Knowledge at Wharton

Emotion not only helped lead America into the current economic crisis but may also be helping to keep it there. At a recent conference called ”Crisis of Confidence: The Recession and the Economy of Fear ” sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Psychiatry and the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia an interdisciplinary panel explored the psychology behind today’s economy. Hos...

The world may be buzzing about Twitter but will the San Francisco-based messaging service with the high cool factor ever be a money maker? Or will it operate at a perpetual loss as one Wall Street analyst suggested ”until the next cool Web 2.0 social networking concept comes along and Twitter tweets no more.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach recently worked with the Obama administration’s transition team on a review of the Federal Communications Commission and related technology and telecommunications issues. In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton he says that advances in technology and the urgent need to restart the economy require the commission to rethink its role...

On April 2 the Financial Accounting Standards Board is expected to vote on a proposal to relax a standard at the heart of the financial crisis -- mark-to-market accounting rules that require toxic assets to be carried on companies’ books at fire-sale prices based on recent trades of similar assets for far less than they would command in normal times. Many big banks say the crisis has been made wor...

While military uses have tended to dominate commercial development of autonomous robots in America the business opportunities for smart robots are also sizable according to Daniel Lee an engineering professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Lee who recently spoke about the future of robotics as part of the Executive Master’s in Technology Management program has an ambitious goal: to learn how t...

”Cloud computing” promises myriad benefits -- including cost savings on technology infrastructure and faster software upgrades -- for users ranging from small startups to large corporations. That’s an auspicious future considering that not everyone agrees on exactly what cloud computing is or what it can do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

U.S. stocks raised eyebrows this week and last closing higher in six of seven trading days including four in a row from March 10 to 13. But how does the market look for the longer term? In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton Wharton finance professor Jeremy J. Siegel says he was pleased to see consecutive gains after so many declines. He adds that history provides lots of evidence that stocks r...

Heartland Payment Systems a credit card processor may have had up to 100 million records exposed to malicious hackers. Payment processors CheckFree and RBS Worldpay and employment site Monster.com have all reported data breaches in recent months as have universities and government agencies. Experts at Wharton say that personal data is increasingly a liability for companies and suggest that part of...

The hedge fund industry’s long history of avoiding tougher regulation may be coming to an end as the Obama administration and Congress look for ways to avoid another financial meltdown. Although it is not clear that hedge funds actually played much of a role in the current crisis the industry’s sagging performance combined with investors’ and regulators’ heightened demand for transparency will lik...

The world financial crisis is unraveling the gains made by many Central and Eastern European economies during their post-Cold War resurgence. With the region no longer isolated an economic collapse could reverberate in the West as Central and Eastern European borrowers default on an enormous volume of loans that Western banks were all too eager to grant just a few years ago. Hosted on Acast. See a...

Getting customers to spread the word about a new product through their social or professional networks is a hot strategy in the marketing world. But how do companies find the right individuals to deliver the message? New research by Wharton marketing professors Raghuram Iyengar and Christophe Van den Bulte finds that traditional targets may not be so influential. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri...

Giving products away -- think Adobe Reader or access to online news -- has become a legitimate business model on the Internet and even beyond. Once companies accept that price need not be tied to the cost of production and begin thinking creatively new possibilities emerge -- even for offline products according to Wharton faculty and others. Welcome to the world of ”freeconomics.” Hosted on Acast....

When governments around the world spend vast sums to stimulate their economies it seems only reasonable for each to invest at home. Why should the American taxpayer pay for steel from Canada when U.S. steelmakers are struggling? So it was hardly a surprise that the $787 billion stimulus plan just signed by President Barack Obama included protectionist language. But economists and political leaders...

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...

Attention Shoppers: We no longer have the following items -- ”a sense of entitlement ” ”conspicuous consumption” and ”a golden period of luxury.” At least that is the word from Wharton faculty and other experts who point to a new logic that is defining not just what U.S. consumers buy but how they view the shopping experience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nine months ago a group of Wharton students launched an online site called Givology.org whose purpose is to raise money for scholarships and education projects in the developing world. Givology’s vision according to chief development officer Catherine Gao is that of a global community of individuals connected through their belief in the power of education to change people’s lives. The group which...

What impact has the global financial crisis had on India’s real estate market? According to Aniruddha Joshi executive director of Hirco Group in Britain which develops residential properties and mixed-use townships in India the credit crisis has affected portfolio allocations. Still Hirco’s strategy toward property development in India will not change Joshi told Knowledge at Wharton in an intervie...

Toyota officially eclipsed General Motors as the world’s largest automaker by sales last year but its strength is only relative: The Japanese automaker like its competitors is struggling against a sharp drop-off in sales and global overcapacity. According to Wharton faculty after years of conservative growth Toyota accelerated its expansion in the past decade making it harder to apply the brakes i...

The contrast is jarring. As thousands of Americans lose their jobs headlines are focused on excessive executive compensation and lavish perks including multi-million-dollar bonuses a $1.2 million executive suite renovation (since repaid) and plans to buy a new corporate jet (since scrapped). It’s not surprising that the harsh economic climate and resurgent role of government in business has turned...

When the giant pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced on January 26 that it was acquiring Wyeth for $68 billion analysts started questioning what benefits the deal would bring and for whom. Pfizer executives suggest the acquisition makes strategic sense by expanding the company into a range of new areas and by helping make up for an expected loss of more than $12 billion in annual revenues once i...

It began as the ”subprime crisis” in 2007 and then mushroomed into a full-blown global recession in 2008. And still despite mammoth government intervention the bad news keeps getting worse. Are we now teetering on a precipice ready to plunge into another Great Depression? Can the latest proposals pull the economy out of its nosedive? There is plenty to worry about. But while many experts say this...

On the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration as president of the United States Wharton finance professor Richard J. Herring discussed with Knowledge at Wharton some of the advice offered to the new chief executive by the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee a group of economists former regulators and lawyers of which Herring is a co-chair. Among the recommendations: As quickly as possible unwind fed...

The worldwide financial crisis has upended the energy industry slashing oil prices by two thirds and bedeviling financing for wind solar and other renewable-energy projects. But it’s not all doom and gloom according to participants in the recent Wharton Energy Conference. From Big Oil to renewable-energy startups energy industry players are scrambling to find a silver lining in today’s trying cond...

New Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has a long to-do list -- chart the company’s strategy weigh a potential search partnership with Microsoft boost morale and round out her management team -- and not much time to deliver amid a weak economy that is hurting online advertising say experts at Wharton. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Having bounced back from its own profound financial crises in 1994 and 2000 Turkey is well prepared to ride out the current global economic storm according to Bahadir Teker CEO of Istanbul Mortgage. In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton Teker noted that the stability of Turkey’s banking system and its dramatic rise in housing demand will help to temper any slowdowns in the country’s real estat...