Current Research Projects
Faculty affiliates to the Madden Center for Value Creation are engaged in a variety of research projects focused on value creation for worldwide prosperity, most of which utilize the firm as the fundamental unit of analyses. Current policy-related projects include:
Value Creation: This body of research examines the pressures for environmental, social, and governance (ESG). Research questions include:
- Is there a moral basis for ESG?
- How does the ESG framework facilitate cronyism and lead to preferential treatment of firms?
- How do oil prices affect entrepreneurship?
- Why do firms with higher levels of corporate citizenship reputation experience significantly less negative market reactions to restatement announcements?
- How do the corporate citizenship and corporate governance aspects of CSR affect market reactions to accounting restatements?
Free to Choose Medicine: Recent bipartisan support for the Promising Pathways Act suggests that we may soon live in a world with dramatically reduced development cost and increased competition. This stream is endorsed by Vernon Smith, Nobel Laureate in Economics and advisory board member of the Madden Center for Value Creation: “It is my pleasure to endorse Bart Madden’s thoughtful support for free to choose medicine and the Promising Pathway Act.” Key research questions are:
- What are new models of competition, pricing, and innovation with free to choose medicine?
- How can AI and other technologies connect the free to choose biopharmaceutical ecosystem?
- How can managers optimize decision-making processes in a dynamic and uncertain world?
- How can free to choose medicine leverage the success of the free market medicine movement?
Regulation and Enterprise: Today’s economy is characterized by high inflation, supply chain disruptions, as well as considerable innovation and volatility in the financial sector. Faculty are investigating a range of issues such as:
- How does the push for greater ESG regulation affect business outcomes?
- How can enacted and proposed corporate governance regulation affect firm processes and outcomes?
- When do regulatory agendas risk undermining the rule of law?
- How does the Dodd-Frank Act affect small business lending?
- To what extent do Fed economics' political contributions and assessed ideological diversity affect policies and promotions?
- Do Bitcoin energy cots outweigh the benefits of Bitcoin?
- How does a national political leader's populist discourse influence the allocation of entrepreneurs into productive and unproductive entrepreneurship?
- What is the future of fintech and crowdfunding?
- How do corporate board directors and top management teams assess risk?
Higher Education Accountability, Budgets, and Value Creation: Today’s higher education institutions are facing unprecedented challenges, and must operate flexibly and resiliently. Faculty research includes:
- How can universities encourage entrepreneurial practices and reduce bureaucracy?
- What data-driven strategies improve accountability metrics for persistence, completion, and inclusion?
Entrepreneurship and Value Creation: This research examines a variety of topics on growth and public policy, including:
- How does new venture team composition change when approaching an initial public offering (IPO)?
- What are the key institutional drivers of high-potential female entrepreneurship that is innovative, market-expanding, and export oriented?
- Which regulations are mostly likely to discourage productive entrepreneurship?
Research from these projects is published in top peer-reviewed academic journals and forthcoming in a special edited book: Value Creation, Entrepreneurship, and Public Policy (2023). Additionally, faculty frequently publish op-eds in top national media on policy issues.