461 Posts found for Source: Knowledge@Wharton

Online retailers may be shooting themselves in the tail — the long tail, that is, according to Kartik Hosanagar, Wharton professor of operations and information management, and Dan Fleder, a Wharton doctoral candidate, in new research on the “recommenders” that many of these retailers use on their websites. Recommenders — perhaps the best known is Amazon’s — tend to drive consumers to concentrate their purchases … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Dan Fleder, Kartik Hosanagar | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Marketing / Sales

The quest for cool is never-ending. Accountants rev up their Harleys to the dismay of hard-core bikers. Soccer moms trade in minivans for hipper Land Rovers. Yellow rubber wristbands appear instantly, then just as quickly disappear. There is a fine line between cool and not-so-cool — a topic explored in a new paper, Where Consumers Diverge from Others: Identity Signaling and Product Domains, by Wharton … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Wharton marketing professor Leonard Lodish admits he is somewhat to blame for the erosion in brand pricing power that has hit many consumer-goods companies — but not entirely to blame. In 1993, as store-level scanning data started to become widely available, Lodish coauthored an article outlining its power to gauge the effect of price promotions on revenue. But he also warned that these tools were … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Leonard Lodish | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Marketing / Sales

For those entrepreneurs who want to run a company but prefer to skip the start-up stage, search funds offer a possible alternative. A specialized form of private equity first launched in the mid-1980s, search funds are becoming increasingly popular — and their supporters claim they can offer investors attractive returns and business owners a compelling exit strategy. What does this trend in private equity mean … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Mark Sinatra, Robert Befidi Jr. | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Finance, Venture Capital

Marshall Goldsmith, the founder of executive coaching firm Marshall Goldsmith Partners, has worked closely with more than 70 CEOs during his career. Forbes has named him one of the five most respected executive coaches. The Wall Street Journal ranks him among the top 10 executive educators. Now Goldsmith has assembled a book that distills the wisdom he and his stable of coaches usually dispense in … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Management, Personal Development

Emma Lazarus’s words at the base of the Statue of Liberty — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses” — are well known. According to new research by Vivek Wadhwa, executive-in-residence at Duke University, “highly educated” and “entrepreneurial” should be added to the list. Following a survey of 28,000 U.S. startups, Wadhwa and his coauthors found that a vast majority of immigrant entrepreneurs … [ Read more ]

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

Over the next decade, 25% of the companies that exist today will disappear, either because they will merge with others or go bankrupt. In an interview with Universia-Knowledge@Wharton, Chris Zook, director of global strategy at consulting firm Bain & Co., discusses the key factors that will allow companies to survive the challenges of increasing their presence in the global marketplace. His ideas are presented in … [ Read more ]

Content: Thought Leader | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Management

You know the type: coworkers who never have anything positive to say, whether at the weekly staff meeting or in the cafeteria line. They can suck the energy from a brainstorming session with a few choice comments. Their negativity can contaminate even good news. “We engage in emotional contagion,” says Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade. “Emotions travel from person to person like a virus.” Barsade … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Positive people tend to do better in the workplace, and it isn’t just because people like them more than naysayers. Positive people cognitively process more efficiently and more appropriately. If you’re in a negative mood, a fair amount of processing is going to that mood. When you’re in a positive mood, you’re more open to taking in information and handling it effectively.

Content: Quotation | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Attitude, Organizational Behavior

Attention, shoppers: Did you find everything you were looking for? Retail customers who answer “yes” to this question might very well represent the Holy Grail to retail operators who want to increase their sales with only a modest increase in costs or, in some cases, increase sales by merely reallocating staff within a store at no extra cost. Impossible? Not according to a new study … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Industry Specific | Industry: Retail

All companies, from major multinationals to start-ups, face a common challenge: how to keep growing. These firms find it difficult to sustain growth because they become risk averse, opting for safer incremental product and service improvements instead of more rewarding, but riskier, major initiatives, according to a study by Wharton marketing professor George S. Day. Companies, Day says, need to better understand the risks inherent … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: George S. Day | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Innovation

Marketers have long used all sorts of demographic and geographic data to target potential customers — age, sex, education level, income, zip code. But there’s another variable that companies may want to consider: Who is connected to whom? A study found that consumers are far more apt to buy a company’s product if they are “network neighbors” with existing customers.

Content: Article | Authors: Chris Volinsky, Shawndra Hill | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Your mother probably told you that it pays to be nice, but that may not necessarily be true when it comes to corporate philanthropy. Wharton finance professor Vinay B. Nair and two other researchers looked at whether being charitable — such as donating money to medical research or to organizations that promote economic self-sufficiency — helps a company’s financial picture. The answer: It all depends … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Geoffrey Heal, Raymond Fisman, Vinay B. Nair | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Do your Hindu, Sikh and Jain coworkers need a three-day weekend in November to celebrate Diwali? Have you ever asked Muslim employees to help design products destined for a Southeast Asian market? Did you know one colleague urging another to accept Christ as a personal savior is a legally protected act? In the world of corporate diversity and inclusion, first there was race, then gender … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Human Resources, Management

The more decentralized your pricing process – that is, the more pricing authority you push out to the field, be it to regional managers, district managers or salespeople — the higher level of pricing skill you need to build in those people. You also need a higher level of monitoring of their performance. And you need a higher level of incentives tied to pricing in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Errors in corporate strategy are often self-inflicted, and a singular focus on shareholder value is the “Bermuda Triangle” of strategy, according to Michael E. Porter, director of Harvard’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. Porter, who recently spoke at Wharton as part of the school’s SEI Center Distinguished Lecture Series, challenged managers to stop trying to be the best company in their industry and instead deliver … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Michael E. Porter | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: People, Strategy

China’s 1.3 billion consumers are at a crossroads. They are embracing new economic ideas and habits, and devouring goods that have long been unavailable, unaffordable or forbidden. At the same time, they are part of a culture and an economic system that remain quite different from those of developed countries. In this special report, experts from Wharton and Boston Consulting Group offer insights on how … [ Read more ]

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

Lazy orthodoxies can allow new entrants to thrive in niches that seem full of capable incumbents.

Content: Quotation | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Competition, Opportunity

Wharton researchers have developed a mathematical model that they say will allow companies, for the first time, to predict at what pace new products will gain acceptance in markets where purchasing decisions by knowledgeable, influential customers sway the buying habits of others. Wharton marketing professor Christophe Van den Bulte and doctoral student Yogesh V. Joshi say their model can be put to use in industries … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Marketing / Sales

When making a purchase, a consumer has a choice between using frequent-flier miles, cash, or some combination thereof. Which will he or she choose? Another consumer has an opportunity to participate in a special program to get a free car wash after paying for a certain number of washes. What’s the best way for the car-wash owner to motivate the customer to participate? Such questions … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales