associate professor at NYU Stern. The experts delved into the lessons that could be learnt from Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York State, and his communication style during the Covid-19 crisis.

The podcast offers insights on the main communication tricks used by Cuomo to keep audiences engaged, but also on the future of retail and marketing and how brands will change in a post-Covid world.

"Andrew Cuomo understands statistics, logistics, epidemiology and he comes across as an executive in charge who is trying to do everything possible," concluded Michelle Greenwald, adding that he "paints the grim reality, but he does it in a way that's human and constructive."

How to be happier: research-backed tips to boost your happiness

Research actually shows that we spend 25% of our time experiencing some type of conflict between doing something that makes us feels happy in the moment and doing something that will make us happy in the future.

Jordi Quoidbach's research study explores how people balance this trade-off in their daily lives and what we can learn from very happy people about how they invest their time every day. When happy people feel down or are in a bad mood, they tend to engage in activities that make them feel better and when they feel great, they tend to engage in more unpleasant activities that may pay off in the future. Less happy people do exactly the opposite, the researchers conclude.