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Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences
School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia
ISSN: 1394-195X
Vol. 17, Num. 2, 2010, pp. 1-3
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Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2010, pp. 1-3
Editorial
Brain in Business: The Economics of Neuroscience
Zainal Ariffin AHMAD
Business Research for Applied Innovations in Neurosciences (BRAIN) Lab, Graduate
School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia
Correspondence: Associate Professor Dr Zainal Ariffin Ahmad,
BSc (Northern Illinois), MBA, EdD,
Business Research for Applied Innovations in Neurosciences (BRAIN) Lab,
Graduate School of Business,
3rd Floor, Hamzah Sendut Library 2,
Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800 Penang,
Malaysia
Tel: +604-653 2605
Fax: +604-653 2605,
E-mail: zaba@usm.my
Code Number: mj10013
As a business educator, I am enthralled with the recent advancements by scientists
who integrated neuroscience (the study of the anatomy and physiology of the
brain) and psychology (the study of the human mind and human behaviour). Such
convergence has given birth to a plethora of new interdisciplinary business
fields with neuro- prefix such as neuroeconomics, neuromarketing, neuroaccounting,
neurogovernance, neuroethics, and neuroleadership. Such an exotic union of
science and the arts may provide better understanding of human nature and behaviour
change. Imaging technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) reveal unseen neural connections
in the living human brain along with brain wave analysis technologies such
as quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG). We can even theoretically link
the brain (the physical organ) with the mind (the human consciousness that
thinks, feels, acts, and perceives) through an advanced computer to analyse
these connections. As economists and business people always strive for better,
faster, cheaper means of production, and demand higher productivity from their
employees through effective leadership and supervision, neuroscience is relied
upon to provide answers to questions like:
- How can we leverage our brain in business?
- Capitalise/invest on the brain?
- Make the best decision?
- Find the productivity “hot buttons” in the brain?
- Encourage creative and ethical brain?
Such questions give rise to exciting symbiotic developments of business and
neuroscience.
Neuroeconomics as an emerging discipline combines neuroscience, economics,
and psychology; and uses research methods from cognitive neuroscience and experimental
economics. It is “the application of neuroscientific methods to analyse
and understand economically relevant behaviour” (1) such as evaluating
decisions, categorising risks and rewards, and interactions among economic
agents. Neuroeconomics research draws on the convergence of three major trends.
First, using fMRI we can measure brain activity associated with discrete cognitive
events and study higher cognitive processes like decision making and reward
evaluation. Second, by incorporating economic variables into electrophysiological
experiments, we can encode motivationally relevant information through novel
recognition of neurons at multiple levels of processing pathways. Third, neuroeconomics
draws on behavioural economics to consider psychological variables into economic
and decision-making models.
Neuroaccounting is a new way to scientifically view accounting and the brain’s
central role in building economic institutions. The measure of brain activity
during economic decision-making using neuroscientific methods can prove useful
for evaluating the desirability of implementing new policies that run contrary
to long-established accounting principles (2). Dickhaut et al. (3) reviewed
neuroscientific evidence that suggest the emergence of modern accounting principles
based on the mapping of brain function to the principles of modern accounting.
Neuromarketing is the application of neuroscientific methods to analyse and
understand human behaviour in relation to markets and marketing exchanges.
Applying neuroscience to marketing may form a basis for understanding how human
beings create, store, recall, and relate to information such as brands in everyday
life. Neuromarketers now use cognitive neuroscience in marketing research that
bears implications for understanding organisational behaviour in a social context
(4), for example whether certain aspects of advertisements and marketing activities
trigger negative effects such as overconsumption. Going beyond focus groups
in traditional advertising methods, we can now use EEG to detect putative “branding
moments” within TV commercials and apply brain imaging to discover the “buy
button” (5). In notable research emerging from Stanford University, Carnegie
Mellon University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, scientists
are using fMRI to identify parts of the brain that influence buying decisions.
Neuroethics is the investigation of altruism in neuroeconomic research, which
suggests that cooperation is linked to activation of reward areas (5). Investigations
into such problems could in fact be among the most compelling within neuromarketing.
As a new field, it has triggered heated debate and questioned the ethics behind
neuromarketing in a 2004 editorial of Nature Neuroscience. Now that we have
identified certain key regions of the brain that would be implicated in consumer
preferences, it may be possible for marketers to “manipulate” their
advertisements and target the brain areas that mediate reward processing. One
example is the perennial war of the colas (Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi-Cola) whereby
studies indicate that Coca-Cola had a more efficient advertising campaign (6).
Similar studies were done on the attractiveness of cars or human faces, and
how they trigger or activate these “pleasure centres” in the brain
that drive social behaviour. As for the marketers themselves, the neuroethical
question that arises is whether there is any difference between the brain activity
of highly ethical and less ethical salespeople?
Neuroscience has the potential to influence corporate governance; the study
of this phenomenon is neurogovernance. Neurogovernance is a growing field.
In Germany, we now have the Institute for Corporate Governance (ICG Germany)
(http://web.dmz.uni-wh.de/icg/Forschung.html). Further, since 2001, the Malaysian
Code on Corporate Governance has been published by the Malaysian Institute
of Corporate Governance (7). Neurogovernance seeks to explain behaviours of
directors, auditors, or even those who breach corporate governance. The same
explanations can be applied to managers, leaders, and other business people
or other professions. For example at Emory, researchers asked 16 executives
to respond to PowerPoint slides concerning moral quandaries, such as acting
on privileged information, while inside an MRI machine. They found that managers
weighing ethical dilemmas use the part of their brain associated with early
memories, which could mean moral thinking is formed early in life (8).
Stepping away from economics and business sub-disciplines like marketing
and accounting, a more recent development is neuroleadership, a term coined
in
2006 by David Rock, a leadership consultant. Neuroleadership is the study of
leadership through the lens of neuroscience and explores central elements of
leadership, including: (a) self-awareness (b) awareness of others, (c) insight,
(d) decision making, and (e) influencing (9). As a new field of study, neuroleadership
brings neuroscientific knowledge into the area of leadership development, management
training, education, consulting and coaching. Rock and his collaborator Jeffrey
M. Schwartz, a research psychiatrist at the University of California at Los
Angeles, apply broader themes from neuroscience to leadership that suggest
mindful, focused attention on new management practices, rather than on old
habits, can rewire the brain. Another way of applying neuroscience is mapping
the individual managers’ brains. In “The Leadership Neuroscience
Project”, Pierre A. Balthazard and David A. Waldman from the Arizona
State University School of Global Management & Leadership work with neuroscientists
to monitor the brains of 44 business leaders while they discussed scenarios
such as layoffs. Balthazard seeks to identify brain patterns, and then train
managers to replicate the patterns within their own brains (10).
At Universiti Sains Malaysia, we are interested in the study neuroleadership
from the perspectives of transformational neuroleadership based on Bass (11)
and Burns (12). Unlike transactional leadership, which focuses on exchange
that motivates followers by providing rewards and benefits for productivity,
transformational leaders make decision based on cognitive rewards, provide
a climate of trust, and draw out followers’ higher order needs to perform
beyond expectations. Transformational leaders inspire their followers to make
decision that transcend self-interests. Can neuroimaging show how transformational
versus transactional managers make decision (13)?
The symbiotic development of neuroscience in business is not without challenges.
Of primary concern for business researchers in developing countries is the
access to EEG and fMRI since these types of equipment are usually in the domain
of neuroscientists from the medical faculty. One strategy to overcome this
dilemma is to use interdisciplinary research teams. Another challenge is that
the design of experiments required by these projects, which may not agree well
with the scientific methods in business—especially in the interpretation
of data of the neuroimages for which business researchers have no expertise.
Whereas business research and scientific research uphold high ethical standards,
the use of neuroscientific methods involving human subjects raises strict ethical
issues to which business researchers are unaccustomed. As an academic exercise,
after conducting research, interdisciplinary issues arise about where to publish
and who to supervise pseudo-science or pseudo-arts candidates.
In conclusion, I am moved by the simple argument by Renvoise and Morin (13)
about brain and marketing that captured the essence of brain in business:
The new brain thinks. It processes rational data.
The middle brain feels. It processes emotions and gut feelings.
The old brain decides. It takes into account the input from the other two
brains, but the old brain is the actual trigger of decision.
References
- Kenning P, Plassmann H. NeuroEconomics: an overview from an economic
perspective. Brain Res Bull. 2005;67:343–354.
- Dickhaut JW, Basu S, McCabe KA, Waymire GB. Neuroaccounting, Part I:
The Primate Brain and Reciprocal Exchange. [Internet]. Rochester, NY: Social
Science
Electronic Publishing. [updated 2009 Oct 6; cited 2010 03 17]. Available
from: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1336526
- Dickhaut JW, Basu S, McCabe KA, Waymire GB Neuroaccounting, Part II:
Consilience between Accounting Principles and the Primate Brain [Internet].
Rochester,
NY: Social Science Electronic Publishing. [updated 2009 Oct 6; cited 2010
03 17]. Available from: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1336517
- Lee N, Broderick AJ, Chamberlain L. What is ‘neuromarketing’?
A discussion and agenda for future research. Int J Psychophysiol. 2007;63(2):199–204.
- Rilling JK, Zeh ZK, Berns GS, Kilts CD. A neural basis for social cooperation.
Neuron. 2002;35(2):395–405.
- McClure SM, Li J, Tomlin D, Cypert KS, Montague LM, Montague PR. Neural
correlates of behavioural preferences for culturally familiar drinks. Neuron.
2004;44(2):2379–2387 .
- Ahmad ZA. Corporate Governance: Research Agenda for Malaysia. Presentation
at the 2nd International Research Workshop, University of New South Wales,
Australia, 18-20th February 2008.
- The Business Brain In Close-Up: Can neuroscience offer insights into
the 'soft' art of leadership? BusinessWeek. July 23, 2007.
- Neuroleadership Institute. [Internet] New South Wales (Australia): NeuroLeadership
Institute Pty Ltd; 2010. [cited 2010 03 17]. Available from: http://www.neuroleadership.org
- McGregor J. The business brain in close-up: Can neuroscience offer
insights into the 'soft' art of leadership? [Internet]. New York (USA): Bloomberg
LP;
2007 July 23. [cited 2010 03 17]. Available from: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_30/b4043084.htm
- Bass BM. Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York:
Free Press; 1985.
- Burns JM. Leadership. New York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers; 1978.
- Ahmad ZA, Tajasom A, Saimi R. Neuroleadership and Managerial Decision
Making. Presentation at the 2nd International Research Workshop, University
of New South Wales, Australia, 18-20th February 2008.
- Renvoise P, Morin C. Neuromarketing. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson;
2007
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