Applying Neuroscience To Business Practice

Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary research area that evaluates the structural and organizational function of the nervous system. When applied to business practices, it is possible to investigate how consumers, managers, and marketers makes decisions and how their emotions may play a role in those decisions. Applying Neuroscience to Business Practice provides theoretical frameworks and current empirical research in the field. Highlighting scientific studies and real-world applications on how neuroscience is being utilized in business practices and marketing strategies to benefit organizations, as well as emergent business and management techniques being developed from this research, this book is a pivotal reference source for researchers, managers, and students.

Behaviour change is hard, but O’Mara shows that by adopting strategies that are well-founded in the science of brain and behaviour individuals and organisations can adapt to the demands of the modern world. The brain matters in business. The problem is that our brains have many biases, heuristics and predilections that can distort behaviour and decision making. The good news is that we know more about how these work than ever before. O’Mara’s starting point is that, as our behaviour arises from the structure and function of our brains, careful examination of a series of brain–based (‘neurocognitive’) analyses of common aspects of human behaviour relevant to business and management practice reveals lessons that can be used at work. He begins by looking at neuroplasticity and how it is enables a shift from a restrictive ‘fixed mindset’ to an enabling ‘growth mindset’. He shows how this changing mindset approach – where the focus is on task and improvements based on effort – is scalable within organisations. Next, as the brain is a living organ like the heart and lungs, O’Mara shows how to keep it physically in the best possible shape before examining how we exercise control over our behaviour, build resilience and create positive brain states. He also considers the implications for business of our brains wiring for status and illustrates how research shows that it is possible to de-bias assumptions about gender and race – and the impact that this has on performance.

Adaptability and sustainability are key factors in the success of any business in modern society. Developing unique and innovative processes in organizational environments provides room for new business opportunities. Integrating Art and Creativity into Business Practice is a key reference source for the latest scholarly research on the tools, techniques, and methods pivotal to the management of arts and creativity-based assets in contemporary organizations. Highlighting relevant perspectives across a myriad of topics, such as organizational culture, value creation, and crowdsourcing, this book is ideally designed for managers, professionals, academics, practitioners, and graduate students interested in emerging processes for entrepreneurship and business performance.

Over the years, irresponsible business practices have resulted in industrial waste, which is negatively impacting the environment. As a result, it is imperative to develop new solutions to reverse the damage. Collective Creativity for Responsible and Sustainable Business Practice is an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on the elimination of environmental degradation through new discoveries and opportunities provided by collective creativity. Featuring extensive coverage across a range of relevant perspective and topics, such as sustainable business model innovation, social marketing, and education and business co-operatives, this comprehensive and timely publication is an essential reference source for business leaders, managers, academics, and community leaders seeking current research on sustainable management practices.

Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary research area that evaluates the structural and organizational function of the nervous system. Advancing research and applications in this field can assist in successfully furthering advancements in various other fields. Applications of Neuroscience: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is a comprehensive reference source for the latest scholarly material on trends, techniques, and various uses of neuroscience, and examines the benefits and challenges of these developments. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics, such as cognitive processes, neuroeconomics, and neural signal processing, this publication is ideally designed for researchers, academics, professionals, graduate-level students, and practitioners interested in emerging applications of neuroscience.

This book takes a neuroscientific approach to explaining elements of effective managerial and leadership communication in a concise way. These include communicating with various audiences and in a variety of situations managers and leaders face regularly. The book includes an easy-to-use guide to help the reader apply this understanding of neuroscience to principles of rhetoric toward developing effective messages. Several specific examples, including detailed explanations of them, illustrate applications. Drawn from real situations, activities and cases, also, encourage practice and facilitate immediate application to situations the reader may be experiencing. Encouraging principles of lean processes, especially lean communication, the book will benefit any in a position of leadership no matter the size of the team or organization, or the professional setting—business, health care, technology, manufacturing and others. It will also benefit those training for such positions—graduate business and management students and those in leadership development programs.

This book addresses the emerging field of neuromarketing, which, at its core, aims to better understand the impact of marketing stimuli by observing and interpreting human emotions. It includes contributions from leading researchers and practitioners, venturing beyond the tactics and strategies of neuromarketing to consider the ethical implications of applying powerful tools for data collection. The rationale behind neuromarketing is that human decision-making is not primarily a conscious process. Instead, there is increasing evidence that the willingness to buy products and services is an emotional process where the brain uses short cuts to accelerate the decision-making process. At the intersection of economics, neuroscience, consumer behavior, and cognitive psychology, neuromarketing focuses on which emotions are relevant in human decision-making, and uses this knowledge to make marketing more effective. The knowledge is applied in product design; enhancing promotions and advertising, pricing, professional services, and store design; and improving the consumer experience as a whole. The foundation for all of this activity is data gathering and analysis. Like many new processes and innovations, much of neuromarketing is operating far ahead of current governmental compliance and regulation and thus current practices are raising ethical issues. For example, facial recognition software, used to monitor and detect a wide range of micro-expressions, has been tested at several airports—under the guise of security and counterterrorism. To what extent is it acceptable to screen the entire population using these powerful and intrusive techniques without getting passengers’ consent? Citing numerous examples from the public and private sectors, the editors and contributing authors argue that while the United States has catalyzed technological advancements, European companies and governments are more progressive when it comes to defining ethical parameters and developing policies. This book details many of those efforts, and offers rational, constructive approaches to laying an ethical foundation for neuromarketing efforts.