Rob Glew

Ongoing and Future Research Projects

Hold Me Accountable: Anonymity and Prosocial Behavior

Accepted at M&SOM (March 2025)

With Claire Senot (Tulane University). When we design operational processes and information systems, small changes in how consumers interact with the service provider are often overlooked. This paper uses a quasi-experiment method to investigate such an event — when a service provider removed the names of participants from test kits in a viral testing program. The effect was a surprising 21% reduction in participation, negative moderated by the size of the groups participants were randomly assigned to. We confirm the robustness of this result using difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, and augmented local linear models. We examine further moderating effects and offer guidance to service providers on how to use identity priming to enhance the prosocial behavior of consumer interactions. View this paper on SSRN.

Presented at: POMS 2023, INFORMS 2023, University of Toronto, Wharton Empirical Workshop 2024, POMS 2024.

No Spoilers: Grocery supply chain traceability and food waste

Under Review at M&SOM (February 2025)

With Javad Nasiry (McGill University). This paper examines the challenges posed to equity by food waste, where millions of tonnes of potential edible food is wasted while people go hungry. Specifically, we investigate the role of supply chain traceability systems (such as those with Blockchain as an underlying technology) in reducing perishable food waste from over-ordering and processing errors. We determine the conditions under which economic and social incentives align to maximize the value of traceability and propose policy changes to encourage this behavior. View this paper on SSRN.

Presented at: INFORMS 2024, POMS 2025, McGill University.

Cultures for Innovation

Working paper, under preparation for submission for Management Science Q2 2025

With Jeremy Hutchison-Krupat (University of Cambridge). All successful organizations chase paradigm shifting innovations, but how can they create a culture that maximizes their chances of uncovering these innovations when it is impossible to articulate the path to success specifically? These so-called unknown-unknown innovations require a culture that can tolerate failure, but as we show in this paper, determining the optimal innovation culture is a subtle and complex decisions. What extent should R&D activities be monitored? How can we ensure that we tolerate failure but not incompetence? Can monitoring something you don’t want actually help you get something you do want? Our ground-breaking modelling address all of these questions and more. We provide managers with important quantitative insights on the cultural aspects of innovation, a topic that can often seem mysterious. Contact me for a pre-print.

Presented at: INFORMS 2024, POMS 2025

Minority Figures: Gender Tokenism and Prosocial Behavior

Working paper, under preparation for submission to Management Science Q3 2025

With Claire Senot (Tulane University). The conventional wisdom argues that gender diversity is a good thing — going from a single gender team to a mixed gender team has been shown to increase sales performance, reduce risk, and enhance creativity - but what about prosocial behavior? In this paper, we take advantage of a unique setting to study the effect of including gender tokens compared to single gender teams. We find that the prosocial behavior of tokens is higher than peers, but there is not spillover to the rest of the team. To identify whether gender diversity can ever lead to a positive spillover on prosocial behavior, we develop an advanced identification strategy and find that a gender balance of 60/40 or greater is needed to induce an increase in the prosocial behavior of the gender majority. We offer critical insights for the design of diversity schemes and affirmative action programs. Contact me for a pre-print.

Presented at: POMS 2025