New Faculty Drive High-Impact Research at the Stillman School of Business

A new cohort of faculty across management and finance at Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business is advancing research that addresses pressing questions facing organizations today, from how teams coordinate and how firms respond to social scrutiny, to how artificial intelligence reshapes labor markets and worker welfare, while bringing that cutting-edge thinking directly into their teaching and mentorship of students at Stillman.

Under the leadership of Dean Joyce Strawser, Ph.D., Stillman faculty scholarship is earning distinction in top-tier journals, major international conferences and competitive awards, expanding global networks and strengthening the standing of Seton Hall and the Stillman School in national and international academic discourse.

One of the clearest proof points of this momentum is the scholarship of Enrico Forti, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Management, whose work places Stillman at the center of cutting-edge conversations about organizational learning, coordination and strategy. Since joining Seton Hall’s Stillman School, Forti has earned the 2025 “Bright Idea Award” for his article, “Competitive Familiarity: Learning to Coordinate by Competing,” published in Organization Science. The paper offers a counterintuitive but practical insight: teams can strengthen coordination through prior competitive interaction, a pattern demonstrated with evidence from millions of eSports team-formation experiments.

In addition, Forti’s work has appeared in some of the discipline’s most elite venues. His article, “CrossFit in the Crosshairs: A Community-Embedded Theory of Organizational Responsiveness to Social Issues,” was published in Administrative Science Quarterly, widely regarded as one of the most selective and influential journals in management and organizational studies. This paper also received the Organizational and Management Theory (OMT) Division’s “Best Paper Award” for Environmental and Social Practices at the 2025 Academy of Management meeting, capturing how community context can shape whether local organizations cut ties in the wake of public controversy. Forti notes that support from the Stillman School, particularly funding for conferences and access to Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), has played an important role in advancing his work.

Another example of excellent scholarship is Nicolas Dahan, Ph.D., also an assistant professor in the Department of Management. Dahan’s research exemplifies Stillman’s commitment to transforming concepts into business practice with global stakes. Dahan studied Nutriset, a pioneering French company that developed Plumpy’nut, a peanut-based therapeutic food designed to combat severe acute malnutrition among children. The case traces a strategic shift that offers a meaningful lesson for social impact markets: after initial criticism for enforcing its patent, Nutriset later enabled local producers in low-income countries to manufacture the product without royalties, reducing costs, expanding production and creating jobs.

This scholarship is reaching audiences beyond the academy. Building on his Nutriset research, Dahan’s article, “When Duality Fails: Addressing the Liability of Hybridity in a Field Dominated by Non-profit Values,” originally published in the Journal of Management Studies, was later adapted into an accessible and widely read news feature in Fast Company, extending the impact of his work into broader professional and public discourse. “I will continue studying corporate political activities, in the USA and internationally,” Dahan explains, noting that he is focusing on political transparency at the firm level and “corporate diplomacy in this age of surging geopolitical risks.”

This work further strengthens Stillman’s presence in global conversations at the intersection of business, policy and geopolitics. Dahan also names the practical support that make sustained impact possible, especially for scholarship meant to travel across national contexts. “Impactful research requires a great deal of time, especially in the summer, and extensive travel to present work and receive feedback from leading scholars in the field,” he says, adding, “I am grateful for the support from the Stillman School of Business and the University Research Council in this endeavor.” He points to his presentation at the 2025 Responsible Research Summit hosted at Cornell University, where he engaged with senior scholars from leading institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom, as an example of how that support translates into deeper collaboration, sharper work and wider visibility.

In the Department of Finance, the accomplishments of Shen Zhang, Ph.D., an assistant professor, signal Stillman’s growing presence in research addressing one of the defining economic questions of our time: not only what artificial intelligence does to productivity, but how it reshapes the structure of work and the lived experience of labor.

Zhang’s paper, “AI and the Extended Workday: Productivity, Contracting Efficiency, and Distribution of Rents,” earned the 2025 Best Working Paper Award from the Jockey Club Enterprise Sustainability Global Research Institute at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), distinguishing it in a highly competitive international selection process. The study challenges a widely held assumption about AI and work. “A central question in my research is whether AI adoption reduces workloads and working hours,” Zhang explains. “Contrary to optimistic expectations, I find that workers exposed to AI tend to experience longer working hours and reduced leisure time.” Building on these results, he adds, “My future research will continue this line of inquiry by examining how AI and algorithmic management systems shape workers’ welfare, including the conditions under which these technologies may intensify work demands or give rise to new forms of labor exploitation.”

Here, too, faculty experience reflects the alignment between Stillman’s strategic support and scholarly impact. “Research support from Stillman, particularly for conferences, has been instrumental in advancing my work,” Zhang notes. “This work has been presented at prominent conferences and institutions, such as the American Finance Association Annual Meeting, Tsinghua University, the University of Maryland and the University of Southern California, etc. These opportunities have enhanced the visibility of both my scholarship and Stillman while fostering new ideas and collaborations.”

Taken together, these achievements illustrate a Stillman on the rise — one distinguished by high-impact, forward-looking scholarship that is rigorous, globally engaged and deeply connected to the practical realities of everyday life. As the Stillman School of Business continues to build momentum, its sustained commitment to faculty excellence strengthens the School’s academic reputation, expands its influence in shaping the future of business and the world it serves.

Categories: Business, Education, Research