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Paper Weight: Impactful Faculty Research Drives Increase in Leeds’ Rankings

Exterior of the Koelbel and Rustandy buildings on the CU Boulder campus on a summer afternoon.

As research productivity soars worldwide, Leeds professors continue to enjoyoutsized influence in advancing business knowledge.


Research faculty at Leeds were recognized as being among North America‘s most productive in the influential University of Texas at Dallas rankings, released April 4.

When it comes to impact, a university’s research successes don’t always get the same attention as metrics like academic strength of a student body or alumni successes.

But faculty research—which creates new knowledge and helps shape the direction and priorities of the business world—is just as important as how well those professors prepare students for success.

And contributions from faculty at the Leeds School of Business continue to earn impressive recognition.

The University of Texas atDallas’ listing of top research schools ranked Leeds No. 38 among all North American business schools, with 124 total articles published by faculty between 2018 and 2022. Leeds is the only Colorado business school to be included on the North American list; it was ranked 39 last year.

‘Incredibly rewarding’

“It’s incredibly rewarding to be recognized by UT Dallas for the outstanding accomplishments of our faculty,” said Yonca Ertimur, acting dean of the Leeds School and Tandean Rustandy esteemed professor.

Ertimur is heavily invested in research success at Leeds. She is a highly respected figure—especially in accounting—and holds editorial appointments at two top journals, which allows her to influence other research streams and offer useful coaching to Leeds faculty.

“We have this incredible mix of productive younger faculty, who bring such interesting perspective on the future needs of industry, and seasoned senior faculty who guide them through the often arduous process of getting published,” she said.

Among some of Leeds’ more interesting recent research insights:

  • Sarah Zechman and Andrea Pawliczek shone a light on SPACs—a relatively obscure investment product—and the role reputation and disclosure play as they grow in popularity.
  • Shaun Davies researched the opacity of target-date funds—specifically, the billions of dollars in fees they charge consumers—and developed a replicating fund that outperformed TDFs when accounting for fees.
  • Research from Stefanie Johnson was honored for insights that helped NASA identify and reduce gender bias among research scientists vying for resources as part of the Hubble Space Telescope program.
  • Scott Shriver examined the future of digital privacy as targeted marketing strategies shift. With cookies going by the wayside, companies are getting more sophisticated in how they track consumers.
  • Sabrina Volpone published a study on compassion for new mothers at work and the role culture plays in helping women find balance as they return from maternity leave.

Tony Tong, senior associate dean for faculty and research at Leeds, noted the school’s prolific research output relative to its size. The top of the rankings are dominated by much larger business schools with many more research-active faculty.

“Our faculty’s accomplishments are not just about quantity,” Tong said. “They are also about quality. Our professors are truly creating new knowledge and putting forth thought leadership that has real consequence for the business community—and that equips our students with new skills that will help them stand out throughout their careers.”

The UT Dallas list is considered the most influential ranking of business school research, and is compiled by the university’s Naveen Jindal School of Management. The top 50 schools appear below; .

RankUniversityArticlesScore
1University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School)396204.86
2University of Texas at Dallas (Jindal School of Management)275134.05
3Columbia University (Columbia Business School)278130.12
4Harvard University (Harvard Business School)265129.73
5University of Southern California (Marshall School of Business)271127.30
6University of Chicago (Booth School of Business)271126.72
7New York University (Stern School of Business)281125.07
8Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan School of Management)256113.56
9Indiana University at Bloomington (Kelley School of Business)235107.57
10Stanford University (Graduate School of Business)223103.78
11University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (Ross School of Business)21599.73
12University of Texas at Austin (McCombs School of Business)21497.15
13University of Minnesota at Twin Cities (Carlson School of Management)21795.93
14Duke University (Fuqua School of Business)20393.71
15Washington University in St. Louis (Olin School of Business)21293.49
16CornellUniversity (SC Johnson College of Business, Johnson Graduate School of Management)21293.44
17University of California at Los Angeles (Anderson School of Management)18886.99
18University of Washington at Seattle (Foster School of Business)18986.43
19University of Toronto (Rotman School of Management)21186.39
20University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler Business School)19486.29
21NorthwesternUniversity (Kellogg School of Management)18482.01
22University of Maryland at College Park (Smith School of Business)19580.96
23Pennsylvania StateUniversity at State College (Smeal College of Business)17780.69
24Ohio State University (Fisher College of Business)18680.09
25Arizona State University (Carey School of Business)18176.44
26Boston College (Carroll School of Management)16170.01
27University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Gies College of Business)16068.90
28Texas A&MUniversity at College Station (Mays School of Business)16868.82
29PurdueUniversity (Daniels School of Business, Krannert School of Management)14365.55
30BostonUniversity (Questrom School of Business)14663.72
31Yale University (School of Management)13662.76
32TempleUniversity (Fox School of Business and Management)16162.70
33University of California at Berkeley (Haas School of Business)13562.15
34Carnegie MellonUniversity (Tepper School of Business)11860.99
35University of Florida (Warrington College of Business)15156.87
36MgGillUniversity (Desautels Faculty of Management)13456.40
37University of British Columbia (Sauder School of Business)12454.79
38University of Colorado Boulder (Leeds School of Business)12453.96
39Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller College of Business)11853.77
40Emory University (Goizueta Business School)11452.54
41University of South Carolina at Columbia (Moore School of Business)10346.37
42University of Wisconsin at Madison (Wisconsin School of Business)12046.17
43University of Notre Dame (Mendoza College of Business)11845.68
44University of Georgia (Terry College of Business)12645.46
45University of Miami (School of Business Administration, Herbert Business School)10444.88
46Michigan State University (Broad College of Business)10344.10
47Johns Hopkins University (Carey Business School)9041.46
48University of Arizona (Eller College of Management)11041.02
49University of Utah (Eccles School of Business)9039.90
50University of Connecticut (School of Business)9639.52

Why Leeds Faculty and research