461 Posts found for Source: Knowledge@Wharton

Despite evidence that ambitious goal setting can hurt productivity, damage a company’s reputation and violate ethical standards, its use has become endemic in American business practice and scholarship, even spilling over to the debate on how to improve America’s public schools. A new paper by Wharton operations and information management professor Maurice E. Schweitzer and three co-authors documents the hazards of corporate goal setting and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Adam Galinsky, Lisa D. Ordóñez, Maurice Schweitzer, Max H. Bazerman | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Here’s a piece of advice: Don’t read this story if you have just had a fight with your spouse or a co-worker. You will probably ignore it, despite its grounding in solid academic research. At least that’s what Maurice Schweitzer, a Wharton professor of operations and information management, would suggest. In a recent co-authored paper, he shows that emotions not only influence people’s receptiveness to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Maurice Schweitzer | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Rather than hire experienced people from outside, many companies might be better off training fresh recruits with little experience in the industry. That approach can give the firm more control over how the new workers adapt to their employer’s corporate strategy and culture, according to a research paper by Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard titled, “Unpacking Prior Experience: How Career History Affects Job Performance.”

Content: Article | Author: Nancy Rothbard | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Human Resources

Private equity firms manage some $1 trillion of global capital, yet because they are highly secretive, much remains unknown about their internal economics. How do PE firms organize themselves, for example, and how do they capitalize on their success? Some answers emerge from a paper by Wharton finance professor Ayako Yasuda and Yale School of Management finance professor Andrew Metrick presented at a recent … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Andrew Metrick, Ayako Yasuda | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Finance, Venture Capital

First, U.S. Bankers raised questions about how the daily London Interbank Offered Rate was calculated, and then The Wall Street Journal demonstrated that the rate was inexplicably diverging from what the data suggested it ought to be. Getting it right is important, because LIBOR is the basis for many kinds of loans. The British Bankers Association says it will make changes.

Editor’s Note: a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Finance

an excerpt from the book, The Business of Sports by Scott R. Rosner and Kenneth L. Shropshire

Content: Related Content | Authors: Kenneth L. Shropshire, Scott R. Rosner | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Industry Specific | Industry: Sports & Recreation

While people in the business community hear a lot about the importance of work/life balance, it’s often unclear exactly what that phrase means or how one achieves it. Stewart Friedman, founding director of Wharton’s Leadership Program and the Work/Life Integration Project, thinks he has an answer. In his new book, titled Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life, Friedman describes the four … [ Read more ]

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Stewart D. Friedman | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Personal Development

In a new research paper titled, “Dogs on the Street, Pumas on Your Feet: How Cues in the Environment Influence Product Evaluation and Choice,” Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger suggests that what you see in your everyday world can influence what you buy. For example, participants in one study who were shown more images of dogs liked sneakers from the Puma brand more than those … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Grainne Fitzsimons, Jonah Berger | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Accounting techniques like budgeting, sales projections and financial reporting are supposed to help prevent business failures by giving managers realistic plans to guide their actions and feedback on their progress. At least that’s the theory. But when Gavin Cassar, a Wharton accounting professor, tested this idea, he found something troubling: Some accounting tools not only fail to help businesspeople, but may actually lead them astray. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Gavin Cassar | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

Steve Wozniak, or “Woz” as he is commonly called, is best known for co-founding Apple along with high school friend Steve Jobs. But Wozniak didn’t set out to establish one of the world’s most influential computer companies. His goal early in life was to be an engineer and a lifelong employee of Hewlett Packard — and to have enough spare time to tinker with electronic … [ Read more ]

Content: Thought Leader | Author: Steve Wozniak | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: People

Failing to manage your company’s talent needs, says Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli, “is the equivalent of failing to manage your supply chain.” And yet the majority of employers have abysmal track records when it comes to the age-old problem of finding and retaining talent. In a book coming out in April titled, Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty, Cappelli offers … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Peter Cappelli | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Human Resources

Published jointly by BCG’s Operations practice and The Wharton School, the report is the first in a four-part series exploring various operations topics. It features thinking from many BCG experts as it explores several different aspects of this important topic for our clients. It includes articles about developing the optimal supply chain, coordination and collaboration, flexibility and enterprise systems.

Content: Article | Sources: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Operations

An excerpt from the book, Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures, by Scott A. Shane.

Content: Related Content | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Entrepreneurship

MacMillan and McGrath’s new book, Marketbusters: 40 Strategic Moves that Drive Exceptional Business Growth, is intended to help managers identify similar high-impact opportunities within their own companies and industries. MacMillan, a Wharton management professor, and McGrath, a management professor at Columbia University, collaborated on a prior book, The Entrepreneurial Mindset, published in 2000. Marketbusters grew out of it.

But where the Entrepreneurial Mindset focused on fostering … [ Read more ]

Content: Related Content | Authors: Ian MacMillan, Rita Gunther McGrath | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Management, Strategy

At a time when many barriers to global trade have fallen, countries all over the world are taking steps to harmonize their accounting standards and develop a truly global language of business. Under the lead of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), more than 100 countries have either implemented International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or plan to do so. Yet while proponents of accounting harmonization … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Christian Leuz, Holger Daske, Luzi Hail, Rodrigo Verdi | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Accounting, Finance

For nearly two decades, consulting firms, technology companies, R&D-driven corporations and other knowledge-intensive organizations have made significant investments in “knowledge management” initiatives. These initiatives are intended to facilitate the capture and transfer of company expertise as a way to spur learning and innovation. But research by Wharton management professor Martine Haas and a colleague indicates that knowledge sharing efforts often fail to result in improved … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Martine Haas, Morten T. Hansen | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Knowledge Management

Entrepreneurs love to grumble about the roadblocks and delays created by bureaucrats. Government officials, they say, are slow, bumbling and concerned only about sticking to the rules and clocking out at 4:55 p.m. But in a study of global entrepreneurship, Raffi Amit and Mauro Guillen, both Wharton management professors, have found that a simple, if smart, bureaucratic initiative mattered critically in determining a country’s level … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Mauro Guillen, Raffi Amit | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, International

If you think about the WTO and the way we measure trade flows around the world, it assumes a very simple model, in which a product is made in Country A and it is shipped to Country B to be consumed. That is the fundamental assumption of the model. The question is where does the substantive transformation that creates the product take place…because that is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Economics, International

Whenever a new idea might affect resources, power, control or turf, politics will be part of the problem at the implementation stage. You need to prepare an idea-selling campaign, not just a presentation.

Content: Quotation | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Change Management, Persuasion

It is perhaps the core question in the ongoing debate over corporate governance: Does the corporation exist for the benefit of shareholders, or does it have other, equally important stakeholders, such as employees, customers and suppliers? A new study by Wharton finance professor Franklin Allen and two colleagues does not claim to provide a definitive answer, but it does show the various benefits of the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Elena Carletti, Franklin Allen, Robert Marquez | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Corporate Governance, International