Lesson 9: Evaluating Scientific Studies | Alex Edmans

In fast-paced business environments, decisions often need to be made quickly, sometimes before all the facts are clear. When these decisions rely on research, it can conflict with the much slower pace of developing scientific consensus.

In the face of this dilemma, Professor Alex Edmans offers practical advice on how to gather the best available data now. In this video lesson, he shares steps for critically evaluating research findings — especially those labeled “preliminary” — to help you avoid getting ahead of the scientific community and spreading misinformation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive content, early, adfree access to new releases, and more.

►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack

Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms.

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Engage learners like never before with highimpact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Alex Edmans:

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex graduated from Oxford University and then worked for Morgan Stanley in investment banking (London) and fixed income sales and trading (New York). After a PhD in Finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar, he joined Wharton in 2007 and was tenured in 2013 shortly before moving to LBS.

Alex’s research interests are in corporate finance, responsible business and behavioural finance. He is a Director of the American Finance Association; Vice President of the Western Finance Association; Fellow, Director, and Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Financial Management Association; Fellow of the British Academy; and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. From 2017-2022 he was Managing Editor of the Review of Finance, the leading academic finance journal in Europe.

Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, presented to the World Bank Board of Directors as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talks The Pie-Growing Mindset and The Social Responsibility of Business with a combined 2.8 million views. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and World Economic Forum and been interviewed by Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News, and Sky Sports.