Investor Sentiment and Stock Prices: Explaining the Ups and Downs
Posted on Wednesday May 09, 2012Academics, traders and money managers are forever trying to figure out what makes stocks rise and fall. Some influences are clear, like the price gain after a company reports strong earnings. But other behaviors are mystifying. For example, why do shares of companies with fast asset growth sometimes do better than expected according to standard measures like earnings? And why do they sometimes do worse? New research by Wharton finance professor Robert F. Stambaugh and two colleagues shows that market-wide investor sentiment is a key influence in such stock return anomalies.
State of the Unions: What It Means for Workers -- and Everyone Else
Posted on Wednesday May 09, 2012Labor unions have long had a position of prominence in American business and political life. But their influence has been on the decline in recent decades as membership ranks have dwindled. The increasing irrelevance of unions will have far-reaching implications, Wharton experts and others say, including the loss of one of the few ways that working class Americans can engage in the political process and become educated about labor laws. Corporations will feel the effects as well -- and they won't necessarily be positive, experts add.
Etsy Seeks Scale without Losing Its 'Street Fair' Aesthetic
Posted on Wednesday May 09, 2012Etsy was launched as a ragtag website for artists and craftspeople to sell their wares. Today, it has become one of the Internet's most prominent tastemakers. As the company grows, experts caution that it must be careful not to alienate its faithful shop owners and customers by going too commercial and straying from its independent, artsy roots, or by becoming bogged down in privacy and seller credibility concerns.
Everyone's Problem: Looking Beyond the Wal-Mart Bribery Case
Posted on Wednesday May 09, 2012In a case that continues to reverberate across borders, Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s largest retailer, announced recently that it has started its own probe into allegations that executives at its Mexican operations made hundreds of illegal payments to help expedite the opening of new stores. According to legal and ethics experts at Wharton and elsewhere, the case raises broader questions about how multinational companies conduct business in foreign countries.
Declining Employee Loyalty: A Casualty of the New Workplace
Posted on Wednesday May 09, 2012If loyalty is defined as being faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution or product, then there seems to be a certain amount of infidelity in the workplace these days. The 10th annual survey of employee benefits, trends and attitudes released in March by MetLife puts employee loyalty at a seven-year low and says one in three employees plans to leave his or her job by the end of the year. Wharton faculty and others look at the evolving relationship between employees and employers.
Special Report: Europe Struggles to Hold Itself Together
Posted on Wednesday May 09, 2012Dramatic economic and financial developments in Europe never seem to quit. In the latest news, several eurozone countries have slipped back into recession, bringing a backlash against austerity policies into full swing. Now, the election of Socialist President Francois Hollande in France may offer a path to more growth-oriented policies, but big questions remain about which ones are economically -- and politically -- viable. To help clarify the implications for business and investors, Knowledge@Wharton has prepared a special report on the challenges facing Europe.
Saving Southern Europe's 'Lost Generation' of Jobless Youth
Posted on Wednesday May 09, 2012In Spain and Greece, more than 50% of young people between 18 and 24 are out of work. In Italy and Portugal, the number is close to 30%. This represents a social and economic disaster that could have devastating consequences for Southern Europe, rippling outward toward the rest of the continent and the world. Experts at Wharton and elsewhere say outdated labor regulations combined with a slow economy have contributed to the problem. But even if labor laws are restructured, a solution will be hard to work out, all the more so now that many countries in Europe have slipped back into recession.
Mario Monti's Long March to Get the Italian Economy on Its Feet
Posted on Wednesday May 09, 2012Mario Monti, the economist whose government replaced the Berlusconi administration in Italy last December, brings a technocrat’s view to the task of reviving the country’s economy. According to experts from Wharton and elsewhere, this task will be made easier by the fact that the Italian economy is in better shape than that of countries like Greece. Still, Monti faces enormous challenges, and major structural reform will be needed.
What Hollande's Election Means for the Eurozone
Posted on Wednesday May 09, 2012In the aftermath of the election of Socialist Francois Hollande as the new president of France, eurozone austerity policies in Europe, which many now blame for pushing much of the Continent back into recession, appear likely to be loosened. At the same time, at least some complementary growth-oriented policies may be introduced. Big questions remain, however: What will these changes look like, and how much difference will they make? (Article with podcast)
How Emotional Intelligence Helps the Bottom Line
Posted on Thursday May 03, 2012In this third and final segment of the interview with Chade-Meng Tan, best selling author of Search Inside Yourself, Knowledge@Wharton explores the relationship between emotional intelligence and financial performance. According to Meng, companies as diverse as GE, Patagonia, Zappos, Genentech, American Express and MetLife have seen positive business results through practices based on emotional intelligence. Mindfulness can also help laid off job seekers find work faster.