Wharton School Links
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http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/
Knowledge@Wharton is an online resource that offers the latest business insights, information, and research from a variety of sources. Content includes analysis of current business trends, interviews with industry leaders and faculty, articles based on the most recent business research, book reviews, conference and seminar reports, and links to other websites.
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Copyright (c) 2005 The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
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http://Knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu
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Knowledge@Wharton Research
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What's Hot
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=1219
As the Bush administration continues to pressure China to allow the yuan to rise against the dollar in order to stave off protectionist legislation in the U.S. Senate, Chinese officials continue to reply that they will not be coerced into taking action by a foreign government meddling in a matter of national sovereignty. Faculty members at Wharton and other China-watchers predict that China will eventually revalue the yuan, probably this year, because it is in China's own long-term interest to do so. These experts also note that the United States, by trying to force the issue in a vociferous, public manner, is possibly delaying the revaluation. In addition, they say, revaluing the yuan will not revitalize industries that have been battered by the movement of certain jobs to China, where labor and production costs are cheap.
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Specials
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=specialsection&specialid=36
The numbers alone are staggering: 58% of people infected with AIDS are women; one-quarter to one-half of all women have suffered abuse from an intimate partner, and two million women and girls are bought and sold into sexual slavery each year. But the dismal statistics are not the only reason why the University of Pennsylvania Schools of Nursing and Medicine convened the "Penn Summit on Global Issues in Women's Health: Safe Womanhood in an Unsafe World." As participants at the recent Summit noted, the "haves" of this world, particularly educated individuals and educational institutions, bear a particular responsibility to address the compelling issue of women's health and safety. The message was clear: Women are the caretakers. They create the social fabric that keeps societies and nations together, and -- when given the opportunity -- they have proven to be successful and resourceful entrepreneurs. Below, Knowledge@Wharton reports on the two-day conference.
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Strategic Management
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1213
For General Motors, it's been a tough year: a $1.1 billion first-quarter loss, junk-bond status for its debt, a largely lackluster lineup of models, and a mountain of health-care and pension liabilities that builds an immediate cost disadvantage into every vehicle that rolls off the line. But experts at Wharton and elsewhere say that GM is not about to file for bankruptcy protection, that it has a talented management team and that some new models on the horizon may rev up sales. For GM to survive and thrive over the long term, however, the company needs more than a few hot models; it requires a major structural and cultural overhaul, these people say. GM must start thinking small -- not an easy task for a company that has never done that -- and accept a diminished, yet still significant, role in the global auto business.
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Insurance and Pensions
While the U.S. operates the most expensive health care system in the world, its citizens are neither healthier nor live longer than citizens in other countries. In addition, while the U.S. is considered among the safest countries in the world, deaths from gunshot wounds are staggeringly high. In 2000, the U.S. recorded close to 11,000 firearm homicides. The European Union reported fewer than 1,300 firearm homicides for the same year. In Japan, the number was 22. Jean Lemaire, professor of insurance and actuarial science at Wharton, argues that these facts should be looked at in tandem. In a recent paper, Lemaire works through the medical and financial impact of firearms on American society.
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Managing Technology
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1220
John Hagel III, a former McKinsey consultant, and John Seely Brown, former chief scientist of Xerox, are focusing these days on a question that CEOs often ask themselves: How can their companies develop a sustainable competitive edge that can keep them ahead of the competition? Their answer, which they discuss in a new book, involves ideas that enable firms to step up the pace at which they develop new capabilities. Hagel and Brown will speak about these issues at Supernova 2005, a conference of technologists and business leaders to be held in San Francisco later this month. Kevin Werbach, a professor of legal studies at Wharton and Supernova's organizer, spoke with them about sustainable advantage, capability building, process networks and several other themes that will be highlighted at the conference.
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Managing Technology
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1212
When Microsoft introduced its long-awaited Xbox 360 console on May 12 in an MTV special, its intentions went beyond just fun and games. The company called the long-awaited product a "future-generation game and entertainment system." Its market? The increasingly crowded living room. Keeping in step with Microsoft, a long parade of technology companies is targeting home entertainment and selling wares that were typically offered by consumer electronic giants such as Sony. Is the so-called digital living room fact or fantasy? Who will the winners ultimately be? Wharton experts say the digital living room is becoming a reality -- slowly.
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Innovation and Entrepreneurship
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1215
Software manufacturing, software programs to defeat spam, new business data technology and web services are all areas of opportunity for entrepreneurs, according to venture capitalists taking part in a panel on creative financing at a recent Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference. And those entrepreneurs who cut costs, sign on angel investors and find other creative ways to finance their start-ups will be rewarded with more equity in their firms assuming they become successful. One always promising but often prickly funding source: angel investors.
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Strategic Management
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1211
Coinstar, the Bellevue, Wash.-based company that puts change-counting machines in groceries and discount stores, figured out a "marketbusting" move, according to Ian MacMillan and Rita Gunther McGrath, authors of a new book called "Marketbusters: 40 Strategic Moves that Drive Exceptional Business Growth." Coinstar took something that had been an annoyance for both banks and consumers -- counting and handling spare change -- and turned it into a profitable business. MacMillan and McGrath's goal in writing their book was to help managers identify similar high-impact opportunities within their own industries. Each company doesn't need 40 marketbusters, the authors add. Just one could be enough.
