Knowledge at Wharton

When consumers have a bad shopping experience they are likely to spread the word not to the store manager or salesperson but to friends family and colleagues. Overall if 100 people have a bad experience a retailer stands to lose between 32 and 36 current or potential customers. These are some of the conclusions of The Retail Customer Dissatisfaction Study 2006 conducted by The Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative at Wharton and The Verde Group a Toronto consulting firm in the weeks before and after Christmas 2005. The biggest source of consumer dissatisfaction? Parking lots. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Professional athletes face unusual challenges related to financial management especially since their peak earning period lasts a relatively short time often just a few years. Knowledge at Wharton asked Ken Shropshire professor of legal studies and business ethics and director of the Wharton sports business initiative to discuss this topic with Kailee Wong linebacker for the Houston Texans. Wong attended an executive education program at Wharton co-sponsored by the NFL and NFLPA. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Business leaders from two hot investment sectors -- real estate and energy -- discussed possible consolidation in their industries and other trends during two panels at the February 1 Wharton Economic Summit in New York City. The first panel entitled ”Real Estate: Where It’s at and Where It’s Headed. A Discussion with Three Legends ” included William Mack Sam Zell and Mortimer Zuckerman. The second panel ”The State of Energy Investing: What’s Fueling Consolidation? ” included a range of experts who debated the role of private equity and hedge funds in consolidation the rise of both global demand and global players the role of renewable energy and the possibility of a windfall profits tax on energy producers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It took prosecutors just over four years to work their way up the Enron food chain but now the failed energy company’s top former executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling are facing a jury in a federal criminal fraud trial expected to last at least four months. How can each side best present a complex story that involves exotic derivatives products off-books accounting and strange subsidiaries with names like Raptor? Experts say they should apply lessons learned in the other high-profile corporate fraud cases of the Enron era: Keep it simple. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos last month the extraordinary optimism of Asian -- especially Chinese and Indian -- leaders held center stage. For Michael Useem director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change it all felt very déjà vu: In the late 1990s a similarly exuberant spirit surrounded American business leaders. But the hubris of unbounded optimism can be dangerous warns Useem who spoke in three Forum sessions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The disclosure that author James Frey lied in his best-selling book A Million Little Pieces and the furor that followed raise numerous questions about truth in advertising trust between sellers and buyers brand image and reputation as well as two themes that Frey himself focused on in his now-discredited memoir of recovery from substance abuse -- suffering and redemption. How widespread is deception when is stretching the truth acceptable how jaded are consumers towards the claims made by advertisers and how credible was Oprah’s response to the Frey incident? Wharton experts offer their views on truth and fiction. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carl Icahn’s battle for Time Warner has just intensified. Icahn the corporate takeover specialist attempting to win control of the media giant held a press conference yesterday to announce a plan to break Time Warner into four separate companies and buy back $20 billion in stock -- all part of his crusade to oust management for the benefit of shareholders. His press conference followed a speech last week at the 2006 Wharton Economic Summit in which he denied that he is an ”imperial shareholder” out to rip companies apart for quick gains. Icahn was responding to remarks made earlier at the Summit by corporate lawyer Martin Lipton who argued that a new breed of aggressive shareholder is pressuring companies to produce short-term gains at the expense of long-term growth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since announcing on October 6 2004 that it had signed Howard Stern to a five-year deal Sirius Satellite Radio has added approximately 2.7 million subscribers and become a household name in the satellite radio world. The tab: Close to $700 million. Is Stern worth it? Can the popular and raunchy talk show host catapult Sirius ahead of rival XM Satellite Radio or are there other issues to consider such as the threat of new technologies the need to provide good content and the continuing popularity of conventional radio? Wharton faculty and others debate the different strategies of Sirius and XM and the challenges that both face. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The emergence of China and India figured prominently at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos last month. In India’s case however another factor also was at work. Determined not to be overshadowed Indian business and government leaders spent some two years and $4 million planning an elaborate branding campaign to ensure that the ”India story” got prominent play and did not get lost amid the chatter at Davos. How does a country go about building its brand though such PR campaigns? And how can outcomes be measured to see if the campaign worked? Wharton professors who were at Davos and Indian business and government leaders say that while India’s campaign at the summit was impressive the country will now have to walk the talk on infrastructure investments and policy reforms if it wants to retain its credibility. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cell phones that do email take photos and surf the web. Cars with options ranging from built-in satellite radio to rain-sensing wiper blades. While a seemingly endless variety of new products may delight consumers it makes inventory management as dicey as predicting what a teenager will want for her birthday next year. The problem say Wharton professor Serguei Netessine and Wharton doctoral student Serguei Roumiantsev is that no one knows how to measure the quality of supply chain management using companies’ publicly available financial data. In a recent paper entitled ”Should Inventory Policy Be Lean or Responsive? Evidence for U.S. Public Companies ” the two researchers provide ”a statistical methodology that links managerial decisions related to inventory with accounting returns.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apple’s iPod again ruled beneath the Christmas tree in 2005 after the latest model of the iconic music player was outfitted with a video screen. And as the new year begins a long-anticipated era of convergence in consumer technology products draws closer according to Wharton faculty and technology analysts. Meanwhile cell phones that play video e-mail delivered to handheld computers telephone conversations over the PC -- and hundreds of other glimpses into Christmas future -- were on display at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week where the stepped-up presence of digital giants including Microsoft Google Yahoo and Intel signaled their ever-increasing interest in expanding from the office into consumers’ living rooms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Compensation for American CEOs has soared over the past decade far exceeding inflation and wage gains of ordinary workers -- and leading critics to charge that self-serving insiders have tilted the playing field at shareholders’ expense. In response the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 17 took the first step toward adopting rules to better show shareholders how much their top executives and directors are paid. Will that drive executive pay down? Probably not say several Wharton professors arguing that executive pay is not necessarily as excessive as the most extreme cases suggest. Still they agree that more complete disclosure would improve the system. As one expert puts it: ”When people are forced to undress in public they pay attention to their figures.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Walt Disney announced yesterday that it is acquiring Pixar the animated film studio that has made such hits as The Incredibles Finding Nemo and Toy Story. As part of the $7.4 billion deal Pixar’s founder Steve Jobs will become a Disney board member and also its biggest shareholder. In an audio-only interview Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader speaks with Mukul Pandya editor-in-chief of Knowledge at Wharton and Robbie Shell editorial director about the implications of this deal not just for the two companies involved but for the whole media and entertainment industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

China’s securities industry is just one of the sectors moving ahead at a dizzying pace as the country readies itself for full entry into the World Trade Organization this year according to participants in the recent Wharton Global Business Forum’s Asia Conference. Not surprisingly China dominated discussion at the conference with many speakers noting the speed with which the country is advancing. But growth is not just confined to China. The 21st century said one panelist will be the ”Asian century ” powered by among other things a highly educated and motivated population and increased travel and tourism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Big media players are accustomed to watching the ratings for the most popular music video and book content but perhaps they should pay more attention to how consumers feel about three letters at the bottom of most charts -- DRM which stands for digital rights management. Broadly defined DRM encompasses multiple technologies that control the use of software music movies or any other piece of digital content. But media companies are risking a consumer backlash by deploying overzealous systems with draconian restrictions say experts at Wharton who also question whether DRM is worth the effort whether it will survive and what the best approach is for balancing the rights of consumers with the rights of content creators. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.