Knowledge at Wharton

The recession and pullback by American consumers have dealt serious blows to the retailing landscape. Yet while some big names have gone under Polo Ralph Lauren has emerged relatively unscathed from the wreckage according to company president and chief operating officer Roger Farah who recently spoke on campus during the University of Pennsylvania’s Fashion Week an event co-sponsored by Wharton. H...

Once dubbed the ”Celtic Tiger” for its transformation from an economic laggard to a growth powerhouse Ireland is now suffering from a stunning reversal of fortune. What once helped drive its economic surge -- a booming real estate market -- has now become the country’s bane. Wharton faculty and other experts weigh in on whether it’s fair to lump Ireland with Europe’s other sick economies such as G...

Goldman Sachs is the Wall Street mega-firm whose money-making prowess leaves many impressed envious or suspicious. Now the firm’s reputation is on the line as it fights a fraud suit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over a single deal in 2007 the sale of a complex ”synthetic collateralized debt obligation” called Abacus 2007-AC1. The deal lost investors $1 billion but produced...

What if you could print a perfect-bound volume for as little time as it takes to brew a cup of coffee? That is the premise behind the Espresso book machine which turns digital PDF files into paperbacks in minutes. Jason Epstein and Dane Neller chairman and CEO respectively of On Demand Books in New York the company behind the Espresso book machine believe their technology has the potential to tran...

After losing $60 billion in the last decade -- and billions more recently when a cloud of volcanic ash grounded flights across Europe -- airlines are looking to consolidate as a way to return to profitability amid continued struggles with high fuel prices competition from low-cost carriers and a limited customer pool that shriveled even more during the recession. But experts are skeptical about th...

The Dow has closed above 11 000 the European Union is bailing out Greece and the U.S. economy seems to be perking up. Is the future as bright as it looks? In fact it looks pretty good says Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel. While the Dow’s 11 000 close doesn’t mean much to professional market watchers it can give ordinary investors a psychological boost. According to Siegel the U.S. economy...

Your company has developed a new product that you think will be a winner. A lot of money has been poured into research and development analysis of the competition and advertising. But there is one key element you may have overlooked: What do you charge for the product? Wharton marketing professors Jagmohan Raju and John Zhang say companies frequently don’t put anywhere near as much thought into pr...

When microfinance began its scope was simple: Charitable donor-driven organizations with a mission to eliminate poverty gave out very small business loans to help the world’s poor. Big banks -- deeming the loans too small to be profitable -- steered clear. That is now changing said microfinance leaders who gathered recently at Wharton’s Aresty Institute of Executive Education to participate in the...

To find the hottest restaurant bar or concert venue in town many young adults are no longer checking in with their friends. They’re ”checking in” virtually via Foursquare a location-based social networking site. While Foursquare is being touted as the Next Big Thing experts say the true potential lies in companies knowing exactly where customers are and pitching offers or services based on the spo...

High-tech e-book gadgets are one thing that is revolutionizing publishing. If companies like Silicon Valley startup FastPencil get their way social-networking-based self-publishing services will be another. FastPencil is what CEO Steve Wilson calls a ”next-gen” publisher which uses social networking and an arsenal of widgets to take authors through their book projects from the drawing board to the...

”Dire” is one adjective that Linda Katz founder and executive director of Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI) uses to describe the U.S. education system which is leaving an increasingly high number of children without adequate reading and writing skills. For more than 20 years CLI has been working with school systems across the country to overhaul how teachers are trained hired and mentored. In a...

After discovering that hackers based in China had broken into the Gmail accounts of Chinese human-rights advocates Google halted operation of its Internet search engine on the Chinese mainland earlier this month and started directing users to its Hong Kong site. On March 29 Chinese officials retaliated by blocking some of Google’s mobile Internet services. While conflict may have seemed inevitable...

America’s health care reform may be out of the emergency room but its prognosis remains sketchy. Passage of the historic 2 400-page legislation by no means ended the health care debate say Wharton experts: It just splintered one massive question mark into a lot of new big ones. As one Wharton professor noted: ”The current legislation is going to be in play for a good long time.” But he also pointe...

The Sweet Sixteen the Elite Eight the Final Four: It’s that time of year again when college basketball fans everywhere are betting on who will win this year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament. But forget the fans. The big winners in terms of money are spread all over the playing field from the network broadcasting the games to the ticket sellers to the colleges that attra...

Just when consumers thought they had their 3G wireless gadgets all figured out it’s now time to start getting a grip on the fourth generation of wireless technology -- which will be much faster and far more disruptive than anything we have experienced before according to Scott Snyder in his recent Wharton School Publishing book titled The New World of Wireless: How to Compete in the 4G Revolution....

Fear is growing that Greece may default on a massive pile of debt creating a ripple effect of problems throughout Europe and beyond. Following pressure from the European Union and the European Central Bank the Greek government on March 3 announced a new round of austerity measures that include spending cuts and tax increases which critics fear will harm Greece’s economy. Meanwhile Wall Street bank...

Last fall after losing previous bids Rio de Janeiro -- Brazil’s second-largest city -- won the approval of the International Olympic Committee to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. According to Carlos Roberto Osorio secretary general of the Brazilian Olympic Committee this time around Rio had learned from its earlier failed bids and had the success of hosting the 2007 Pan American Games under its...

Alex Panos and his colleagues at TSG Consumer Partners a San Francisco-based investment fund believe that consumers will always be interested in products that enhance their lives even if it means paying more than they have in the past. That philosophy has brought impressive results for TSG primarily in the beauty food and beverage areas. Panos who joined the 23-year-old firm in 1998 spoke with Kno...

While some students may be using notebooks or netbooks to read textbooks these days some experts predict that within the next 10 years most U.S. college students -- and many high-school and elementary-school students as well -- will probably be reading course materials on an electronic device instead of in a paper book. And that will have a broad impact on students and teachers not to mention the...

When an entrepreneur has identified a potential business opportunity the next step is developing a business plan for the new venture. What exactly should the new plan contain? How can the entrepreneur ensure it has the substance to find interest among would-be investors? In this installment of a series of podcasts for the Wharton-CERT Business Plan Competition Wharton management professor Ian MacM...

Why do more than half of all start-ups fail? Because they bungle their marketing according to Leonard Lodish a professor of marketing at Wharton and co-author of two books Entrepreneurial Marketing and Marketing That Works. ”The dogs won’t eat the dog food is the way venture capitalists describe it ” Lodish says. The key lies in how a marketing plan is crafted. In this installment of the podcast s...

A critical step in the creation of a new venture is raising the capital to bring the new business to life. What sources of capital can an entrepreneur tap and what factors must she or he keep in mind while going through the process? According to Stephen Sammut a senior fellow and lecturer at Wharton so-called angel investors represent one possible option. Another source is venture capitalists (VCs...

Who are you? What do you stand for? What do you want? Entrepreneurs usually know the answers to those questions when they start up companies. But do their leadership teams? To make sure they do top entrepreneurs develop a ”blueprint” that will guide their companies as they grow from six to 60 to 600 employees says Michael Useem Wharton professor of management and director of its Center for Leaders...

The question of whether CEOs of America’s major companies are overpaid has been a subject of interest for many years. Are the compensation practices for these elite men and women fair and appropriate? Do they provide proper incentives or do they reward excessive caution or risk taking? Wharton accounting professors John Core and Wayne Guay have just completed a study on this topic. Guay along with...

Two recent events have rocked the publishing world. First The New York Times said it would abandon the practice of providing free online content and start charging regular readers beginning in 2011. And second Apple’s much-hyped tablet -- the iPad -- made its appearance. What implications will the Times’ decision have for newspaper publishers and other providers of free online content? How will th...