Last year, online adultery website Ashley Madison suffered one of the most embarrassing data breaches in history. Exposing thousands of married people search for someone to cheat on their spouses with.

But this week, the Wall Street Journal has written an article based on some research build using the Ashley Madison hack data. The research paper was a joint publication from Tulane University and Michigan State University, and was aimed at the corporate culture of the companies who's employees most used the service.

Basically, the idea is to see if a company with a large number of Ashley Madison users also engaged in unethical professional behavior.

So what does this have to do with Louisiana? Or Shreveport more specifically?

Well, what the research showed was that companies with higher Ashley Madison numbers DID have some riskier behavior. Including high debt loads, more credit issues, and were closest to hitting the default stage in their loans.

But on the other hand, the research also suggested that companies with higher Ashley Madison accounts were more innovative. These companies meant more money on R&D and gained more patents.

So what does this mean for Louisiana? Well, let's judge it against other states in the region.

Since Road Snacks did the research for us, we decided to swing over to their site and look up how many cities, based on per capita measurements, per state made their lists. Here's what we found in the top 200:

  • Louisiana - 4 cities
  • Oklahoma - 3 cities
  • Tennessee - 5 cities
  • Arkansas - 1 city
  • Mississippi - 1 city
  • Georgia - 9 cities
  • Texas - 16 cities

So Louisiana sits somewhere in the middle there. WELL behind Texas (holy crap Texas!), and ahead of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

Does this mean that Louisiana businesses are riskier than Arkansas businesses? The research says yes. It also says that Louisiana businesses are likelier to be more innovative.

Looking at JUST Louisiana, Shreveport ranked behind Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Lafayette on the Ashley Madison list. So within the state, the research would say that Shreveport is safer for business than any of the other three cities.

 

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