A 2023 opinion piece in the journal Nature Psychology challenged the prevailing perspective on success and achievement, essentially arguing that we have it all wrong! So, where does the truth about success and achievement really lie??? To discuss this I am delighted to be joined by one of the co-authors of that article, Professor Brooke Macnamara.

About our guest...

Brooke Macnamara is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University. In her research, Brooke is interested in how various factors predict skilled performance variance – both performance changes within an individual and performance differences across individuals.

• The Nature Psychology opinion piece discussed in the interview can be accessed here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44159-023-00255-z
• You can find out more about Brooke's work at the Skill, Learning and Performance Lab at Purdue University here: https://hhs.purdue.edu/skill-learning-and-performance-lab/

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Balancing exploration and exploitation is a fundamental strategic challenge for organizations operating in dynamic environments. Managers must decide how often and when to search for new technologies and products, weighing the costs of exploration against the risk of missing trends that could render their business models obsolete

To dig deep into this topic I am delighted to be speaking today to Professor Axel Zeijen.

About our guest…

Axel Zeijen is a Lecturer at the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

With a background in industrial engineering and innovation sciences, Axel is broadly interested in technological change and its organizational implications. In particular, he attempts to understand where and how technological forces and firm strategy interact, and how this process plays out. His research projects cover industries where new

technologies change the capabilities of firms, create new opportunities for change, and affect how competition plays out.

The articles discussed in the podcast area as follows (both open access):

• Zeijen, A., Romagnoli, M., & Marengo, L. (2025). Signposts for problemistic search: Reference points and adaptation in rugged landscapes. Strategy Science. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/full/10.1287/stsc.2023.0072
• Denrell, J., Zeijen, A., Romagnoli, M., & Marengo, L. (2025). Absolute, average‐based, and rank‐based aspirations. Strategic Management Journal. https://sms.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smj.3715

Websites for Axel and each of his co-authors are as follows:

• Axel Zeijen - https://timgroup.ethz.ch/people/senior-researchers/dr-axel-zeijen.html
• Jerker Denrell - https://www.wbs.ac.uk/about/person/jerker-denrell/
• Manuel Romagnoli - https://www.wiwi.uni-jena.de/en/11462/dr-manuel-romagnoli
• Luigi Marengo - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OKWSBtQAAAAJ&hl=en

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A recent article in the Journal of Business Venturing sought to address the question of: Why and how does founder age perception influence funding outcomes?

To discuss the importance of this question and the key findings of the paper I am delighted to be joined by Dr Michael Matthews, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley.

About our guest...

Michael Matthews, Ph.D., studies leadership and the intersection between work and life. Michael received his B.S. (Brigham Young University) and M.S. (The University of Oklahoma) in information systems. Later, he received his Ph.D. in Business Administration (University of Oklahoma) with a particular focus on organizational behavior. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His writing has been featured in outlets such as the Journal of Management, Leadership Quarterly, and Harvard Business Review. Prior to entering academia, Michael worked as a computer programmer for several technology companies. In particular, Michael has coded for organizations such as ExxonMobil and Proofpoint.

More information:

• Just a number? Using artificial intelligence to explore perceived founder age in entrepreneurial fundraising (from Journal of Business Venturing): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0883902623000757
• Research Powered by AI Shows Age Discrimination in Entrepreneurial Fundraising (from California Management Review): https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2024/03/research-powered-by-ai-shows-age-discrimination-in-entrepreneurial-fundraising/

Two other papers mentioned in our conversation:

• Eren, O., & Mocan, N. (2018). Emotional judges and unlucky juveniles. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 10(3), 171-205.
• Nault, K. A., Pitesa, M., & Thau, S. (2020). The attractiveness advantage at work: A cross-disciplinary integrative review. Academy of Management Annals, 14(2), 1103-1139.

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In a new book – Learning to See: Inside the world's leading art and design schools, published by MIT Press – our guest today, Professor Keith Sawyer explores the way that people see and learn to see, offering an engaging and profound account of how professional artists and designers create and how they teach others to do it. In the interview we explore the key insights from Keith's research and their significance for anyone working in any role or organisation.

About our guest…

Keith Sawyer is Morgan Distinguished Professor of Educational Innovations at the University of North Carolina.

Keith has dedicated his career to the study of creativity and learning. His research helps us answer questions such as: Which teams are more creative? What team processes result in greater creativity? Which groups are more likely to contribute to more effective learning of the participants? Which organizations and classrooms are most likely to foster effective group interactions?

Learning to See: Inside the world's leading art and design schools by Keith Sawyer is available to purchase here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262551649/learning-to-see/

You can find out more about Keith's work via his Substack and Podcat:

• The Science of Creativity Podcast is available here: https://sawyerpodcast.com/
• The Science of Creativity Substack can be accessed here: https://keithsawyer.substack.com/

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Creative work in itself is stressful and riddled with anxiety-provoking uncertainties. It takes resilience to persist through these challenges. It takes willingness to endure and overcome obstacles, from the internal voices of doubt and self-criticism to scarce material resources to difficulties in getting support for ideas. How are creative people able to do what others cannot? How do they transform the challenges and difficulties that original ideas are riddled with into actions and achievements?

It is just these questions that our guest today, Dr Zorana Ivcevic Pringle explores in her new book, The Creativity Choice, published by Hachette.

About our guest…

Zorana Ivcevic Pringle is a Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence where she currently serves as the Director of the Creativity and Emotions Lab. Zorana studies the role of emotion and emotional intelligence in creativity and well-being, as well as how to use the arts (and art-related institutions) to promote emotion and creativity skills.

Find out more about Zorana’s work and order her book, The Creativity Choice, here: https://www.zorana-ivcevic-pringle.com/

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If all the noise in the popular media and online is anything to go by, differences between various generations including Gen Z, Gen X, Boomers and so on are not just real but are something that leaders and organisations need to take seriously in order to ensure their effectiveness into the future. But is that really the case? Is there really a scientific basis to support arguments and assertions about generational differences and their impact on organisations?

To explore these questions, I am delighted to welcome to Brain for Business Professor David Costanza.

David Costanza is a professor at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.

About our guest...

Professor Costanza’s research focuses on generational differences; adaptive leadership; high potential; organizational culture, decline, and death; as well as statistics and research methods. He has published in Journal of Business and Psychology; Journal of Vocational Behavior; Personnel Psychology; and Work, Aging and Retirement. He has authored for Slate and has been interviewed by The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, TIME magazine, VOX, and Yahoo! Finance. He is a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Academy of Management and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Business and Psychology and Work, Aging and Retirement.

• The 2023 article from the journal Acta Psychologica – Are generations a useful concept? – can be accessed here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691823002354
• The Slate article referred to – Can We Please Stop Talking About Generations as if They Are a Thing? – to is available here: https://slate.com/technology/2018/04/the-evidence-behind-generations-is-lacking.html

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It is one thing to develop an innovation and put it out into the world, but that will only get you so far. Just as important is the adoption of innovations by customers, users or stakeholders. Yet what drives the adoption of innovation and how can organisations support the greater adoption of their offerings?

To discuss this it is a pleasure to speak today with Dr Radu Dimitriu, Associate Professor in Marketing at Trinity College Dublin.

About our guest...

Dr Radu Dimitriu is an Associate Professor in Marketing at Trinity College Dublin. Radu has a PhD from BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo, and prior to joining TCD worked with Cranfield University in the UK (2010-2018). His research is focused on branding, consumer behaviour and psychology, social media marketing, CSR and prosocial behaviour, consumer responses to sensory-enabling technologies, and consumers' adoption of AI-enabled technologies such as autonomous products and chatbots. On the Trinity MBA, Radu is also coordinating the programme's capstone Strategic Company Projects, as well as lecturing on Marketing Strategy. Radu has been consulting for blue chip companies and regularly engages with the industry; recent engagements include that of Judge at the Ireland User Experience Awards and of Speaker at the Customer Experience Professional Association Day. A citizen of the world, he speaks several languages including English, Spanish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese and his mother tongue, Romanian.

The paper discussed in the interview is available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296324006106

Radu's Google Scholar page can be accessed here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DRbb4T8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

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In any organization sometimes things will go wrong or just not work out. While in many cases this might be due to mistakes or errors, at other times it is due to professional misconduct – often leading to significant consequences for both the organization and the individuals concerned.

To explore the issue of professional misconduct in greater depth, I am delighted to be joined on the Brain for Business podcast by the co-author of a recent paper on the subject, Will Harvey.

Will Harvey is a Professor of Leadership at Melbourne Business School in Australia and is currently the Director of the Social Purpose Centre, as well as being an International Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation.

Will researches on reputation, talent management and leadership within organisations. He has recently published the book, Reputations at Stake, with Oxford University Press and his work has appeared in journals such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, Management Learning, Work, Employment & Society, and the British Journal of Management.

The article discussed in the interview - Why Individuals Commit Professional Misconduct and What Leaders Can Do to Prevent It – is published in California Management Review and is available to download here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00081256241305815

Full Reference: Harvey, W. S., Arora, N., Currie, G., & Spyridonidis, D. (2024). Why Individuals Commit Professional Misconduct and What Leaders Can Do to Prevent It. California Management Review, 00081256241305815.

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