Yeah, NEC funded it, but the study was vetted by the University's research board, so it theoretically shouldn't be too biased.
Perhaps they make more profit on a widescreen than a standard, but if widescreen sales were actually boosted then market competivity would wipe anything like that out. So I really see no possible benefit from biasing the results.
Another benefit is an article on the CIO website featuring an illustration of an NEC monitor as an example of widescreen monitors.
...Which is not necessarily a reason to bias results in one direction or another, but it is a reason to emphasize the results enough to be statistically significant and hence reportable.