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18 Nov - 1 Dec
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What's Hot
Lessons from Brazil: Why Is It Bouncing Back While Other Markets Stumble?
The sense of optimism in Brazil is palpable and it's not just because the country is getting ready to host soccer's World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. Brazil's economy was the first in Latin America to stage a recovery following the global economic crisis -- in the second quarter of this year. What has helped Brazil to remain so resilient while other markets are still struggling? And what can it do to maintain economic growth and become, as the World Bank predicts, the world's fifth-largest economy by 2016?
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The Bond Swap: Argentina Takes a Step Toward Returning To the International Arena
With plans under way to re-launch its bond swap program, Argentina's government is hoping to leave behind the remnants of 2001's economic crisis, which has damaged the country's reputation with investors and blocked its access to international credit markets ever since. The program is a critical part of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's ability to manage the country's mounting debt, which is some US$150 billion today and includes US$30 billion owed bondholders since 2001. For it to succeed, the government will also have to improve relations with the International Monetary Fund and refinance its debt with the Paris Club of creditor nations, experts say. Even so, will all this help Argentina rehabilitate its reputation internationally?
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Will IT Play a Role in Latin America's Economic Recovery?
Next year, the American multinational General Electric and UST Global, an IT outsourcing company, will be joining forces to open a new software-development center. But the joint venture (JV) won't be based in the usual global high-tech hotbeds of, say, Silicon Valley or Bangalore, as one might expect. Rather they're opening the centre in the Chilean coastal town of Viña del Mar. Called Genshare, the center will involve a US$30 million investment and is expected to provide some 1,000 new jobs over five years. Will IT investments such as Genshare's spur the economic recovery of Chile and the rest of Latin America? Universia Knowledge@Wharton turns to IT and engineering professors from across Chile to get their views.
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Fit for the Holidays: Amazon Is Shaping Up and Shipping Out
Amazon.com enters the holiday shopping season with enviable strength. The financials at the world's biggest online retailer are looking better than ever while it is finding new ways to muscle in on the competitive advantages traditionally enjoyed by conventional bricks-and-mortar retailers -- including its recent launch of same-day shipping in seven major U.S. cities. But as Amazon grows, competitors are still giving it a run for its money, according to e-commerce and marketing experts at Wharton.
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Why Improving Global Health Care Is Everyone's Responsibility
Throughout the developing world, infectious disease and chronic illnesses confront more than one billion people living in poverty. To make significant strides in global health, governments and for-profit and non-profit businesses must find a way to foster innovative, breakthrough solutions not only to treat illnesses, but also to improve the delivery of health care itself. Nobel Prize winners and global health care experts will be exploring these issues during a Festival of Thinkers panel titled, Future Well-Being: Towards a Healthier World.
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New Approaches to New Markets: How C.K. Prahalad's Bottom of the Pyramid Strategies Are Paying Off
Five years ago, C.K. Prahalad published a book titled, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, in which he argues that multinational companies not only can make money selling to the world's poorest, but also that undertaking such efforts is necessary as a way to close the growing gap between rich and poor countries. Key to his argument for targeting the world's poorest is the sheer size of that market -- an estimated four billion people. How has Prahalad's book -- a revised, fifth-anniversary edition of which has just been published -- affected the behavior of companies and the well-being of consumers in the years since its publication? Knowledge@Wharton checked in with the author for an update, including examples of specific companies that are implementing Bottom of the Pyramid strategies.
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Avoiding the Agony of a 'Bogey': Loss Aversion in Golf -- and Business
Tiger Woods and other golf superstars who stand to win millions on inch-long putts apparently are subject to the same fear and aversion to risk that can afflict investors and managers. According to new research by two Wharton faculty members, even the best golfers systematically miss the opportunity to score a "birdie" -- when a player sinks a ball in one stroke less than the number of expected strokes for a given hole -- out of fear of having a "bogey" -- or taking one stroke more than what is expected. Playing it safe, however, has its own costs -- in golf and in business, the researchers say.
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