Knowledge at Wharton

Meet the new consumers of the new media age. They want things to be better faster cheaper and even more important free according to AOL vice chairman emeritus Ted Leonsis who is considered an Internet pioneer and whose business portfolio over the years includes an impressive array of online companies. ”We’re living in a world where consumers have taken control of everything ” he noted. Leonsis a k...

On October 4 Microsoft launched HealthVault a free web-based service that allows users to store their medical records online and eventually share them with doctors. On October 17 an executive at Google noted the company’s interest in health information services. And on November 19 23andMe announced a program that will allow consumers to pay $999 for the privilege of exploring their own genomes. Th...

The recent departures of two chief executives -- Stanley O’Neal of Merrill Lynch and Charles Prince of Citigroup -- in the wake of major financial losses at their firms have focused renewed attention on the issue of succession planning. Published reports speculated that both positions would be filled by outside candidates and on November 14 Merrill Lynch announced that it had chosen John Thain CEO...

When it comes to shopping women are from Nordstrom’s and men are from Sears. Women are happy to meander through sprawling clothing and accessory collections or detour through the shoe department. For men shopping is a mission. They are out to buy a targeted item and flee the store as quickly as possible according to a new study by Wharton’s Jay H. Baker Retail Initiative and the Verde Group a Toro...

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...

At the end of October the Federal Reserve gave the financial markets just what they had been asking for: a 0.25% cut in the federal funds rate. But in early November stocks plunged and the dollar hit a new low. Applause turned into hand-wringing -- then back to applause as the markets rebounded in the middle of the month. Why can’t the experts make up their minds? Is the outlook good or bad? Accor...

When Merrill Lynch reported solid second-quarter earnings last July chairman and CEO Stan O’Neal sent employees a memo boasting about the firm’s risk management prowess. Only three months later Merrill Lynch took its historic $8.4 billion write-down for losses in mortgage-related securities with Citigroup and others soon reporting unprecedented credit losses as well. If the capital markets are mod...

Turn on the Internet pick up your telephone or cell phone read a newspaper or watch television: No matter what the communication vehicle is polls and the reporting of poll results are ubiquitous. Yet how accurate are polls? Can they be manipulated? How do the Internet and the proliferation of cell phone users affect both marketing and political polls? And which polls are the most reliable? Knowled...

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...

”One thing that makes my heart beat is the smell of drywall ” says Pastor T.L. Rogers whose Maryland-based congregation once turned a strip mall into a church complex. Having completed that renovation his church is now thinking about even bigger projects. But for Rogers whose advanced degree is in Bible studies meeting with bank executives can be a challenge. ”Finance is a whole different language...

In a span of four days earlier this month Google launched an initiative to enable social networking tools to work across dozens of web sites and rounded up 33 partners to develop software to power a new generation of cell phones. While these efforts illustrate Google’s determination to keep expanding its territory they also increase the challenges faced by the $200 billion company. And they pose a...

When Wal-Mart starts its holiday markdowns three weeks before Thanksgiving you know it will be a tough Christmas season. The Arkansas-based discount chain a bellwether for U.S. retailing usually holds off on its ”door buster” sales until the day after Thanksgiving traditionally the year’s busiest shopping day. This year Wal-Mart decided that it couldn’t afford to wait. No wonder say scholars at th...

According to Larry Huston managing partner of consulting firm 4INNO future competitive advantage will depend on ”innovation networks” -- individuals and organizations outside a company that can help it solve problems and find new ideas for creating growth. A senior fellow at Wharton’s Mack Center for Technological Innovation Huston was vice president of knowledge and innovation for many years at P...

It’s been a busy few weeks for Adobe Systems Microsoft and Google. All three have announced plans or new technologies that will address the latest vision of software’s future -- one that combines the features of web-based applications with desktop software to create a hybrid model offering the best of both worlds. Indeed the question today is not so much whether this desktop/webtop model will be a...

When Thomas Friedman wrote his popular book The World Is Flat one of its central arguments was that geography might soon become history. The proliferation of information technology and telecommunications networks has integrated the world in ways that were unimaginable in the past -- and this has transformed how companies produce and distribute products and services. One result of this transformati...

For marketers the Internet changes everything -- and nothing at all. For example it enables companies to instantly reach consumers in different countries and economically tailor messages to them based on demographics buying habits and other information. Yet it doesn’t free these companies from the constant challenge of building distinct durable brands. At the 2007 Wharton Marketing Conference part...

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 de...

Oil is marching toward $100 a barrel largely due to China’s boom. Demand for ethanol is pushing corn prices up. Soybean prices are rising because so many bean fields have been switched to corn. In short prices of commodities worldwide are soaring making for frenzied action in commodities futures markets. New research by Wharton finance professor Gary Gorton and two colleagues shows how spot and fu...

Consolidation cutbacks and competition from the web -- these are the headlines grabbing the attention of business journalists around the world. Concerns about the quality of reporting and information have risen steadily as the industry has undergone dramatic changes. How has global expansion affected the standards of news organizations? What impact have blogs and ”citizen journalism” had on the in...

In an era of rising petroleum prices African oil is drawing new interest from major companies around the globe according to John Ghazvinian author of Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil who spoke at a recent event sponsored by the Wharton African Students Association. Companies Ghazvinian says see the continent as the most promising place in the world for new production. Yet due to an economic...

Kristine Tompkins former CEO of outdoor apparel company Patagonia pulled no punches with the audience attending her recent Wharton Leadership Lecture. Tompkins said that when she began working full-time at Patagonia in 1972 she didn’t understand how the actions of the business world as well as the behavior of individuals ”affected the very underpinnings” of the individual the family and the commun...

As medical costs escalate and the number of Americans without health insurance continues to rise the 2008 presidential candidates have responded by putting health care near the top of their agendas. Indeed many candidates have already laid out detailed programs to address the nation’s health care problems. As a result meaningful change in the system seems likely to occur once a new president takes...

Long gone are the days when firms expected their chief information officer to function as ”chief technology mechanic.” As companies look for ways to maintain a competitive edge in new markets CIOs are playing a more central leadership role taking on increasing responsibility for corporate strategy and other duties outside of core technology. Even so CIOs are still expected to ensure the quality an...

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 th...

”He who takes medicine and neglects to diet wastes the skills of his doctors.” This proverb highlights the findings of a new study by Wharton marketing professor Lisa Bolton and two colleagues that explores how consumers in China choose between traditional Chinese remedies and Western medicine when seeking treatment. According to the study Chinese consumers tend to prefer traditional Chinese medic...