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With Republicans and Democrats crafting new energy policies, the policy "Drill, baby, drill" may have a few unexpected nuances that petroleum and gas exploration firms control. New research by Professors James Smith and Rex Thompson of SMU Cox explores the question of why, rather than diversifying their exploration efforts, oil and gas firms tend to "plunge" and concentrate their portfolios of assets in like exploration prospects such as a "play" that contains common geological or risk factors.
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Stock markets around the world reduce transparency by providing traders with the option to hide some or all of their bets. These "iceberg" or "reserve" orders, where some of the size is revealed and the rest a mystery, presents a problem for buy-side institutions and trading desks at Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, and others. Research by finance professor Kumar Venkataraman and co-authors shows that in a world pushing for transparency in all things financial, there's a time and a place for the partial shade provided in hidden liquidity.
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Business executives complain that lawsuits are lining lawyer's pockets to the detriment of shareholders. Plaintiff's attorneys claim they keep Wall Street accountable. Financial services firms are being waylaid by lawsuits as stock and fund prices have dropped. New research by finance professor Amar Gande and co-author Craig Lewis reveal that investors penalize firms even before the announcement of a securities class-action lawsuit.
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By processing high-imagery ads, viewers go beyond mere reaction and into the realm of memory - a powerful tool for marketers. New research by Priyali Rajagopal of SMU Cox and co-author shows that vivid, imagery-evoking information more heavily influences memory, attitudes and behaviors than does pallid, more "humdrum" information. These novel findings will disturb public policymakers with regard to children's advertising and consumer watchdog groups.
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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are spreading like a wildfire. But firms tend to under-appreciate the subtle differences in organizational competencies enabling one firm to fly, but others to flounder. SMU Cox Management Professor Peter Heslin and co-author Jenna Ochoa (MBA '07) offer smart, fresh and practical ways to put CSR into action.
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The United States is the top destination spot for foreign managers. But most studies have focused on managers from the United States, Europe, or Japan assigned to less developed countries. A new published study by John Slocum of SMU Cox and co-author Kwanghyun Kim focuses on the Asian manager coming to the United States on assignment - and more specifically the Korean expatriate. The research sheds light on the growing occurrence of foreign managers coming to America, and how they can cope with cross-cultural adjustments for a more successful assignment.
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It's rare when an idea comes along that could have widespread implications for the global economy, as illustrated in the case of India. In "Paving the Path For India's Growth" by SMU Cox's Andrew Chen and co-author Jennifer Warren, just published in Far Eastern Economic Review, the authors call for a greater role for capital markets in India's infrastructure drive.
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Recent billion dollar write-offs by financial firms, resulting from the subprime mortgage meltdown, have shaken investor confidence. Are the earnings write-offs being reported by high-profile financial firms transparent enough to illuminate the depths of the problems, or are more surprise write-downs lurking? New research by professors Neil Bhattacharya, Hemang Desai and Kumar Venkataraman provides hard evidence on the adverse long-term consequences for firms and their investors of reporting lower-quality earnings.
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Ethical values, leadership, and trust are key issues confronting executives. In new research, SMU Cox Management Professor John Slocum and co-author frame and analyze how companies are addressing the triple bottom line of “people, planet, and profit” through universal values. Firms such as Google, Shell Oil, NEC Corp., and Procter & Gamble are experimenting with new business models and adopting sustainable business strategies.
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People often perceive streaks where they do not exist. But, little is known about what constitutes a streak in the mind of an observer. SMU Cox Marketing Professor Suzanne Shu and co-author Kurt Carlson propose that the third repeat event in a sequence is pivotal to the belief that a streak is emerging.
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Marketers take heed: strong relationships with current customers may lead to more complacent product development efforts. Slack resources - an excess of capital, labor or a hefty customer base - can affect whether a firm incrementally strengthens existing competencies (exploitation) or breaks through with something new in its product stable (exploration). New research by SMU Cox Marketing Professor Glenn Voss and co-authors shows how environmental threats and slack resources can combine and influence strategic direction.
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What is a root cause of financial crisis in emerging economies? New research by Finance Professor Amar Gande of SMU Cox and co-authors attributes a missing link that is fundamental to financial crisis: economic specialization. The authors pose an alternate view of the origins of financial crises and banks' incentives, offering policymakers the trappings of a fine-tuned economy, whether emerging or developed.
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How do firms in technologically driven, highly competitive markets, as with Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's Playstation, decide to launch new products? The video game and consumer electronics industries offer clues about strategic choices firms make when competition is fierce. New research by Professors Sreekumar Bhaskaran and Karthik Ramachandran of SMU Cox reveals different strategies firms can take to maximize profits, avoid mutual destruction and increase longevity on the long road to technological nirvana.
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Stockholders were reviled about the perverse incentives in backdating stock options. Along similar lines, new research by Finance Professor David Mauer reveals the subtle and not-so-subtle issues regarding how the type of compensation offered a CEO is consequential, with big differences in reactions by owners of stock versus owners of debt. This gets inside the collective minds of the firm’s investors—how they view the incentives given to their CEO—with implications for how compensation gets structured in the future.
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After 2000 - with the market downturn, economic recession and high-profile accounting scandals - standard setters and policymakers were concerned with the practice of pro forma reportings. Numbers given by companies were non-standard and ad hoc, sparking considerable heated debate. New research by Accounting Professor Neil Bhattacharya of SMU Cox and co-authors reveals that primarily less sophisticated individual investors trade on pro forma earnings information, raising issues for public policy.
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A new approach to estimating demand for products and services has been created by Professors Ed Fox, Bezalel Gavish, and John Semple of SMU Cox. The “truer” demand curve has the potential to revolutionize business by allowing organizations to estimate and forecast demand quicker and more accurately.
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A terrific debate has been waged for several years—whether a firm that cross-lists its stock in the United Stated and becomes subject to SEC regulation benefits in terms of corporate governance. One side argues that there is no hard evidence and that findings are indirect. Consequently, corporate governance can only be improved by improving legal investor protections in a country. New research by Ugur Lel of the Federal Reserve Board and Finance Chair Darius Miller of SMU Cox provides hard evidence that SEC regulation can improve the governance of non-U.S. firms.
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Do you really know who your loyal customers are? Share-of-wallet (SOW) is a commonly used measure for retailer performance, but retailers cannot really measure SOW, a proxy for loyalty. New research by SMU Cox Marketing Professor Ed Fox and co-author Jacquelyn Thomas offers a way to discriminate between loyal and non-loyal customers, thus informing marketing decisions with more precision.
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Owing to complexity in technology and the need for better, faster, smarter product development models, businesses are finding new ways to innovate and collaborate. Joint product development between firms is becoming more the norm for technology firms and pharmaceutical firms. Other industries are finding this approach necessary. New research by Cox ITOM Professor Sreekumar Bhaskaran and co-author Vish Krishnan analyze the under-studied concepts of investment sharing and innovation sharing in product development.
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The concept of flexible manufacturing capacity is not entirely new. However, in the pharmaceutical industry, its application and real value is just now being seriously analyzed. In pharmaceuticals, uncertainty and risk abound in new product development. Failure often occurs in late clinical trials or during FDA approval processes, after considerable millions have been spent. New research by SMU Cox Professors Chester Chambers and Eli Snir with SMU Ph.D. student Asad Ata reveals insights into the decision to use flexible capacity as part of a firm’s manufacturing strategy in the pharmaceutical industry. Many of the resulting insights have application in other manufacturing settings as well.
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Synthetic or virtual worlds are bringing together a host of fascinating groups and issues. Why would businesses, such as Toyota, Sun Microsystems, and Wells Fargo Bank, invest lots of money to create parallel universes? Is one environment more optimal than the other for certain business activities? In new research, Ulrike Schultze of SMU Cox and co-author Julie Rennecker explore “game” environments and “virtual worlds” to better understand what communicative capabilities they afford businesses in the real world.
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In an increasingly systematized, financially-driven world of business, mythopoetic leadership can inspire fellow employees and managers to achieve great things personally and professionally. In “Creating Cultures Through Mythopoetic Leadership,” forthcoming in Organizational Dynamics, Organizational Behavior Professor John Slocum of SMU Cox and co-author Chip Jarnagin explore this type of leadership to answer age-old questions about how leaders can inspire others by cultivating a powerful sense of mission and an enduring set of values within an organization.
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SMU Cox Distinguished Finance Professor Andrew Chen and co-author Jennifer Warren Kubik pose a solution which has significant implications for capital markets and development beyond the infrastructure project itself. The proposed global capital market approach coupled with financial innovations could help smooth the frictions which lie at the root of India’s infrastructure development problems.
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What can be learned from short sellers? In their research with co-author Srinivasan Krishnamurthy, SMU Cox Professors Hemang Desai and Kumar Venkataraman present a model that disentangles the two primary reasons for selling stocks short. The research also yields new evidence on the information set and trading behavior of an important group of information arbitragers, including hedge funds.
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Many people view emotions as “inappropriate” in the workplace, and employees are generally expected to do whatever is necessary to avoid showing, if not feeling, emotions at work. How are employees’ emotions affected by the current work environment characterized by rapid change and continuous restructurings and downsizings? The latest research by Mel Fugate and co-authors offers a new perspective on how emotions operate in the context of organizational change.
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Most business people assume that regulation increases the cost of doing business. It usually does, but not in the case of making the bond market more transparent—with a net positive result for investors, large or small. In a new research paper forthcoming in the Journal of Financial Economics, Cox Finance Professor Kumar Venkataraman and co-authors reveal how recent market regulation benefits investors in the bond market.
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In this seminal research about power in negotiations, Strategy Professor Robin Pinkley of SMU Cox and co-authors develop a dynamic model that sheds light on what is true power, who has it, and how to use it properly for a desired result. The authors unlock the key to the “mysterious and ambiguous door behind which the power relationship previously resided” for more informed negotiations.
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In a new research paper currently under review, Cox Marketing Professor Suzanne Shu and co-author Joann Peck of the University of Wisconsin-Madison explore the role of physical touch and its relationship to the endowment effect—when individuals value an object more highly because it is in their possession.
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The names Renoir, Manet, Monet, and Degas conjure up images of some of the world’s favorite and most widely recognized works of French Impressionist art. But the market for these works is often viewed as intractable and risky. New research by Professor Rex Thompson of SMU Cox and Clare McAndrew of Trinity College, Dublin, uses the tools of finance to understand the investment quality of fine art.
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