The Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics is pleased to announce the recipients of their faculty and doctoral research grants for projects pertaining to the topics of business ethics, values based leadership, social responsibility, and governance. The recipients of the faculty research grants are Vanessa Burbano, Assistant Professor in the management division and Shiva Rajgopal, Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing in the accounting division and Vice Dean for Research. Professor Burbano's areas of research focus on topics at the intersection of corporate strategy and social/environmental issues, and on employee motivation.  For the grant, Burbano will be working on a project entitled "Employee Unethical Behavior and Social Responsibility: What Motivates Misconduct on the Job?" along with her co-researcher, Bennett Chiles, Assistant Professor, Management Division.  Professor Rajgopal's research interests span financial reporting, earnings quality, fraud, executive compensation, and corporate culture.  Rajgopal's research project for the grant is entitled "Does Financial Misconduct Pay Off Even When Discovered?" with co-researchers, Dan Amiram, Philip H. Geier Associate Professor of Business, Accounting Division, and Serene Huang, Doctoral Student. 

The recipients of the doctoral research grants are Fabrizio Dell'Acqua, a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the management division, Jing Wen, a 4th Year Ph.D. student in the accounting division, and Minh Phan, a 3rd Year Ph.D. student in the accounting division.  Mr. Dell'Acqua studies the relationship between business and politics and, specifically, how firms use policies and regulations to build and maintain a competitive advantage. Dell'Acqua will be working on a project entitled "CSR and Political Access: A Randomized Field Experiment." Ms. Wen primarily conducts research in financial accounting, and her current interests relate to regulatory enforcement and financial reporting by financial institutions.  Wen's research project for the grant is entitled "Evidence from Basel III on Heightened Capital Requirements: Risk Mitigation from the Banking Industry to Other Industries."  Mr. Phan's research primarily focuses on financial and accounting regulation and how they affect the behavior of banks and their executives.  Phan's research project is entitled "Bank Executives' Short-Termism and Financial Stability." 

In line with the mission of the Center, the research will help provide new tools and frameworks in which to think critically about ethical conflicts across industries in order to better prepare future business leaders at Columbia Business School. The Center plans on presenting the research findings at a colloquium to be hosted during the 2019 academic year.