In a new study, Francisco Polidoro Jr., professor of management at Texas McCombs, finds present-day insights in an old innovation story: how NASA developed its space shuttles, which flew from 1981 to 2011. The lessons can inform today's rocketeers and anyone looking for breakthroughs cutting-edge fields, from phones to pharmaceuticals.

Rather than a straightforward sequence, NASA used a meandering knowledge-building process, he finds. That process allowed it to systematically explore rocket features, both individually and together.

“With breakthrough inventions, the number of combinations of possible features quickly explodes, and you just can’t test all of them,” Polidoro says. “It has to be a much more selective search process.”

A naturally fluffy white beard, a round belly and a jolly laugh might seem like the keys to being a successful Santa Claus, but new research suggests that a calling to play the man with the bag full of toys is enough to help candidates overcome a lack of typical attributes for the role.

Managers’ narcissistic tendencies may fundamentally affect whether a company makes risky or safe moves as a response to the firm’s above-aspiration performance, according to a new study published in Strategic Management Journal. In a study that helps to clarify prior conflicting research, the researchers find evidence that high-narcissism CEOs respond to above-aspiration performance with more acquisitions, while low-narcissism CEOs avoid acquisitions.

A major new study by UCL researchers has revealed the challenges faced by London’s 1.3m night workers, including pay inequality, health problems, transport difficulties, safety concerns and a lack of workplace dignity.