Stay ConnectedThe Knowledge at Wharton feed features standout episodes from across the Wharton Podcast Network. Discover timely conversations and expert insights on business, markets, leadership, innovation, and the forces shaping the global economy.
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Copyright: © 2013 The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Sam Zell the master real estate investor has built a fortune on the cycles that shape his industry. These days he believes the current turmoil in financial markets is more an emotional reaction to yet another period of excess rather than a true credit collapse. In a talk at Wharton moderated by real estate professor Peter Linneman the Chicago-based investor said markets currently are spooked by problems with U.S. subprime lending. However they still have capital to deploy unlike other real estate downturns. ”We’re not really in a ’credit crunch.’ I think what we are in is a ’confidence crunch ’” Zell told his audience.
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The sub-prime mortgage crisis and the credit crunch that has followed in its aftermath are taking their toll on the housing market. On August 28 the S&P Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index showed that home prices fell 3.2% in the second quarter. According to the National Association of Realtors the inventory of unsold homes is at a record high. As sales have fallen many home builders have seen their stock prices drop by more than 60% during the past year. How serious is this situation? Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Joseph Gyourko director of Wharton’s Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center and Todd Sinai a professor of real estate spoke to Knowledge at Wharton about these questions and more.
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As sales of Apple’s iPod Coca-Cola and North Face clothing show despite serious challenges from private label manufacturers and low-price global production branding remains an important way for consumers to choose among products in a crowded marketplace. Brands are a short-hand means of conveying quality and lower risk according to Wharton faculty and marketing analysts and they also play a growing role in building consumers’ identities. But these experts add with little room to compete on cost brands will need to be vigilant when it comes to differentiating themselves from increasingly sophisticated competitors.
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In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton one year ago Michael Dell declared his support of then-CEO Kevin Rollins indicated that supply chain efficiencies and direct sales gave the company a competitive edge and added that his namesake company was making great strides in customer service. What a difference a year makes. Michael Dell took over the reins from Rollins on January 31 and set out to remake the $57 billion Round Rock Tex. PC manufacturer. The effort comes as the company has lost its worldwide market share lead to Hewlett-Packard and faces competition from other PC manufacturers as well. While experts generally agree that Dell has made progress in some areas questions about its turnaround remain.
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”Risk” is a term that comes up frequently when people discuss medicine and health: What’s my risk of heart attack? Breast cancer? What’s my risk of dying from a complication of surgery? Or having a dangerous reaction to a drug? But according to Mark V. Pauly Wharton professor of health care systems consumers don’t necessarily use that term in the same way that medical and insurance experts do -- which is a potential pitfall that can lead to less than optimal health care decisions and faulty policymaking.
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The idea of ”McJobs”-- low-paying positions with little chance of advancement -- bothered the CEO of McDonald’s so much that when Merriam-Webster included the term in its dictionary in 2003 he wrote a public letter of protest. His plea went unheeded. ”McJobs” stayed. As this anecdote suggests the idea that franchises especially those in the fast-food sector create dead-end jobs is widespread. Yet in a new study Peter Cappelli director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources and colleague Monika Hamori challenge conventional wisdom and offer evidence that franchise jobs tend to be better than those in equivalent non-franchise operations.
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The quest for cool is never-ending. Accountants rev up their Harleys to the dismay of hard-core bikers. Soccer moms trade in minivans for hipper Land Rovers. Yellow rubber wristbands appear instantly then just as quickly disappear. There is a fine line between cool and not-so-cool -- a topic explored in a new paper Where Consumers Diverge from Others: Identity Signaling and Product Domains by Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger and co-author Chip Heath from Stanford. The researchers look at how consumers use products to signal membership in social groups but swiftly abandon those same products when the original message is diluted as other groups co-opt the trend.
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In August less than three months after the introduction of Apple’s iPhone a New Jersey teen announced that he had ”hacked” into the mobile-communications device. The hacker was clearly expressing the frustration that many consumers feel towards Apple for adopting a ”walled garden” -- as opposed to an ”open architecture” or ”open plain” -- corporate strategy. While the walled garden approach often restricts consumers’ ability to modify devices or marry them with other firms’ products and services the open architecture approach has its drawbacks as well. Wharton faculty and others look at the advantages and disadvantages -- for both consumers and companies -- of these two strategies.
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After weeks of skittishness and fear investors showed signs on Tuesday of settling down. ”Yesterday was one of the dullest days in the market that we’ve had in a while and that’s good in many ways ” says Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel. Investors have been reeling from widespread problems in the subprime sector stocks have fallen yields on Treasury securities have dropped and some companies are finding it hard to borrow money -- all of which spurred the Federal Reserve last week to announce a cut in interest rates. Meanwhile the upheaval has shown that quant funds despite their computer power aren’t immune to mistakes and market downturns. So what can we expect in the weeks ahead?
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For those entrepreneurs who want to run a company but prefer to skip the start-up stage search funds offer a possible alternative. A specialized form of private equity first launched in the mid-1980s search funds are becoming increasingly popular -- and their supporters claim they can offer investors attractive returns and business owners a compelling exit strategy. What does this trend in private equity mean for investors and for small businesses that might be acquisition targets for these funds? Robert Befidi Jr. and Mark Sinatra managing directors of Gordian Capital in New York City spoke to Knowledge at Wharton about the pros and cons of search funds.
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