894 Posts Found

Agency theory, derived from neoclassical economics, together with the gospel of shareholder value, has led to managers being compensated for doing the wrong things. Stock-based compensation, for example, focuses executives on expectations markets rather than real markets, where customer value is created. It is this focus on maximizing what should be an ancillary goal that has led to the marginalizing of customers as “marks” to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: David K. Hurst, Roger L. Martin | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Economics

The renowned author discusses how the great economists uncovered the basic truth about progress, prosperity, and productivity, and the reasons you should be careful which ideas you listen to.

Content: Article | Authors: Rob Norton, Sylvia Nasar | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Economics, History

We feel instinctively that societies with huge income gaps are somehow going wrong. Richard Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows what gets worse when rich and poor are too far apart: real effects on health, lifespan, even such basic values as trust.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Richard Wilkinson | Source: TED Conferences LLC | Subjects: Economics, International

Without nurses and doctors from Asia and Africa, British hospitals could barely function. But is it fair for rich countries to poach talent from poor ones? Poor countries have far too few skilled workers to begin with, yet they are precisely the people whom rich countries are most likely to lure away.

It seems obvious that this “brain drain” hurts the poor. If all the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Robert Guest | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Economics, International

The forces that fractured the computer industry are bearing down on all industries. In the face of changing interaction costs and the new economics of electronic networks, companies must ask themselves the most basic of all questions: what business are we in?

Content: Article | Authors: John Hagel III, Marc Singer | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, Strategy

The Austrian School puts great emphasis on individual choices and the crucial role that prices, acting as signals, have in those choices. The more prices depart from what they would be in a free market, the more concerned Austrian School economists become about economic performance.

The Austrian School believes in an absolute minimal role for government in economic affairs. In the jargon of the Economics 101, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: John McCallum | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Economics

When you look at the ideas that distinguish successful economies from unsuccessful ones, it’s not the difference between, for instance, Paul Samuelson and Milton Friedman, or even Keynes and Hayek. It’s the difference between any of them and something or someone whose ideas are completely dysfunctional. Marx would be an example.

Content: Quotation | Author: Sylvia Nasar | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Economics

I think one thing we’ve learned — and the lesson has been repeated recently — is that we can’t predict the macro economy very well. Another thing to keep in mind is that the global macroeconomic environment is not the main determinant of the success of individual companies, or even of countries. Because if it were — if that’s what made the difference — then … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Sylvia Nasar | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Economics

It’s a commonplace that there are some things money can’t buy. [Georg] Simmel had a more striking insight: Having money can actually be more satisfying than having the things money can buy. That’s because…money has a “surplus value.” A person with money enjoys the added satisfaction of having a choice of things to buy: “The value of a given amount of money is equal to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: The Wilson Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, Money, Personality / Behavior

[Georg] Simmel recognized that the freedom of the liberal capitalist state is not a good in and of itself. Freedom without a sense of direction and purpose breeds boredom and restlessness.

Content: Quotation | Source: The Wilson Quarterly | Subjects: Capitalism, Organizational Behavior

[Georg Simmel] observed that capitalist competition doesn’t just involve those who compete; it’s a struggle for the affection (or money) of a third party. In order to succeed, the competitor must discover the wishes of that third party.

Content: Quotation | Source: The Wilson Quarterly | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

INSEAD professor Soumitra Dutta’s Global Innovation Index helps show which nations are on the rise and which are not.

Content: Thought Leader | Author: Soumitra Dutta | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Economics, Innovation, International

The economist and coauthor of This Time Is Different explains what history can teach us about the global downturn and why climbing out of it is still rife with risks.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Bill Javetski, Kenneth Rogoff, Tim Koller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Economics

History has demonstrated that the advantages of labor arbitrage seldom last forever. Moreover, plentiful labor is not a guarantee of skilled labor. Any advantage derived from labor arbitrage will ultimately be outweighed in value terms by accelerated cycle times, reduced defects and greater flexibility. This was a lesson learned by post-war Japanese manufacturers. Once they lost their status as low-cost producers, they began to reinvest … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Bob Suh | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subject: Economics

An economy doesn’t operate by market forces alone—it’s dependent on actions of business and consumers and government. There is a clear role for government in creating an environment in which business gets new opportunities. Yes, government should get out of spaces where it doesn’t have to be and let business do its thing. But government needs to be where there are so-called external effects, which … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Bart van Ark | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Economics, Government, Politics

Since the Industrial Revolution, creators of technology have always destroyed jobs. New technologies often substitute for labor, which in advanced societies becomes more expensive. So the fact that today’s technology producers generate few jobs is not surprising. What’s important is that the technology gets diffused and used in the rest of the business sector, that it gets invested and creates new business activities, new processes, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Bart van Ark | Source: The Conference Board | Subject: Economics

A controversial look at today’s economy and the issues to consider in planning for the future and for retirement.

Content: Article | Author: Darrol J. Stanley | Source: Graziadio Business Report | Subject: Economics

Day-traders might say the Dow’s direction depends on the morning’s news. Pundits may cite the next winner of the Super Bowl or the political party of the next elected president. Fundamental analysts might say it depends on earnings growth. The DJIA is swayed both by economic and non-economic factors. This article estimates what portion of the Dow is economically driven and what portion is not … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Bruce Samuelson PhD | Source: Graziadio Business Report | Subjects: Economics, Finance

The financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent Great Recession demolished many cherished beliefs—most significantly, the theory that financial markets always get things right. Justin Fox’s The Myth of the Rational Market explains where that idea came from, and where it went wrong. As much an intellectual whodunit as a cultural history of the perils and possibilities of risk, it also brings to life the people … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Justin Fox | Subjects: Economics, History

Beneath the surface of most companies are three kinds of businesses—a customer relationship business, a product innovation business, and an infrastructure business. Although organizationally intertwined, these businesses differ a great deal. …These three businesses rarely map neatly to a corporation’s organizational structure. Rather, they correspond to what are popularly called “core processes”—the cross-functional work flows that stretch from suppliers to customers and, in combination, define … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: John Hagel III, Marc Singer | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, Strategy