Knowledge@wharton

As in any negotiation money and performance will usually make or break a sports contract deal. But emotions can be a wild card according to Wharton Sports Business Initiative director Kenneth L. Shropshire. During a recent Wharton presentation he talked about the non-financial incentives that helped seal contract deals with star athletes Alex Rodriguez Reggie White and others; his relationships with boxing promoter Don King and 1984 Olympics organizer Peter Ueberroth and the importance of personal relationships in getting deals done. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On February 25 2008 Adobe Systems launched version 1.0 of the Adobe Integrated Runtime or ”AIR ” which allows software programmers to use web-development tools to create desktop software applications that run on all the major operating systems: Windows Mac and -- coming soon -- Linux. For Adobe AIR is a big bet. At the launch event CEO Shantanu Narayen described AIR as Adobe’s ”fourth platform ” the next link in the chain that includes PostScript Acrobat and Flash. Adobe’s point man for AIR is Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch who recently spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about AIR’s importance to developers consumers and business users. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A decade ago when the Wharton Business Plan Competition (BPC) began the Internet dominated discussions about entrepreneurship. That was before the bubble burst and many dot.coms were revealed to be in the words of New Yorker writer John Cassidy little more than dot.cons. These days the new arena of interest is healthcare specifically biotech as evidenced by the number of biotech-related business plans submitted by the student entrepreneurs who competed in this year’s event. Knowledge at Wharton offers brief descriptions of the BPC’s ’Eight Great’ finalists. Good luck picking the winner. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For many of the world’s richest families SFOs -- Single Family Offices -- play an essential role in their investment strategy. SFOs manage the family financial portfolio and often provide other services such as handling children’s college applications or managing the family fleet of jets. Up until now however little has been known about these powerful entities. Yet new Wharton research shows that they play an important role in managing major investment portfolios guiding significant philanthropic endeavors and maintaining a core set of values across generations of extremely wealthy families. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Fashionable clothes jewelry flashy cars.... They are all items of conspicuous consumption that give their owners status on the street. Some groups such as blacks and Hispanics seem to spend more on such emblems of success than others. Or is that just a stereotype? In a new research paper Wharton finance professor Nikolai Roussanov and two co-authors found some truth to the ethnic stereotypes on spending but concluded that the explanation lies in economics not culture. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The controversy over carbon emissions is just one of several surrounding ExxonMobil -- a list that includes gasoline prices surging towards $4 a gallon the company’s push for expanded oil exploration and drilling and its high-profile war of wills with the president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez. Yet during a presentation as part of the Wharton Leadership Lecture series Donald D. Humphreys senior vice president and treasurer of the Irving Texas-based behemoth set out to erase what he said are widely held misconceptions about the powerful company that traces its roots back to the 19th century and John D. Rockefeller. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If China doesn’t take steps to prevent it a big black cloud may soon engulf its economic boom. The country is growing at a torrid rate but pollution from its hard-chugging industrial engine is expanding even faster according to energy experts at the recent 2008 Wharton China Business Conference. Chinese leaders however have some options including a method to capture the pollutants released when coal burns and coal gasification which transforms coal into a synthetic fuel that burns as cleanly as natural gas. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Can a company make money from the work of impoverished people in the developing world without taking advantage of them? For Patrick Byrne the answer is a qualified yes. Byrne believes that he has found a way for his company Overstock.com to benefit while it helps developing-world artisans connect with developed-world customers. But for Chuck Waterfield creator of Microfin -- a software program he wrote for microlenders -- the answer is a qualified no at least as it applies to Compartamos a well-known microfinance lender operating in Mexico. Both men spoke at this year’s University of Pennsylvania Microfinance Conference. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After Microsoft announced on May 3 that it will drop its $44.6 billion bid to acquire Yahoo many -- including experts at Wharton -- declared the decision to be a smart move. Microsoft they say has more pressing issues including the need to make its flagship operating system Vista more popular among customers as it competes for attention against its predecessor Windows XP and rivals such as Apple’s OS X. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The economy seems to be sinking toward recession with new home sales at their lowest since the early 1990s. At the same time inflation is picking up. Some Americans are paying $4 for a gallon of gas and coming home from the supermarket with sticker shock. Today the Fed deemed recession the bigger worry and cut short-term interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point from 2.25% to 2%. Was this the right choice? How will it affect the financial markets? Should investors bet on a stock market rebound or hide on the sidelines? Knowledge at Wharton put these questions to Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel author of The Future for Investors. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The scientific community now overwhelmingly agrees that earth’s 6.5 billion inhabitants are contributing to global warming through heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. While various industries are yielding to public pressure to address climate change new carbon emission regulatory regimes are coming soon and they will likely carry significant costs according to experts from business and academia who spoke at the recent First Annual Conference-Workshop on Business and the Environment which was organized by the Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) at Wharton/Penn. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Condos in Miami traditional music stores gas-guzzling cars pharmaceuticals that get unfavorable press foods made with trans fats: All marketers from time to time confront products that for whatever reason become difficult to sell. What strategies should companies follow to reposition their products in ways that might attract new audiences or at least retain existing ones? One answer: segmenting. ”There are so many different kinds of customers out there. You just need to find them ” says one Wharton expert. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A thorny question lies at the heart of meaningful health care reform. How much is human life worth? New Wharton research based on Medicare kidney dialysis data shows that the average figure -- $129 090 per additional year of quality life -- is higher than prior studies have shown. Perhaps more important the study also puts a value on the cost-effectiveness of treatment across percentiles of the entire dialysis population in an attempt to develop a benchmark for coverage decisions. Chris P. Lee a Wharton professor of operations and information management co-authored the paper titled ”An Empiric Estimate of the Value of Life: Updating the Renal Dialysis Cost-effectiveness Standard.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

While China’s manufacturing sector booms and people sock away money in savings accounts the country’s financial markets remain in their infancy according to international finance experts who gathered at the recent 2008 Wharton China Business Conference. One reason for the relative underdevelopment of China’s capital markets they note is the role of the country’s powerful central government. ”Regulators are not comfortable letting the market do its own work ” noted one conference participant. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Is selling police equipment to a notoriously brutal government tantamount to assisting in torture? William Schulz believes that it can be and that these types of sales are one of the principal ways in which businesses find themselves tangled up with torturers. During a presentation sponsored by Wharton’s Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research Schulz former executive director of Amnesty International and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress spoke about the challenges that companies face doing business with repressive governments. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Call it a gold rush of sorts. Gold topped out at more than $1 000 an ounce in mid-March up from about $680 a year ago. Although it dipped to just under $900 late in April it has had a tremendous run up from $350 five years ago. What has driven these price gains? What does gold tell us about the economy’s future? Should ordinary investors buy it? Knowledge at Wharton talks to the experts. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Richard Fain is chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises the Miami-based global cruise company that operates 36 ships under the Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International brands among others. He joined the company in 1981 as an outside director and became chairman and CEO in 1988. He spent 13 years before that at Gotass-Larsen Shipping Corp. a London-based owner and operator of cargo ships. Knowledge at Wharton asked him to update us on the cruise business. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ask any CEO or senior level executive what his or her biggest challenge is and the answer is almost always finding and keeping good people. Yet most executives fail to manage their company’s needs in a way that recognizes the unpredictability of the global marketplace. In a book titled Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty Peter Cappelli director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources proposes a new approach to this issue based on applying the principles of supply chain management to people. He and Joyce Bradley senior vice president and general manager Delaware Valley region of Lee Hecht Harrison spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about talent management including the challenges of managing employees in a recessionary economy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The ongoing takeover battle between Microsoft and Yahoo has taken several surprising turns over the past few weeks. After rejecting Microsoft’s unsolicited $44.6 billion offer in late February Yahoo has announced a two-week ad testing program with its main search rival Google and has reportedly entertained a possible merger with Time Warner’s AOL. Meanwhile Microsoft was rumored to be considering News Corp. as a possible ally in acquiring Yahoo. While spectators wait for the next twist in this saga another headline-making deal has been announced: a merger between Delta and Northwest Airlines to become the world’s largest airline. Knowledge at Wharton spoke with Wharton management professor Saikat Chaudhuri and Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach to find out whether these deals make sense and for whom. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Companies that use compensation consultants end up paying more to their CEOs leading to allegations that these consultants push for excessively high CEO packages because many of them profit from doing other work for the company. A recent Congressional committee report supported the idea that such conflicts drive up CEO pay. But a new Wharton study by accounting professor Mary Ellen Carter and two colleagues suggests that conflicts of interest between the consultant and the firm aren’t to blame. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.