Leading business minds

The usefulness of online product reviews depends not only on what is said, but on how the information is structured. Research co-authored at Cambridge Judge Business School shows that the sequencing of positive and negative points plays a central role in how readers interpret reviews. This suggests that better-designed review forms – ones that guide how feedback is organised – could significantly improve their value for decision-making.

Church attendance is in long-term decline, threatening the financial stability of magnificent church buildings. Research at Cambridge Judge Business School, in collaboration with the Diocese of Ely, focuses on how church custodians respond to tensions between churches as places of worship and the financial sustainability of these magnificent edifices.

Research on Islamic finance by Lionel Paolella of Cambridge Judge Business School finds that bond buyers will accept a lower rate of return when the bonds are endorsed by high-status Shariah scholars, or skeikhs, underlining the importance of moral reassurance on products whose moral acceptability may be contested.