PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE
The globe is inundated with data, yet the technological resources we utilize to collect and analyze all this information in our personal and professional lives may lead to greater bewilderment, misinformation, and skewed perceptions.
This summarizes the recent findings by Jerry Davis, a scholar in management and organizations at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. His work emphasizes the various roles that corporations play as social and economic agents.
His latest research sheds light on the ethical and moral dilemmas faced by businesses in the 21st century, and how they ought to pivot to fulfill the demands and anticipations of their customers and stakeholders in an ever-evolving global environment.
Davis shares key takeaways and observations in the newest episode of the Business & Society podcast, a collaborative effort between the Ross School of Business and Michigan News.
Academic publishing and generative AI
Open-access publishing aspires to make scholarly work available free of charge to the general public. Nonetheless, it establishes a business framework that permits journals to produce vast quantities of content while imposing fees on authors.
Currently, with generative AI widely accessible, creating, editing, and publishing articles in large volumes has become more straightforward, complicating the evaluation of the quality of individual studies.
Davis emphasizes that the essence of science is not merely to generate PDFs; the objective of scientific inquiry is to foster dialogue, facilitating continual enhancement. He contends that this should not be entrusted to automated systems.
“If a few individuals and a bot can produce 288 seemingly publishable papers, we will simply be engulfed by a flood of publications,” Davis stated.
Misrepresentation and inaccuracy in corporate annual disclosures
Businesses continue to report information via 10Ks as mandated by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Initially, these filings concentrated on tangible assets. However, most of the value in today’s companies is typically intangible.
Corporate annual disclosures still focus on metrics that have diminished relevance in considering the contemporary economy. Nevertheless, individuals depend on these reports to grasp the present-day economy, yielding a skewed representation of truth.
“We remain largely trapped by the type of information that was pertinent during the Great Depression,” he remarked. “We established a set of expectations for businesses in the ’30s and early ’40s, and we continue to endure the repercussions.”
Business & Society is co-produced by JT Godfrey from the Ross School of Business and Jeff Karoub from Michigan News. Jonah Brockman serves as the audio engineer, and editorial production is managed by Mads Henke. Access all episodes of the podcast.