ET CITINGS

Are you ready for " neuro everything " in management ? The Year 2007 will see a flood of books and articles describing findings and conclusions drawn from the growing use of MRI ( Mangnetic resonance imaging) devices for studying decision making. The research is based on increasing knowledge that different parts of the brain demostrate heightened acitivity when subjected to challenges Subjects are asked a series of questions ( often requiring decisions ) while their brains are being scanned ( or while they are hooked to lie dectctors). Among the propositions advanced from this work thus far, for example, are that ris and return are assessed in different parts of the brain, there by questioning theories regarding expected utility on which a great deal of decision theory has een based on up to now. Thus according to this research, different qualities of , say, investment dcisions are made when perceptions of risk or greed ( return) previaisl in terms of heightened brain activity.

Another line of work involves the study of the bes locus in the brain, conscious or sub-cocsous, for making various decisions. For rxample, it is thought that more complex decision involving hard-to-quantify factors are best made in the subconscious after some amount of pprepreation.

Work in newro marketing oww claims that strong brands create more exceitement in decision-influencing areas of the brain than weak brands,even for mundane products.