The Academic Minute

Entrepreneurial leaders lead differently, so how can they be their best?

Scott N. Taylor, professor of organizational behavior and the Arthur M. Blank Endowed Chair for Values-Based Leadership at The Blank School at Babson College, suggests a strategy.

Scott N. Taylor is a professor of organizational behavior and the Arthur M. Blank Endowed Chair for Values-Based Leadership at The Blank School at Babson College. He is also a research fellow with the Coaching Research Lab at Case Western Reserve University, and a core member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations (CREIO).

The primary focus of his research is leader assessment and development. As a result, his research has focused on competency development (especially emotional and social competence), leader self-awareness, 360-degree feedback assessment, executive coaching, gender, and sustainable individual change.

Until now, entrepreneurial leadership has not been defined or differentiated from traditional leadership theories. My co-authors and I have devoted years to conducting research to create a distinct model for this unique type of leadership.

Through analyzing existing leadership development research and firsthand experience training hundreds of executives, we propose entrepreneurial leadership as a concept that blends leadership and entrepreneurship to enable leaders and their teams to recognize and pursue innovative opportunities. Unlike traditional leadership styles, entrepreneurial leadership is focused on fostering collaboration, innovation, and shared responsibility between leaders and followers. Drawing from self-determination theory, our model emphasizes satisfying three innate human needs—autonomy, relatedness, and competence—to intrinsically motivate followers to act entrepreneurially.

The unique skills of entrepreneurial leaders allow them to build meaningful relationships with their followers, inspire creativity, and support risk-taking behaviors. Unlike traditional leadership approaches, which often emphasize hierarchy and structure, entrepreneurial leaders focus on flexibility, adaptability, and encouraging entrepreneurial thought and action.

Emotional, cognitive, and hormonal functions play an essential role in unleashing human potential in others. Positive emotions, empathetic brain networks, and parasympathetic nervous system activation enhance relational focus, creativity, and openness, while negative emotions and stress-related responses inhibit these capabilities, highlighting the entrepreneurial leader’s need for balance and adaptability.

The leader-follower dynamic is central to entrepreneurial leadership, with the leader’s mindset and emotional intelligence playing a critical role in fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration.

Our proposed conceptual model argues that entrepreneurial leadership is a relational process, not just a set of traits. Leaders and followers work together to identify opportunities, share ideas, and take action in uncertain environments. Ultimately, entrepreneurial leadership encourages proactive, innovative, and risk-taking behavior, making it essential for both startups and established organizations aiming to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Read More:

A Conceptual Model of Entrepreneurial Leadership: How Entrepreneurial Leaders Enable Entrepreneurial Behavior

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Chaos theory has changed how we think about certain ideas in physics.

Erik Van Aken, instructor of philosophy and religious studies at Rocky Mountain College, explains why.

Erik Van Aken is Instructor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Rocky Mountain College. His research focuses on the metaphysics of causality, scientific methodology, and debates on objectivity.

In one episode of The Simpsons, Homer travels back in time, careful not to disturb anything—until he swats a mosquito. When he returns to the present, it is drastically altered. The concept at play here is chaos theory, or what we often call the “butterfly effect.” It is the idea that small events, like a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil, can trigger a chain reaction leading to a significant and unpredictable event, like a hurricane in Texas weeks later.

Chaos theory challenges classical physics, where Newtonian mechanics once described a predictable universe governed by fixed laws. In the 1960s, Meteorologist Edward Lorenz, studying weather patterns at MIT, discovered that even tiny changes—a seemingly insignificant rounding error—could drastically alter long-term forecasts. This phenomenon, known as “sensitive dependence on initial conditions,” reveals that minor variations can lead to vastly different and unpredictable results in chaotic systems.

Yet, if the universe is so unpredictable, how can we make sense of cause and effect? Philosophers like R.G. Collingwood suggest a more practical, human-centered approach, focusing on “handles”—aspects of nature we can influence as agents and which provide us with a sense of control. So, while chaos theory teaches us that the butterfly does have some effect on a later storm, we don’t blame a butterfly for a hurricane because we can’t control its movements to prevent or create a storm.

Chaos theory, then, doesn’t just complicate causality—it challenges us to rethink human agency. While nature may be sensitive to an infinite number of variables, meaningful causes are those we can engage with, offering control over the outcomes that matter most in our lives.

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What roles did volcanoes play on early Mars?

Lucia Bellino, PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, takes a look back to find out.

Lucia Bellino is a doctoral student and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in her fourth year at the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, TX. Under the guidance of Dr. Chenguang Sun, Lucia’s research centers the cycling of hydrogen, carbon, and sulfur through high-temperature magmatic processes like magmatic degassing. She seeks to understand the connection between the interior and surface of planetary bodies through volcanism to investigate the potential habitability, climate, atmosphere, and evolution of Mars and Io.

Volcanic sulfur emissions may have played a key role in shaping the habitability of early Mars.

Observations of fluvial activity—landforms shaped by rivers and streams—suggest that Mars had a warm enough climate to sustain liquid water around 3 to 4 billion years ago. But the exact composition of the greenhouse gases that could have supported this climate remains a mystery.

Given the widespread presence of sulfur-bearing minerals on the Martian surface and in Martian meteorites, it’s likely that sulfur was a major atmospheric component. Volcanic activity could have transported sulfur from the planet’s interior to its surface.

Previous research suggested that early Martian volcanoes would have released sulfur primarily as sulfur dioxide (SO₂), which tends to cool atmospheres rather than warm them. Our research re-evaluates this assumption by accounting for a broader range of magmatic processes—especially how the crystallization of minerals from magma affects the composition of volcanic gases.

We find that instead of SO₂, sulfur would more likely have been released as S₂ (diatomic sulfur) and H₂S (hydrogen sulfide). On exoplanets, these gases are known to contribute to atmospheric haze by forming complex molecules. If such haze formed on early Mars, it could have significantly altered the planet’s climate.

Importantly, molecules derived from S₂ can react with fluorine gas (F₂) to form SF₆—sulfur hexafluoride—a greenhouse gas over 20,000 times more potent than CO₂.

Our findings suggest that volcanic emissions of S₂ and H₂S may have helped generate a hazy, greenhouse-rich atmosphere on early Mars.

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Longer range may soon be coming to EVs.

Bilal El-Zahab, associate professor of mechanical and materials engineering at Florida International University, explores durable lithium-sulfur batteries.

Dr. Bilal El-Zahab is an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Florida International University, where he serves as Graduate Program Director and leads the university’s Battery Research Laboratory. A recognized expert in electrochemical energy storage, his work focuses on advancing next-generation battery technologies that will shape the future of sustainable energy.

Dr. El-Zahab earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Akron, followed by postdoctoral research at Louisiana State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His pioneering research portfolio includes more than 55 peer-reviewed publications and 27 issued and pending patents—many of which have been licensed internationally—underscoring the global impact of his innovations.

Over the course of his career, Dr. El-Zahab has secured more than $5 million in competitive funding from federal agencies and industry partners. Through his leadership and vision, the Battery Research Laboratory has become a hub for cutting-edge discovery, preparing the next generation of scientists and engineers to address the world’s most pressing energy challenges.

More electric vehicles are on the road than ever before. But a recent global survey found that almost half of EV owners in the U.S. have considered switching back to gasoline cars, mainly due to EV range.

Even as average ranges improve, drivers’ expectations often exceed what current batteries—predominantly lithium-ion batteries—can provide.

That’s where our breakthrough in next-generation battery technology comes in: lithium-sulfur batteries, part of the “beyond lithium-ion” family, explores alternative cathode chemistries that pair with lithium anodes for improved performance. This approach promises higher energy density, lower costs, and greater sustainability compared to traditional lithium-ion systems.

We focused on lithium-sulfur batteries, a promising alternative. They’re lightweight, cost-effective, and highly energy-dense—allowing EVs to travel farther while doubling runtime for laptops and smartphones.

But a key challenge persists: soluble sulfur species, or polysulfides, build up and dissolve from the cathode. These species migrate to areas they shouldn’t, like the anode, causing mossy deposits that reduce efficiency and accelerate degradation. After about 50 cycles, performance drops sharply.

To address this, we incorporated tiny nanoparticles of platinum group metals into the sulfur cathode.

Think of these metals as molecular safety officers, guiding ions and preventing shuttle effects at the nanoscale. Just a trace amount—about 0.02% of the battery—is enough.

With this addition, we achieved more than 90% capacity retention after 500 cycles, keeping the battery nearly as effective as new. This brings us closer to practical, long-lasting EV batteries.

Read More:

[Wiley] - Targeted Electrocatalysis for High-Performance Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

[Miami Herald] - Electric vehicle range anxiety? FIU researchers develop new battery that could be a cure

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.academicminute.org

What roles did volcanoes play on early Mars?

Lucia Bellino, PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, takes a look back to find out.

Lucia Bellino is a doctoral student and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in her fourth year at the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, TX. Under the guidance of Dr. Chenguang Sun, Lucia’s research centers the cycling of hydrogen, carbon, and sulfur through high-temperature magmatic processes like magmatic degassing. She seeks to understand the connection between the interior and surface of planetary bodies through volcanism to investigate the potential habitability, climate, atmosphere, and evolution of Mars and Io.

Volcanic sulfur emissions may have played a key role in shaping the habitability of early Mars.

Observations of fluvial activity—landforms shaped by rivers and streams—suggest that Mars had a warm enough climate to sustain liquid water around 3 to 4 billion years ago. But the exact composition of the greenhouse gases that could have supported this climate remains a mystery.

Given the widespread presence of sulfur-bearing minerals on the Martian surface and in Martian meteorites, it’s likely that sulfur was a major atmospheric component. Volcanic activity could have transported sulfur from the planet’s interior to its surface.

Previous research suggested that early Martian volcanoes would have released sulfur primarily as sulfur dioxide (SO₂), which tends to cool atmospheres rather than warm them. Our research re-evaluates this assumption by accounting for a broader range of magmatic processes—especially how the crystallization of minerals from magma affects the composition of volcanic gases.

We find that instead of SO₂, sulfur would more likely have been released as S₂ (diatomic sulfur) and H₂S (hydrogen sulfide). On exoplanets, these gases are known to contribute to atmospheric haze by forming complex molecules. If such haze formed on early Mars, it could have significantly altered the planet’s climate.

Importantly, molecules derived from S₂ can react with fluorine gas (F₂) to form SF₆—sulfur hexafluoride—a greenhouse gas over 20,000 times more potent than CO₂.

Our findings suggest that volcanic emissions of S₂ and H₂S may have helped generate a hazy, greenhouse-rich atmosphere on early Mars.

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AI may be able to speed up patient care.

Eyal Klang, chief of generative AI, Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, explores one way to do so.

Eyal Klang, MD, is Chief of Generative AI in the Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His research focuses on using artificial intelligence to improve healthcare delivery and clinical decision-making

Medical coding assigns ICD-10 codes to each diagnosis. These codes go into the medical record, but the process is slow and often wrong. It also takes time away from patient care.

Large language models can read doctors’ notes and suggest codes. But on their own they make mistakes, even inventing codes that don’t exist, a problem called hallucinations.

We tested a method called retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG. The model first suggests a diagnosis from the note. That text is then checked against ICD-10 codes used in our emergency rooms. The system returns the closest matches, and the model picks from those. This keeps the output tied to real codes.

We studied 500 emergency visits. Independent doctors compared provider-assigned codes with RAG-assisted codes. In most cases, they judged the AI codes more accurate and more specific. Even smaller open-source models improved when paired with RAG.

The goal is to cut paperwork and improve records. Better coding means fewer mistakes, cleaner data, and more time for doctors to spend with patients.

Our results show that retrieval-augmented AI can make coding faster, more accurate, and less of a burden for clinicians.

Read More:[NEJM AI] - Assessing Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Models for Medical Coding

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How products are priced can leave consumers confused while trying to get the best deal.

Mathew Isaac, Loyola professor of marketing and chairperson of the Marketing Department at the Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University, delves into why.

Mathew S. Isaac, Ph.D. is the Seattle University Loyola Professor of Marketing and Chairperson of the Marketing Department at the Albers School of Business and Economics. Dr. Isaac’s research focuses primarily on consumer judgment and decision-making, including how numerical information affects consumer evaluations and decisions. His work has been published in leading scientific journals and featured in the business and popular press, including Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, Time, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and The Atlantic. He writes a blog on cognition for Psychology Today.Dr. Isaac received a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Chicago, an M.B.A. from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Prior to entering academia, he advised media, healthcare, and private equity clients as a Consultant and Manager for Bain & Company and ZS Associates.

Trader Joe’s sells bananas at 23 cents per banana. Publix charges 55 cents per pound. Why do these retailers choose different price formats, and does this affect shoppers? My co-authors Sarah Whitley and Julio Sevilla from the University of Georgia and I find that consumers’ price perceptions are influenced by the numerical value shown to them. For prices, lower numbers signal better deals – people anchor on these low numbers without fully considering what the number actually means. As a result, for low-weight products that are each under one pound, like bananas, unit-based pricing is more attractive to consumers. On the other hand, for higher-weight products that are over one pound, like watermelons, weight-based pricing is more attractive. For example, paying $8 for a 4-pound watermelon seems like a worse deal to consumers than paying $2 per pound for the same watermelon, even though they would actually pay $8 in each situation! We conducted 16 studies with nearly 10,000 participants to demonstrate the robustness of this price format effect, including two field experiments that examine consumers’ actual purchasing behavior. Our findings have important implications for retailers, given that some merchants use unit-based pricing and some use weight-based pricing for the same product. We conducted a series of interviews with retail industry executives and found that they often lack an articulated rationale for choosing one price format over another. Being more strategic when choosing a pricing format for produce and other grocery products can influence consumer perceptions and potentially increase their sales. For consumers, being aware of this anchoring bias can potentially help them make smarter decisions when they are out grocery shopping.

Read More:

[Sage] - Units or Pounds? How Anchoring on Salient Price Information Influences Perceptions of Product Value

[Psychology Today] - All Things Numbered

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We’re in need of new ways to fight cancer.

Jeffrey Ravetch, Theresa and Eugene M. Lang professor of immunology, virology, and microbiology at the Rockefeller University, examines one new path forward.

Ravetch is a faculty member in the David Rockefeller Graduate Program, and the Tri-Institutional M.D.-Ph.D. Program

While cancer immunotherapy has helped many patients, most do not respond—and those who do often face serious side effects. In my lab, we’re working to make immunotherapy both safer and more effective by targeting a key part of the immune system: dendritic cells.

Dendritic cells are the body’s sentinels. They detect threats like infections or tumors and activate other immune cells to fight back. But tumor cells fight back too—by creating an environment that suppresses the immune response. Most current immunotherapies try to remove this suppression, like taking the foot off the brakes. Our approach is different: we aim to press the accelerator.

We focus on a protein called CD40, found on dendritic cells, which powerfully stimulates immune activity. But previous attempts to target CD40 systemically have failed—causing limited immune activation and significant side effects.

To address this, we developed a new antibody, 2141-V11, designed to strongly activate dendritic cells—but only within the tumor itself. We then launched a first-in-human clinical trial at The Rockefeller University Hospital. Patients with cancers like metastatic melanoma and breast cancer received direct injections into a single tumor site.

The results were remarkable. The treatment was safe, and repeated doses led to dramatic responses—even complete tumor disappearance in some patients. Not only did the injected tumors shrink, but distant metastases also vanished. Biopsies showed no cancer cells—just organized immune structures resembling lymph nodes.

This suggests that local CD40 stimulation can spark a body-wide immune response—strong enough to clear tumors but precise enough to spare healthy tissue.

We’re now expanding trials into bladder, prostate, and brain cancers—and testing combination therapies to help more patients benefit from this promising new approach.

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Capping out-of-service oil wells can be expensive, but is there a better way to do so?

Mark Mba-Wright, professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, looks into biofuels as a solution.

Mark Mba-Wright is a professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University. His research focus is sustainable energy systems, including techno-economic analysis, lifecycle assessment and process optimization.

What if an often-overlooked danger that lingers after fossil fuel wells are done pumping could be mitigated by a sustainable, bio-based oil that returns carbon back underground?Across the U.S., there are hundreds of thousands of oil wells no longer in service. These miles-deep shafts pose emissions and safety risks, but they’re expensive to cap, up to $1 million per well. At the same time, numerous plant-based waste products are underutilized. Think of the woody debris culled from forests to lessen wildfire risks, or the stalks and cobs left behind after a corn field is harvested. These biomass materials can be used to make a dense, carbon-rich bio-oil with fast pyrolysis, a process of transforming biological matter into liquid by exposing it in an oxygen-free environment to a few seconds of high heat – temperatures that can exceed 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Injecting that bio-oil into orphaned crude oil wells could both cap the wells and act as a form of carbon capture. It’s an opportunity to match an abundant resource with an urgent demand, and it’s already in limited commercial use. When the research team I lead studied the emerging practice, our models showed a network of 200 mobile bio-oil production facilities could offer an economically and technically feasible expansion of the technology. The proposed system could sequester carbon dioxide for an estimated $152 per ton, making it competitive with the dominant method of removing atmospheric carbon, a technology called direct air capture that requires far more upfront investment. Our research shows a pyrolysis-based bio-oil sequestration system holds great potential, offering a decentralized, smaller-scale path to carbon capture that also provides other associated benefits. Carbon removal is an important way to address climate change, but it doesn’t need to be an either/or proposition.

Read More:

[Iowa State] - Bio-oil made with corn stalks, wood debris could plug orphaned fossil fuel wells

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With shifting landscapes, it can be hard to know why certain ancient temples were built where they are.

Benjamin Pennington, school of geography and environmental science at the University of Southampton, takes a closer look at the history of one.

Dr Benjamin Pennington is a Visiting Fellow in Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Southampton, as well as a secondary school Geography teacher.His research focusses on reconstructing ancient landscapes in order to answer targeted archaeological questions, usually by drilling sedimentary boreholes and analysing the deposits that are retrieved. Most of his work has focussed on Egypt, and to a lesser extent Iraq, China and other areas in the Mediterranean.

One of the ancient world’s largest temple complexes stands at Karnak, in Luxor in Egypt. Used for some three thousand years and dedicated to the state deity, Amun-Ra, today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site a few hundred metres from the Nile, welcoming millions of tourists every year.Despite over 150 years of archaeological investigation, the exact date of its foundation, its original landscape setting, and why it was located where it is, have all been open to debate.Our team has been working at the site for several years to answer these questions. We drilled 61 sediment cores in and around the temple complex, analysed the layers of mud and sand that came up, and studied tens of thousands of small pieces of ceramic that were also contained in the cores.We found the temple complex could not have been founded before about two-and-a-half-thousand BC due to regular flooding from the Nile, and our best indications are that it was initially begun in the Egyptian Old Kingdom, in the latter half of the third millennium BC.We also found that the temple was initially built upon a particularly high island, surrounded by Nile channels. This is surprising because today the Nile is some distance westward and there is also no river channel on the far side of the temple.But most intriguingly, our new understanding of the landscape around Karnak has striking parallels with an ancient Egyptian creation myth found in Old Kingdom texts, which features a creator god manifesting as high ground emerging out of ‘the lake’. We argue that it is possible that this location – the only known example of such elevated land emerging from water in this area at the time – was chosen for its similarities to this scene, which it would have recreated each year as the annual Nile flood receded.

Read More:[Southampton] - Research unearths origins of Ancient Egypt’s Karnak Temple

[Cambridge University Press] - Conceptual origins and geomorphic evolution of the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak (Luxor, Egypt)

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