Research by Liu Yang Female corporate leadership can neutralize the gender wage disparity Firms can take advantage of capable women leaders and position them to nurture a culture of gender equity and subsequent broader base of incentivized workers that feel treated fairly

Research by Rellie Derfler-Rozin Managers can mitigate the effects that verbally abusive customers have on employees Managers of customer service workers can mitigate employee error induced by stress from verbally abusive customers by simulating hostile-customer encounters during task training exercises and by eliminating employee exposure to repetitively abusive customers.

Research by Roland Rust Lower productivity can often lead to a better bottom line. All other things being equal, productivity is good. The problem is, all other things are not equal. Companies want to show productivity gains, but that is not always a good strategy.

Research by Kislaya Prasad Capital controls spur black markets and murder rates Manipulating the flow of capital can lead to the mafia culture expanding and contaminating their economies.

The research program at the Smith School of Business is excellent across many different fields. This issue of Research@Smith deals with topics as disparate as healthcare management, capital controls and enhancing service productivity.

Rick Clinton, associate director of knowledge management for Verizon Wireless, has a big job. And he’s part of a big team—over 1,000 people manage the business of customer service, building tools and offering content that supports call centers on the company’s 800 line and technical support line, as well as on Verizon’s website.

Rellie Derfler-Rozin, assistant professor of management and organization, received her PhD in organizational behavior from London Business School.

Another Repatriation Tax Holiday? U.S. law makers should avoid, or at least restructure, giving American firms another tax holiday in attempts to get them to reinvest their foreign earnings domestically, according to research by Mike Faulkender, associate professor of finance. His findings show the reinvestment from tax holiday created by the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act (AJCA) – which cut the tax rate from 35% to 5% -- was marginal and primarily from smaller companies. Big firms applied very little repatriated funds to new investment.

Capitalism as Crime Prevention Capital controls spur black markets and murder rates. To Be or Not to Be…More Productive Lower customer service productivity can often lead to a better bottom line. Hostile Customer Encounters Managers can mitigate the effects that verbally abusive customers have on employees.