Knowledge@wharton

Free gourmet food 24-hour gym yoga classes in-house doctor on-site haircuts dry cleaner nutritionist swimming pool ... .These are just some of the perks Google -- and many other organizations -- offer employees. Companies have their reasons of course: They want to attract and retain the best knowledge-workers they can help them work long hours by feeding them gourmet meals on-site and handling time-consuming personal chores and show them that they are valued members of the team. But as Wharton faculty point out there may be a potential downside to all this largesse. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Verizon is betting billions of dollars on a new fiber-optic network that could transform it from a telephone company to a cutting-edge technology player. If the strategy works the company could leapfrog over rivals such as AT&T and Comcast by offering faster Internet service and potentially richer video on demand. But if Verizon’s fast network fails to entice consumers the company will have created a multi-billion-dollar boondoggle. Wharton faculty and others examine the two different scenarios. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Throughout its 25-year history Adobe Systems has introduced a series of innovations that the company has turned into successful commercial products -- from its PostScript printer language to leading software applications like Illustrator Photoshop and Adobe Acrobat. Now Adobe may be poised to transform the next generation of web technologies. How does Adobe remain innovative? Can innovation be systematically sustained? How does the company organize its exploration of new technologies? Knowledge at Wharton recently spoke with Adobe senior vice president and chief software architect Tom Malloy to learn how Adobe has sustained innovation for two and a half decades. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you go to Amazon.com and search for books about venture capital you get 14 114 responses which include many text books. Andrew Metrick a professor of finance at Wharton has just written a new book on the subject titled Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation. Unlike the thousands of other books though this one offers a different approach especially in areas such as valuing startup companies and IPOs by bridging the gap between finance fundamentals and venture capital practice. Knowledge at Wharton spoke to Metrick about his new book and also about the increasing power and presence of hedge funds. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If everything you knew about office life came from NBC’s serial mockumentary ”The Office ” you would be forgiven for thinking romance is the main spice of workplace life. Yet the hit show confirms with satire what recent studies have demonstrated with numbers: Romances shape office life and human resource departments don’t have much to say about it. But given the potential fallout from workplace relationships companies retreat on this issue at their own risk suggest a number of experts. As one HR professional puts it: ”There is a feeling of resignation among HR people. Mostly they close their eyes and hope for the best.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The announcement that Halliburton the Houston Tex.-based oil services company was moving its headquarters to Dubai may have surprised many Americans. But for people in Dubai it simply ratified decades of hard work. Led by the billionaire known today as ”Dubai’s CEO ” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Dubai’s ruling family has invested heavily in the infrastructure of a modern economy. So far their efforts have been impressive although observers warn of a possible real estate bubble among other concerns. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Climate change. Middle East instability. International terrorism. Oil price shocks. Weapons of mass destruction. The world is fast becoming a riskier place and the days of wait-and-see are no longer an option says the World Economic Forum’s recently released Global Risks 2007 report. The report published in cooperation with Wharton’s Risk Management and Decision Processes Center identifies 23 core risks -- most of which have worsened over the last year despite growing awareness of their consequences. It also underscores a growing disconnect between the power of these risks to disrupt the world and our ability to mitigate them. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Economist called it ”a snort from a dragon’s nostrils.” At the end of February as China’s stock market index fell by more than 8% stock markets tumbled around the globe in their steepest decline since the attacks on September 11 2001. Adding to the anxiety were concerns about a possible shakeout in the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan’s comment that the U.S. economy could face a recession. Since then markets have recovered only to drop again and then climb once more. What is causing this volatility and what does it mean for investors? Knowledge at Wharton asked for comments from Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel whom we spoke with first and Wharton management professor Marshall Meyer who closely follows China’s economy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

According to a new study by Wharton professors Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers marriage and divorce rates in the United States are both at historic lows. When Stevenson and Wolfers began to analyze the changing market forces behind these new statistics one thing became clear: The same forces that play a role in marriage and divorce statistics -- namely birth control partial closing of the gender wage gap the rising age of first marriages and dramatic changes in home technologies -- have also had a significant impact on businesses and employees. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As recently as 1990 nearly 70% of newspaper carriers in the U.S. were teens. But that number dropped to 18% in 2004 and more declines are likely. Although reasons for teens being edged out of this formerly youth-dominated profession are specific to the newspaper industry the end of the boyhood (or girlhood) paper route reflects a dramatic but little-noticed trend: Teen unemployment has hit historic highs in the last three years. Experts in the field say employers who want to ensure a quality workforce down the line should sit up and take notice. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kenneth Shropshire knows sports. He is director of Wharton’s Sports Business Initiative president of the Sports Lawyers Association a former executive with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and a football player during his undergraduate days at Stanford. He has written The Business of Sports; In Black and White: Race and Sports in America and Basketball Jones: America Above the Rim. His newest book is titled Being Sugar Ray: The Life of Sugar Ray Robinson America’s Greatest Boxer and First Celebrity Athlete. He spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about why he wrote the book and what impact Sugar Ray Robinson has had on sports society race relations and business. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When the Lilliputians came upon the sleeping Gulliver they didn’t know if he was friendly or hostile but he was so big it seemed prudent to tie him down. Should the 9 000 hedge funds -- the secretive investment pools controlling $1.4 trillion in assets -- be treated the same way? The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets doesn’t think so. In a late-February report the group urged vigilance but concluded that new regulations are not needed. Was this the right decision? Wharton faculty weigh in on the issue. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Viacom and CBS have pulled videos from Google’s YouTube. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently requested that some Oscar footage be taken down from YouTube as well. And Google’s efforts to sell radio and print advertising have not met expectations. In short Google’s ability to navigate the traditional media landscape doesn’t seem to be going particularly well. What’s the problem? While Google has the resources to create deals with content companies it still must contend with a number of confounding crosscurrents including content owners’ concerns over intellectual property and a clash of advertising models. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In one sense Frank Abagnale Jr. might seem an odd choice as a featured speaker at a cutting-edge computer-ruled event like the Wharton Technology Conference 2007. That’s not just because Abagnale -- the subject of the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie ”Catch Me If You Can” -- was one of the most notorious con men of the 20th century but also because his technique was so decidedly low-tech. But that was in fact part of Abagnale’s message: Vigilance against fraudsters and con artists he said should be even more of a priority now than it was then because Abagnale’s 1960s schemes were harder work. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has set an ambitious goal: He wants the country to become one of the world’s top 20 economies during the next two decades. To accomplish this he has mandated that all university students in Nigeria study entrepreneurship. That is one of the factors that brought Peter Bamkole General Manager Enterprise Development Services at Lagos Business School to Wharton where he recently spent time with The Wharton Small Business Development Center exploring how to set up an entrepreneurship program in Nigeria. Bamkole -- who often goes by the more informal ”Banky” -- spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about the challenges that entrepreneurs face in his home country. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The issue of using hardware- or software-based digital rights management or ”DRM” to restrict how music and movies can be copied or shared has spurred fierce debate between those who think DRM is essential to protect content from unauthorized use and those who believe it undermines consumers’ rights to do whatever they want with the content they purchase. On February 6 Apple CEO Steve Jobs added to the controversy by posting an open letter on Apple’s web site in which he proposes that the recording industry simply do away with DRM all together. Knowledge at Wharton asked marketing professor Peter Fader and Don Huesman senior director of information technology for their views on the subject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On Monday the country’s two satellite radio services -- Sirius and XM -- announced that they had finally agreed to merge. The move raises a number of questions not the least of which is whether they can get this deal approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. But regulatory issues aside what prompted these two archrivals to embrace each other what do they expect to get out of it and what does a combined company mean for consumers who currently pay a subscription fee of $12.95 a month? Knowledge at Wharton asked for comments from Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader whom we talked with first and business and public policy professor Gerald Faulhaber. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Some media reports called it a Valentine’s Day gift to Wall Street. When Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before Congress on February 14 and 15 he gave an upbeat view of inflation and the economy setting off a strong rally in stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 87 points to 12 741.86. Bernanke told Congress that the economy seems to be moving to a slower but more sustainable rate of growth which suggests that the Fed will hold short-term interest rates steady at 5.25% where they have been since last summer. Will stocks continue to perform strongly? Knowledge at Wharton talked to Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel who predicted in his last podcast that the Fed was unlikely to raise interest rates anytime soon. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Imagine paying for your car only when it works. Or your television. Or even your high-end toaster. That might sound far-fetched but it could be the future model for purchases requiring service over time. According to research by two Wharton professors of operations and information management Morris Cohen and Serguei Netessine and doctoral student Sang-Hyun Kim this new approach to service supply chains is already reshaping customer-supplier relationships in defense and aerospace contracting under the name ”Performance-based Logistics” (PBL). It could have implications for certain retail sectors as well. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For months the steady drip of news about troubles in the subprime mortgage market didn’t seem too bad and many economists started to feel reassured about the health of the general housing market. But now some experts wonder whether those feelings of reassurance came too soon. They suggest that the growing number of borrower defaults in the ”aggressive lending” market which includes various types of risky mortgages besides subprime loans could shock the broader housing market and economy after all. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.