461 Posts found for Source: Knowledge@Wharton

“Minerals should – and can – be extracted, processed and used in ways that are environmentally responsible.” Those words, coming from Michael J. Kowalski, chairman and CEO of Tiffany & Co., set the stage for a discussion last week of the luxury jeweler and specialty retailer’s recent efforts to bring about industry reform. Kowalski spoke to a Wharton marketing class that looked at such issues … [ Read more ]

Content: Case Study | Author: Michael J. Kowalski | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG) | Industry: Other | Company: Tiffany & Co

Formulas used by consultants and ratings services that assign single numbers or grades to a company’s corporate governance practices don’t work, suggest three Wharton professors in a new paper entitled, “Does Corporate Governance Really Matter?” Yes, it matters, the authors say, but what also matters is how performance is measured. Companies and their situations are too diverse to be shoehorned into simple scorecards. As one … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: David Larcker, Irem Tuna, Scott Richardson | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Corporate Governance

From childhood on, individuals are told that setting goals for themselves will make them more successful in whatever they set out to do – whether it’s win tennis games, ace their exams or become CEO of their company. But goal-setting also has a dark side to it, according to a recent research paper by a Wharton faculty member and two colleagues. In addition to motivating … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Bambi Douma, Lisa Ordonez, Maurice Schweitzer | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Ethics

Why do so many smokers keep smoking, despite decades of health warnings? Why do Harley Davidson motorcycles and Ralph Lauren clothing engender such loyalty among very specific types of people? Why do teens and parents always seem to fight, and never seem to hear what the other is saying? Wharton marketing professors Lisa Bolton and Americus Reed have found through their research that judgments linked … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Americus Reed, Lisa Bolton | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Organizational Behavior

When Google announced in April that it would go public this year, some investors’ eyebrows rose over the plan to issue a class of super shares to ensure that the founders keep control. Each of the Class B shares reserved for insiders will carry 10 votes; ordinary Class A shares sold to the public will have one vote. Yet shareholders-rights groups have long complained that … [ Read more ]

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

Pricing, the intersection at which untold numbers of buyers and sellers meet every day, lies at the core of any business. Yet it remains misunderstood and poorly managed, according to The Price Advantage, a new book by three consultants at McKinsey & Co. Even executives at successful companies may not fully appreciate how small changes in price can lead to large changes in profitability. Wharton … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Craig C. Zawada, Eric V. Roegner, Michael V. Marn | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Pricing

It’s no surprise that the front lines of a corporate call center are unusually stressful, but companies don’t always account for that when hiring and training workers for this critical customer contact role, according to speakers at a recent Call Center Industry Forum sponsored by Wharton’s Financial Institutions Center. Given that an estimated 3% of the U.S. workforce is employed in call centers, and that … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Human Resources

Chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group – or Legend Group, as the company used to be called. Leonovo long been regarded as one of China’s best-known business success stories. Having begun life in 1984 as a distributor of foreign PCs, the company has become China’s (and Asia’s) largest computer maker. As strong economic growth during the past decades spurred demand for PCs in China, Legend … [ Read more ]

Content: Thought Leader | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Management | Industry: Personal Computer

It’s the venture capital investor’s rule of thumb: Nine of every 10 investments will not make money. If all goes well, the 10th will make enough money to exceed all the losses. Given these odds, investors are always looking for ways to increase returns from their winner. Bill Hilliard and Charles Baden-Fuller, visiting scholars at Wharton’s Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center, believe they have … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Industry Specific, Venture Capital

China offers potentially huge benefits for multinational corporations. With a population exceeding 1 billion and an immense supply of low-wage workers, China is coveted both as a consumer market and as a superb location to source products. But is China really the place where major corporations need to be in the decades to come? In this first of four special reports on China, experts from … [ Read more ]

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

Customers want more customized, personalized products and services, but companies struggle to cost-effectively deliver them. Improving communication and coordination between operations and sales and marketing is one critical path to profitable customization.

Content: Article | Sources: Knowledge@Wharton, strategy+business | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Operations

A software services company looking for an early-stage round of investment from venture capital funds gets four offers. Two of them value the company at $10 million, one at $12.5 million and one at $20 million. Any of the offers would net the software company approximately $8 million in cash inflows. It would seem to be a no-brainer. Accept the investment at the highest so-called … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

After adapting information technology to develop ever more sophisticated research methods, marketers are taking a second look at more human, qualitative approaches to tapping into the hearts and minds of consumers. As one Wharton marketing professor says: “We can put each customer’s order on a microchip, but as far as having a sense of what’s inside making him tick,” the answers remain elusive. He and … [ Read more ]

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

The long-held belief that governments favor their own country’s firms over outsiders may not hold up in today’s global business environment. Indeed, governments may actually favor foreign companies, particularly over politically weak domestic firms, according to preliminary research presented by Yasheng Huang, professor of international management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, during a Wharton conference on Management Strategy and the Business Environment. In general, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Yasheng Huang | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: International

Gregory Mankiw, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, ignited a firestorm of debate when he said outsourcing of U.S. jobs is probably a good thing in the long run. As tends to happen with hot-button issues in presidential election years, sensible discussion of this question was soon drowned in an uproar of political posturing. Experts at Wharton and the Boston Consulting Group … [ Read more ]

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

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Nightly Business Report, the most watched daily business program on U.S. television, Wharton and NBR this month announced their list of the 25 most influential business leaders of the past 25 years. Andy Grove, co-founder of Intel, won the No. 1 position, but the list also included Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, John Bogle, Jeff Bezos, Jack Welch and Oprah … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Sources: Knowledge@Wharton, Nightly Business Report (NBR) | Subjects: Leadership, People

As anyone who reads business headlines can attest, the comeback in merger and acquisition activity that began last fall is continuing to surge ahead in 2004. This M&A uptick has led some scholars to accuse acquisition-hungry executives of being empire builders, interested mainly in benefiting themselves rather than their shareholders. But a recent research paper co-authored by Wharton finance professor Geoffrey Tate suggests that overconfidence, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Corporate Governance

Five years ago, when the technology sector was booming, Adobe Systems was in trouble. The company was respected for its technical prowess and popular products, but Wall Street was skeptical; Japan, a major market, was tanking; and Quark, Adobe’s rival, launched a hostile takeover attempt. Forced to swim or sink, Adobe Systems launched a massive turnaround effort spearheaded by executive vice president Bruce Chizen, who … [ Read more ]

Content: Case Study | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Change Management | Industry: Software | Company: Adobe Systems

In the wake of accounting scandals at companies like WorldCom, Tyco and Enron, Congress and regulators focused on the apparent conflict between accountants who were doing audits while earning high-margin consulting fees at the troubled firms. In a burst of reform, most accounting firms were forced to separate their auditing and consulting businesses. A new Wharton paper, however, challenges the idea that lucrative consulting contracts … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Accounting, Industry Specific

Wharton accounting professor Brian Bushee remembers talking to the CFO of a large Australian consumer products company that was having trouble attracting interest from U.S. analysts and institutional investors. Part of the problem, the CFO had decided, was that his company chose to comply with Australian accounting methods rather than with U.S. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). His experience led Bushee and two colleagues to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Brian Bushee | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Finance, International | Industry: Finance / Banking