Knowledge at Wharton
The Wharton School
The Knowledge at Wharton Network Acast feed serves as a curated showcase highlighting the best content from our podcast collection. Each week, we feature one standout episode from each show in the Wharton Podcast Network, giving listeners a comprehensive sample of our diverse business and academic content. This rotating selection allows audiences to discover new shows within our network while experiencing the depth and variety of Wharton's thought leadership across different topics and formats. It's your monthly gateway to explore the full spectrum of insights available through the Wharton Podcast Network. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 10, 2007 • 9min
Corporate Philanthropy Inspires Trust: Does It Also Prompt Higher Profits?
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 Columbia University’s Raymond Fisman and Geoffrey Heal 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 on the type of industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 10, 2007 • 14min
Private Equity Is on a Roll but Are Investors in for a Let-down?
With private equity investors of all types flush with cash -- from venture capitalists and hedge funds to large leveraged buyout (LBO) firms such as The Blackstone Group and The Carlyle Group -- private financing hit record levels in 2006 and is likely to remain strong in the new year according to Wharton faculty and industry analysts. Nearly a third of the dollar value of all U.S. acquisitions last year involved private equity firms up from 3% five years ago. But just how long can this boom continue and what changes may be in store for private equity models? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 10, 2007 • 12min
’The Overachievers’: A Look at High School Competition Misses the Bigger Problem -- Underachievers
Alexandra Robbins’ study of contemporary American high school culture entitled The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids is based on a visit to the high school she attended more than a decade ago and which she says has now changed for the worse. These days Whitman High School in Bethesda Md. promotes a ”competitive frenzy” that the author argues has taken root in high schools across the country and has led to overstressed over-scheduled teenagers growing up in a culture that is excessively focused on achievement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 13, 2006 • 11min
How John Wood Left Microsoft to Change the World -- through Books (Including His Own)
In 1998 Microsoft executive John Wood decided to take a rare and hard-won vacation. He started out trekking in Nepal and ended up establishing a foundation Room to Read that has created nearly 3 000 libraries in the developing world and stocked them with more than one million books. His experiences are chronicled in a recently-published book that offers his corporate-based perspective on how to raise money market the product leverage relationships and ultimately maximize results. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 13, 2006 • 14min
Dos and Don’ts for Entrepreneurs from Those Who Have Actually Done It
Fortune 500 companies claim to be ”entrepreneurial ” as do charities and government agencies. Members of many Washington think tanks dub themselves ”policy entrepreneurs.” Even children who mow lawns and run lemonade stands get the ”entrepreneur” label. But as the term has come into wide use its meaning has gradually eroded leaving open the question of who entrepreneurs really are and what distinguishes their ventures from conventional ones. The recent 2006 Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference invited a group of well entrepreneurs to debate the issue. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 13, 2006 • 18min
How and Why Chinese Firms Excel in ’The Art of Price War’
When it comes to price wars Wharton marketing professor Z. John Zhang can’t help but notice that companies in the West and companies in China are quite literally worlds apart. In the West Zhang says the outbreak of a price war is viewed as the failure of managerial rationality. In China the outbreak of a price war is considered a legitimate and effective business strategy. In a recent paper Zhang and Dongsheng Zhou a marketing professor at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai analyze two price wars that took place in China in the mid-1990s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 13, 2006 • 12min
Retailers Are Trying to Avoid the Christmas Crunch but Consumers Aren’t Buying It
”Black Friday” -- the day after Thanksgiving that signals the start of the holiday shopping season in the U.S. -- was particularly charged this year marked by midnight store openings and brawls over scarce sale items. Despite the hoopla retailers are expected to post only modest gains this month according to Wharton faculty and retail analysts. A key problem they note is that shoppers continue to procrastinate on holiday purchases despite highly visible early-season marketing promotions. The one area where sales are moving at a brisk pace: online retail. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 13, 2006 • 15min
Indian Companies Are on an Acquisition Spree: Their Target? U.S. Firms
Reliance Gateway Net VSNL Scandent and GHCL aren’t exactly household names in the U.S. but they may be signs of bigger things to come. These are only a few of the growing number of Indian businesses that have acquired U.S. firms in the past few years. And the U.S. merger-and-acquisition activity is just part of a bigger picture. Indian companies -- usually quietly but sometimes with media fanfare -- have been on a buying spree in continental Europe Great Britain and Asia in attempts to become key players in global markets. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 13, 2006 • 13min
To Diversify or Not to Diversify: What’s at Stake for Online Giants in Growth Mode
Amazon plans to sell computing power like a utility company sells electricity. Google is building a suite of productivity software programs connected to the web to take on Microsoft. And Yahoo has launched or acquired so many properties that they run the risk of competing with each other. Such efforts could represent new growth areas and smart diversification moves. Or they could prove to be costly distractions. The big question: Should a company stay focused on its core competencies or should it diversify to keep up with or attempt to surpass its peers? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 29, 2006 • 13min
A Combined US Airways-Delta Air Lines Might Fly but Consumers Could Face Unfriendly Skies
Although far from a done deal US Airways’ hostile bid to acquire bankrupt Delta Air Lines would result in a strong combined company and would be a feather in the cap of the chief executive of US Airways. But it would also be a mixed blessing for passengers resulting in more flight choices but most likely higher fares as well according to faculty members at Wharton and industry analysts who also note that the overture could lead to further consolidation in the industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
