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Financial Times: AI tools enhance judgment of relevance of research to society

03 Dec 2024
Tech-based analysis for the FT shows how business schools’ work is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Originally found at Financial Times

There have long been calls for business schools to focus on “responsible research” with relevance to society. Now, there is fresh scope to deploy technology to help assess their academics’ outputs at scale, albeit with limitations.

The leading business school accreditation bodies — the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, Equis and the Association of MBAs — are among those seeking societal impact, alongside organisations such as the Responsible Research in Business and Management network and the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education. But calling for responsible research is one thing; measuring it meaningfully and at scale is quite another. It is difficult, by any yardstick, to evaluate digitally the originality and depth of insight of academic writing, let alone assess its ultimate impact. Academic awards and assessments of papers do not necessarily coincide with the views of practitioners seeking practical applications. Ideas may take many years, and be significantly modified, before they are taken up. Some of the strongest may eventually prove to be erroneous and even harmful, or unexpectedly beneficial in unanticipated applications.

...The impact of AI on creativity

Nan Jia, at the University of Southern California, Xueming Luo, of Temple University in Philadelphia, and their fellow authors (considered, “When and how artificial intelligence augments employee creativity” in the Academy of Management Journal. They studied a telemarketing company to find that AI assistance in generating sales leads on average increased employees’ creativity in answering customers’ questions during subsequent sales calls, leading to increased sales.


Continue reading the original article at Financial Times.

Read the original research in Academy of Management Journal.

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