The Accidental Professor

How One Baylor Professor Journeyed from Practitioner to Researcher of God’s Creation

by Anna Mitchael

Growing up a son of two professors at a university in Colombia, Carlos Torres, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, originally took the path of practitioner with no intention of joining academia. After receiving his undergraduate degree in computer science, he took a job and lived in places like Sweden, Miami and Washington, D.C., while working in locations all over the world.

This plan was working fine until he was reflecting on his life before undergoing a medical procedure. His wife asked if he had any regrets about life to that point, and Torres had a course-altering moment. Not once, but twice, Torres had been invited to do his PhD work, yet had turned down the opportunity. In that moment, he realized he wanted to pursue advanced studies and research.

After much prayer about the best location for his family, Torres chose a PhD program at Washington State University. When looking at the research and teaching he would do after his PhD, Torres made another values-oriented decision. He could do research in many places, but what location would also allow him the freedom to bring glory to God?

“Many people think scientists are against Jesus – against Christianity,” Torres said. “And yes, some are. Yet some of the greatest researchers and scientists we know of in history were Christians trying to understand God’s creation.”

Torres wanted his work to dive further into the Kingdom of God, conducted in a Christian environment. For Torres, the answer was Baylor.

“I love Jesus and there is nothing that I want more than to honor Him,” Torres said. “I can do that through my science, research and telling the world that science is not against God’s Word or God’s plan for humanity – science can be used to explain it. That’s Baylor’s mission and that’s why I want to be a part of Baylor.”

Initially, Torres thought research was going to be an easy piece of the puzzle. Coming from a practitioner mindset, he believed he would just “go look for things.” When he realized that academic and scientific research was so much more, he embraced the learning curve. Now, conducting research is his life, and he loves it. Baylor has been a place where Torres has found fulfillment researching for the glory of God. Most recently, he has focused on how God’s creation plays into the center of a very modern issue: cybersecurity.

As Torres explains, studies have shown the weakest links in the cybersecurity chain are people. Around 75-80 percent of what can go wrong for cybersecurity in an organization – like data breaches or security events – boils down to human error. Most people aren’t making these mistakes with malicious intent, yet the repercussions of these breaches can harm both individuals and companies.

Organizations invest significant resources in employee security education training and awareness (SETA) programs to avoid such errors, so Torres began to wonder: What can we do to motivate people to do what they are supposed to do and protect their information, which subsequently protects the organization?

Extant research suggests that inciting fear in people about a cyber threat is an effective form of motivation, and it is extensively used in SETA programs. Yet Torres’ faith instilled the belief that we don’t need to live fear-based lives. How could he promote a higher level of attention to cybersecurity without falling back on anxiety, worry and fear as methods?

“It’s about empowering people to take steps in their life through knowledge and information rather than scaring them into action,” Torres said.

One of his recent papers published in one of the top business journals suggests that personal values driving people’s lives are important in the decisions they make related to information security. This finding was significantly noticeable with people working from home (a hybrid environment) more than 50 percent of the time, compared to employees working mostly on-site. His research supports that SETA programs based on showing how dangerous cyber threats are, even though effective, may not be the best alternative for remote employees as people are more driven by what they believe in (personal values). Torres’ research suggests that organizations, particularly those organizations supporting hybrid work environments, should implement different and more personalized SETA programs not only by focusing on fear but also by considering people’s values to decrease the number of potential security events due to human error.

As a researcher and teacher, Torres has taken that finding into the classroom. He began working with students on a twofold approach. First, teaching technical elements of cybersecurity. Second, helping students see how to implement protectionary methods in ways that educate people on why they are taking these extra steps.

“Education culture plays a big role in it,” Torres said.

As people around the globe struggle to make the right decisions with security, Torres’ faith-driven research, coupled with his teaching, will aid in making the world a safer – and less fear-based – place.

A Mile in Their Shoes

Accounting Research That Puts People First

by Anna Mitchael

Often, it’s all too easy to keep doing what everyone before you has done. For Owen Brown, PhD, associate professor and holder of the KPMG-Thomas L. Holton Endowed Chair in Accounting, there was an important factor in accounting and auditing research he felt needed more attention: people.

Before receiving his PhD from Virginia Tech and transitioning permanently to the world of academia, Brown spent three years in a “Big 4” accounting firm as an auditor. He knew that world from the perspective of someone who had boots on the ground. He understood tensions. He remembered what he struggled with during his time in the profession.

When it came time for Brown to begin asking questions for his research in his doctoral studies, he learned that most business research, and especially research within the accounting and auditing fields, typically uses archival data. Yet, that type of data would never be able to answer the questions Brown was wondering.

“The audit profession is a people profession,” Brown said. “Our capital is the work we do. When you’re a service provider, the work your people do is so valuable.”

Brown wanted to know how to better equip auditors to do their work well. He wanted research that would equip companies to move forward.

“We had some estimates that accounting firms were spending millions of dollars on evaluations of staff,” Brown said. “We wanted to make sure the process was appropriate, and that people were being rewarded and incentivized correctly.”

Brown thought back to what he had experienced as an auditor. He knew there could be frustration if individuals felt their reviews weren’t performed using accurate measurements. When he looked into the matter further, he started to realize all the effects it could have if an auditor believed their review was unbalanced, inaccurate or biased. An auditor’s motivation to do their job well, as well as loyalty to their company, and maybe even their chosen career path, could decrease.

To give this issue further examination, Brown and his co-researcher wouldn’t simply be able to sift through data. They decided perspective-taking was important in their scenario.

“It’s like the adage from our grandparents’ day: Before you judge or evaluate someone, walk a mile in their shoes,” Brown said.

Brown and his co-researcher established two groups to give auditors a firm answer on whether their evaluations were accurate representations of their work. One was a control group, where evaluations proceeded as usual with no factors changed. In the second, they offered the evaluator a perspective-taking prompt. This prompt would encourage the evaluator to think about the staff auditor’s experience and some of the challenges they faced, and to jot a few things down before moving on.

“When we looked at the two groups together, we were able to see that the auditors who received the perspective-taking prompt evaluated the staff auditors more fairly and impartially than those who did not receive the prompt,” Brown said. “This could give auditors faith in their evaluations. If they received constructive feedback, they would know it is trustworthy information.”

Ultimately, the hope is that this study can be a tool of encouragement for the auditors and their firms who spend countless hours conducting performance evaluations.

Because of the behavioral nature of his research, Brown says his studies align closely with marketing or psychology research. For Brown, all of his work in academia – whether research or teaching – pours into the larger goal of holding the accounting profession to the highest standards of integrity. Anything he can do to reinforce those values – whether showing students how to make a positive impact through their profession or equipping those already in the accounting profession to continue growing and moving forward – is a win.

“I often use the platform of teaching ethics and integrity as a way to talk about my faith,” Brown said.

Shining a Light on Loneliness

A Team of Baylor Professors Highlights Emotional Effects of Social Media

by Anna Mitchael

“What kind of research can we do that will help people live better, more meaningful lives?”

This potent question fuels much of the research at Baylor University and recently led three professors at the Hankamer School of Business to study one of the most pervasive, invasive and – as they uncovered – emotionally affecting ingredients in our modern lives: social media.

The research team consisted of Jim Roberts, PhD, the Ben H. Williams Professor of Marketing; Phil Young, PhD, clinical associate professor of Information Systems and Business Analytics; and Meredith David, PhD, associate professor of Marketing. The study, “The Epidemic of Loneliness: A Nine-year Longitudinal Study of the Impact of Passive and Active Social Media Use on Loneliness,” was published in the October 2024 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

“This study really began when I encountered the Surgeon General’s report in 2023 called, ‘The Epidemic of Loneliness,’” Roberts said. “My work is all about social media use, and immediately I was interested in the irony. Social media was developed to connect us, and yet the result has been the contradiction; people feel increased loneliness and report sadness. Even though it’s called social media, we consume or use social media, largely when we’re by ourselves.”

For the study, the team was able to access a large amount of data produced in the Netherlands over a 10-year span. More than 8,000 people were involved in the research, with ages ranging from 16 to those in their 90s. Before the team began working numbers, they decided to start by identifying the valuable questions. They wanted to deeply and correctly understand what was being asked and how it was being asked, so they could identify what was consistently reported over time. The goal was to establish what relationships were there within the answers.

After much study and evaluation, the group’s findings confirmed earlier work – and suspicions – that social media was loneliness-inducing. Aspects of the findings brought new intricacies to light. Up until a few years ago, passive social media (where content is read and observed, but not interacted with) was considered bad, and active social media use (when people create, post, like and comment on content) was good. Yet this research revealed negative effects from both passive and active social media use. Both induced loneliness and feelings of isolation. Furthermore, the study showed passive and active use can result in more pronounced feelings of loneliness at quicker rates of change over time. In other words, users of social media can fall into patterns of loneliness more rapidly.

Roberts reports that due to the nature of his work, people often ask if all social media is bad.  He holds out hope for healthy usage – though he knows how much energy it can take to find and maintain that level.  

“I think it is finding what I call the digital sweet spot – where you’re using social media for all the good things it can deliver,” Roberts said.

This study, among others, confirms the dangers are real, not just for individuals, but also for the cumulative effects on our larger society. Roberts speaks to ways social media can affect individuals mentally and physically with medical implications like premature death, heart disease, stroke, weakened immune systems, and heightened levels of anxiety and depression.

With risks like this, why is social media usage still so high? The team reports that fear of missing out is a lot of what drives social media use. When people see everything going on, and they’re not invited to all of it, that can start a spiral, Roberts said. This leads to looking for more information, feeling bad about what is found, then looking for some more to satiate the urge. This cycle of loneliness can be hard for people to break out of, and it’s worth noting that some people are just particularly susceptible to being trapped in it.

“When social media began, there was an idea that it was about connecting people,” Roberts said. “However, this new landscape that centers on short-form videos has done away with that pretense.”

The team points out that the sole purpose of short-form videos – whether they be TikTok videos, Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts – is to get people to stay engaged as long as possible, behavior that can lead to people becoming, quite literally, addicted to it.

Instead of just being doomsayers, the team sees these kinds of findings as ways to illuminate how people can change behavior to move forward in a positive light. Understanding where current usage patterns fall short and are even hurting people can guide a reimagining of social media for the future and future generations. The problems must be understood so people will see the effects of behavior, but there is a broader vision as well.

“With enough data in the future, we will be able to put our fingers on exactly what makes a healthier or a less healthy social media platform and social media experience,” Young said.

So, while the headline of the study may not be encouraging – no one wants our society spiraling further into loneliness, the idea that these findings could lead to patterning a more positive future is encouraging. What these studies can do for the culture moving forward is why the team will continue researching; it’s where the light comes in.

The Digital Divide in Fundraising

by Marty Duren

Digital crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe, Indiegogo and Kickstarter have become increasingly popular as people look for alternate means to pay for medical bills, funeral expenses, business start-ups or the cost of a music project. However, such tools are designed with Western norms in mind. They work best where both electricity and internet access are readily available.

Emmanuel Ayaburi, PhD, born in Ghana and now an assistant professor of Information Systems and Business Analytics at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, recognized a similarity between Western crowdfunding methods and a Kenyan Indigenous tradition called Harambee. He thought Harambee might serve as a substitute for digital fundraising and might even be a better option.

“Harambee is a Swahili term for community self-help that is popular among indigenes of Kenya,” he said.

In his September 2024 article “Harambee as a Decolonial Digital Fundraising Approach,” co-authored with Bright Frimpong of Washington and Lee University, and Francis Kofi Andoh-Baidoo of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and published in Information Systems Journal, he and his colleagues explore how Harambee addresses cultural tensions like inclusive access, diminished communal engagement and erosion of social capital.

While GoFundMe and Kickstarter are channels of financial solicitation through which supporters may or may not benefit from rewards for their support, in Harambee, backers receive communal rewards since the projects typically aid the larger community. Personal benefits are not the goal.

“Unlike crowdfunding, in which backers’ support is financial, in Harambee, backers’ support can be financial or non-financial, such as man-hours provided towards a project,” Ayaburi said.

Because internet access for crowdfunding excludes those who have limited online experience or little online access, those needing help don’t experience the benefits such platforms offer. Thus, the number of people in digitally disconnected communities who are targets of crowdfunding is limited. The end result is digital colonization, in which those with the greatest access control how those with limited access can interact. Digital colonization threatens to limit the participation of all eligible participants, creating apathy in communities that might otherwise benefit from a crowdfunding campaign.

Decolonizing digital crowdfunding platforms “calls for including precolonial funding norms in the design and adoption of modern crowdfunding technologies,” Ayaburi said. That is, those without digital access should look to the time before the advent of the internet for crowdfunding inspiration. Ayaburi is concerned that without decolonization, there will be “long-term adverse effects in the dissipation or marginalization of Indigenous knowledge, access to communal resources and opportunities for all members of society.”

Ayaburi became interested in Indigenous crowdfunding during conversations about IT project failures. Even with the insights gleaned from earlier research and with adequate funding, many projects didn’t succeed. Further inquiry revealed the focus had been on solving challenges to a project’s implementation, but some users had already adapted the technology to their specific context.

“This adaptation process happened because, prior to implementation, IT development ignored users’ unique context,” he said. “This led to tensions.”

Some tensions were resolved with the adaptations, but the tensions were not avoided in the first place.

The study uncovered solutions to the tensions via the ingenuity of Indigenous users. Those who integrated Harambee with digital technologies balanced cultural sensitivities and preserved communal values while challenging the colonial aspects of digital fundraising.

Western crowdfunders can implement strategies more inclusive of digitally marginalized peoples. Designers of crowdfunding platforms and administrators should promote multilingual content generation, especially in campaign promotional materials. Ayaburi also sees promoting successful past efforts as a way to increase participation in future campaigns.

“Platform administrators should promote the list of past offline crowdfunding efforts that encourage local participation among those who have barriers to joining typical online crowdfunding efforts,” Ayaburi said.

The Influencer Effect

by Marty Duren

Anyone who has spent much time on social media has run across influencers – people who are paid to review products online. You can find them – or more than likely they find you – on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Influencers pitch clothes, makeup and digital devices. Some influencers have even shifted to making and selling their own products.

It seems like an entrepreneurial match made in heaven.

But it was a different connection that piqued David Scheaf’s interest: how do entrepreneurs who watch influencers interpret and leverage influencer content in their own entrepreneurial efforts?

Scheaf, who has a PhD in Organizational Science and serves as an associate professor of Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, studied the connection with Laura D’Oria and Michael P. Lerman of Iowa State University and Timothy L. Michaelis of Northern Illinois University. Their findings, “Para-social Mentoring: The Effects of Entrepreneurship Influencers on Entrepreneurs,” were published in the Journal of Business Venturing.

Scheaf’s interest in innovation started when he worked in Apple’s Retail Division. That led to an interest in influencers as entrepreneurs.

“I noticed the growing prominence of large entrepreneurship influencers and began viewing their content,” Scheaf said. “Around the same time, students were sharing stories about how these influencers had taught them valuable lessons. These included insights into starting and growing a business.”

His students were not merely discussing the content as they might talk about a book or movie. They referred to influencers by their first names, as if they had established a personal relationship with them, he said. This difference intrigued Scheaf.

“It suggested that students were not only consuming business-related content but forming a deeper, more engaged connection,” he said.

The mechanisms behind this kind of engagement and the potential benefits of this content in shaping entrepreneurial learning intrigued Scheaf.

Any connection between social media influencers and entrepreneurship was unclear in previous research. Scheaf and his co-authors revealed fans and followers did more than consume enjoyable content – they felt an attachment to the influencers, which Scheaf terms “para-social mentoring” between influencers and their followers.

Academic literature about para-social relationships dates back to the 1950s, examining the one-sided relationships viewers, listeners and fans have with celebrities and media personalities. The latter have no relationship with and are typically unaware of such people, but the fans often feel deep attachment, infatuation or even love. Scheaf saw something similar, but unique.

“What we noticed from people who followed entrepreneurship influencers is that they didn’t view them as friends or romantic partners,” he said. “They viewed them as mentors.”

Mentorship and mentors have been studied extensively in business schools, but these studies have tended to focus on contexts where the mentor and protégé know each other or work in the same organization. While para-social mentoring provides some of the same benefits, it has hazards not typically found with in-person mentoring.

There is a mismatch of goals when the influencer seeks broad influence for clicks, views and engagement, but the follower needs mentoring that’s circumstance-specific.

“This mismatch is most apparent when influencers peddle content that glorifies extreme hustle, suffering and relentless work as the only valid path to success,” Scheaf said.

If the influencer emphasizes the struggle – working longer hours, giving up sleep and borderline workaholism – as necessary sacrifices to success, the follower might work even harder on a product that isn’t gaining traction because their para-social mentor emphasizes the struggle as much or more than the win.

Scheaf hopes these insights will prove helpful to entrepreneurs who look to influencers for mentoring.

“Entrepreneurs, especially young ones, need to know the benefits and dangers of para-social mentoring and have the insight to seek an in-person mentor when it will better help them reach their goals,” Scheaf said.

Beyond the Balance Sheet

by Marty Duren

Paul Mason, PhD, associate professor of accounting at the Hankamer School of Business, hadn’t planned to enter academia. The licensed CPA was, however, looking to change from public accounting to a different career field.

“I considered a counseling degree,” he said, “or going to work with a client in the oil and gas industry.”

Mason was already doing internal training at his accounting firm, when he contacted Rebecca Files, now his department chair at the Business School. Her advice – as well as counsel from his wife – convinced him that an academic career was worth pursuing. Mason teaches classes on federal taxation, energy accounting and law, and private equity investing. Academica was the right move for a curious learner.

“I realized only later that I enjoyed the research aspect, which has served me well during my academic career,” he said.

Mason’s curiosity and financial background led him and co-authors Peter D. Easton and Stephanie A. Larocque of the University of Notre Dame, and Steven Utke of the University of Connecticut, to write, “Private Equity Fund Reporting Quality, External Monitors, and Third-Party Service Providers,” which was published in The Accounting Review.

Mason’s interest in private equity (PE) is timely, as the market for private investment funding is growing. With that growth comes the need for tighter regulation. Protection of investors’ capital is dependent on a proper regulatory environment. Regulations with teeth depend on transparency like that brought about by the Dodd-Frank Act. Dodd-Frank, passed into law in 2010, requires more public disclosures, as well as audits for large private funds. It was passed in the aftermath of the global financial collapse of 2008-2009.

Augmented reporting from PE firms is necessary because of the ways in which PE differs from traditional investment banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs.

“First, PE is much less regulated than the banking industry,” Mason said. “Second, PE funds raise capital from high-net-worth individuals, pensions, endowments and the like, to be deployed in building a portfolio of businesses with the intent of creating value through influencing the management of these companies.”

Investment banks, on the other hand, generally facilitate capital raising or corporate acquisitions for a fee but do not take ownership of and operate the company.

Mason and his co-authors studied a key disclosure for potential investors in private funds: a fund’s net asset value (NAV). Making it tricky for investors is that NAVs are important, but difficult to determine.

“NAVs are important because they can influence investors’ decisions to invest in subsequent funds,” Mason said. “We know from existing research that NAVs are inaccurate and biased. We examined whether monitoring by investors and auditors – known to influence public firms’ reporting quality – play a similar role in PE firms, and whether they cause NAVs to be more accurate or unbiased.”

They found investors’ characteristics are not related to the quality of NAV reporting. This differs from the public markets, which suggests PE is unique in the relationship between investors and funds. However, they also document auditors and the use of other third-party service providers are associated with reporting quality.

Although regulators will see the findings more applicable and investors will find them helpful, they aren’t the only ones likely interested in this study.

“PE funds themselves may be interested,” Mason said, “especially in selecting specific auditors or third-party service providers, such as valuation specialists, marketers and administrators.”

The evidence presented in Mason and his co-author’s study is of growing importance to regulators and investors, now that PE has passed public markets as the primary means of raising capital and regulators turn a more focused eye to the private markets.