Browsing by Author "Gieseke, Tyler"

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    From Shared Gains to Shareholder Value: Using news coverage to trace the shifting social imaginary of the ideal corporation
    (2016) Gieseke, Tyler;
    Some scholars maintain that the social ideal of the United States corporation in the post- World War II era envisioned a particularly large, stable entity that existed to serve the community generally. Some scholars also say that this social ideal shifted, toward the end of the 20th century, to instead venerate a corporation that focused on increasing stock price and delivering strong “shareholder value.” In this paper, I explore to what extent the national news media reflect that shift. Conducting content analysis in four major U.S. newspapers, I examine the frequency and percentage of articles over time that mention terms related to both social ideals. Coverage in the two newspapers located in a financial hub did reflect the changing ideals. Coverage in the other two newspapers presented less conclusive data. The findings suggest that financial or business media, rather than general news media, may reflect the shift in expectations of the ideal American corporation.
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    Social distance in cooperation games: Examining the effect of conversation between players
    (2014-04) Gieseke, Tyler
    Although traditional economic game theory relies on the assumption that players are rational and strictly self-interested, research shows behavioral and social factors contribute to people’s decision-making. This study investigates whether five minutes of conversation between two players who did not know each other prompts them to contribute more money to a shared account in a two-player cooperation game. In the game, public good is maximized if both players put everything in the shared account, but choosing to keep some money in a player’s personal account often results in higher personal gains. We hypothesized that conversation time would lead to decreased social distance and greater shared account contributions, but our results did not show a significant difference in the group of players that conversed before playing. While five minutes of conversation might not be enough to decrease social distance and inspire greater shared account contributions, we suggest further study to observe the effects of other, already established relationships.