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Fall 2007 |
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Twice per year, the Villanova School of Business releases
VSBusiness, a free e-newsletter that keeps you updated on
exciting topics in business, innovative research, and fresh
ideas from VSB’s faculty thought leaders. Headlines are below,
along with convenient links to more information on topics of
interest to you. |
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Topics: Innovation/Economic Growth
Research Release Date:
July 2007 |
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Scott Newbert
and his coauthors examine the impact of
university R&D expenditures on the creation
of new firms, job growth, and business
innovation within labor market areas
nationwide. They find that new knowledge
is often exploited more to the economic
advantage of small firms, as opposed to the
larger corporations for which university R&D
funding is typically intended. This is
due to smaller firms’ ability to swiftly
respond to new knowledge. However, Newbert
and his colleagues also find that the rapid
growth of new, innovative firms normally
exceeds the supply of skilled and unskilled
employees, thereby requiring the importation
of new workers into the respective region
and an increase in local population. This
increased population consequently increases
general demand for goods and services of all
kinds within the labor market area, causing
new firms (both innovative and
non-innovative) to be born and/or forcing
existing firms to grow in order to meet this
demand.
Read more… |
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Topics:
Management/Ethics
Research Release Date: Fall 2007 |
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Kevin Clark,
Narda Quigley,
and
Stephen Stumpf
explore the effects of mixed management
messages on ethical decision making in
teams. They find that teams that are
framed or primed—by executive management—for
a particular perspective appear to focus
their efforts in that direction. Thereby,
through framing and priming, teams
predominantly emphasize a profit-driven
stockholder focus or a corporate social
responsibility-driven stakeholder focus.
In mixed message situations, however, when
framing and priming messages are
inconsistent, teams become highly motivated
to balance dual outcomes, create stretch
goals, and achieve better results.
Read
more… |
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Topics: Higher Education/E-Learning
Research Release Date: Fall 2007 |
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Noah Barsky
and
Anthony Catanach
discuss the use of e-learning technologies
to transform the educational value chain.
Their research explores the ability of
e-learning technologies to drive educational
quality, market analyses, curricular
innovation, content delivery, and assessment
mechanisms. They find that e-learning
platforms in managerial accounting courses
yield benefits including reduced cheating,
location flexibility, grading accuracy,
faster feedback for students, and permanent
exam records. Based upon the course system
implemented by Barsky and Catanach, 87
percent of students believe that e-learning
tools improve the overall quality of their
learning experience.
Read more… |
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Topics:
Macroeconomics/Federal Reserve Policy
Research Release Date: Summer 2007 |
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Scott Dressler
and
Victor Li
investigate
the correlation between US output (GDP) and
household and business investment to explain
four empirical observations of business
cycles. In their study, they create a model
of the interaction between households,
businesses, and credit markets in
competitive markets to assess the impact of
monetary policy on the behavior of each.
Dressler and Li find that their model is
capable of replicating these accepted
observations when a business cycle is
triggered by a monetary tightening, and in
practice, their model suggests the possible
economic outcomes of a Federal Reserve
response to the current sub-prime mortgage
crisis.
Read more… |
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Topics: Economics/Government Policy
Research Release Date:
Forthcoming 2008 |
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Suzanne Clain
conducts a study to test the efficacy of
living wage legislation in reducing poverty.
She examines data from 42 US counties where
a significant municipality has adopted this
legislation, and finds evidence that local
living wage legislation modestly reduces
poverty rates. Clain finds that state
minimum wage legislation may result in
unfavorable market corrections for prices,
demand, and employment levels, whereas
municipal living wage legislation is more
insulated from these changes due to
protection provided by contracts that commit
local governments to paying the higher costs
associated with the wage mandate.
Read more… |
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Topics:
Bioeconomics/Corporate Social Responsibility
Research Release Date: Fall 2007 |
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Ronald Paul Hill
views CSR through the lens of
bioeconomics, using the principles of
natural science to study corporations.
While the competitive behavior that defines
the character of free-enterprise democracy
has served to create a climate of isolation
and suspicion, bioeconomic models
recognize that the interconnectedness among
entities in nature depends upon predictable
behavior that preserves the integrity of the
ecosystem. Hill concludes that while a
more symbiotic and organic view of
organizations has led to a significant shift
in the way these organizations define and
measure the impact of their activities,
further advances in CSR must be made in the
areas of trust and relationship building.
Read more… |
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For more info, contact:
Andrea Carter
Villanova School of Business
610-519-6715 |
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