Knowledge at Wharton

For nearly two decades consulting firms technology companies R&D-driven corporations and other knowledge-intensive organizations have made significant investments in ”knowledge management” initiatives. These initiatives are intended to facilitate the capture and transfer of company expertise as a way to spur learning and innovation. But research by Wharton management professor Martine Haas and a colleague indicates that knowledge sharing efforts often fail to result in improved task outcomes inside organizations -- and may even hurt project performance. Their research is presented in a paper titled ”Different Knowledge Different Benefits: Toward a Productivity Perspective on Knowledge Sharing in Organizations.”

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Turn on the Internet pick up your telephone or cell phone read a newspaper or watch television: No matter what the communication vehicle is polls and the reporting of poll results are ubiquitous. Yet how accurate are polls? Can they be manipulated? How do the Internet and the proliferation of cell phone users affect both marketing and political polls? And which polls are the most reliable? Knowledge at Wharton interviewed the experts.

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When Merrill Lynch reported solid second-quarter earnings last July chairman and CEO Stan O’Neal sent employees a memo boasting about the firm’s risk management prowess. Only three months later Merrill Lynch took its historic $8.4 billion write-down for losses in mortgage-related securities with Citigroup and others soon reporting unprecedented credit losses as well. If the capital markets are models of efficiency it is fair to ask how could such staggering losses happen? Two Wall Street titans -- Lloyd Blankfein chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs and Kenneth Moelis of Moelis & Co. -- addressed that question at the recent Wharton Finance Conference in New York City.

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It’s been a busy few weeks for Adobe Systems Microsoft and Google. All three have announced plans or new technologies that will address the latest vision of software’s future -- one that combines the features of web-based applications with desktop software to create a hybrid model offering the best of both worlds. Indeed the question today is not so much whether this desktop/webtop model will be adopted but rather which company will provide the best platform for implementing it. Knowledge at Wharton looks at both the opportunities and the limitations of this new approach.

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Kristine Tompkins former CEO of outdoor apparel company Patagonia pulled no punches with the audience attending her recent Wharton Leadership Lecture. Tompkins said that when she began working full-time at Patagonia in 1972 she didn’t understand how the actions of the business world as well as the behavior of individuals ”affected the very underpinnings” of the individual the family and the community. ”You know that now ” she said and ”the choices you make count more and more.” People who can manage ”the tough decisions and incorporate” difficult issues into their lives she said ”are the future leaders.”

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In an era of rising petroleum prices African oil is drawing new interest from major companies around the globe according to John Ghazvinian author of Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil who spoke at a recent event sponsored by the Wharton African Students Association. Companies Ghazvinian says see the continent as the most promising place in the world for new production. Yet due to an economic paradox known as the ”Resource Curse ” most Africans are realizing little benefit from this influx of oil drillers and investment: Between 1970 and 1993 the author notes ”countries without oil saw their economies grow four times faster than those of countries with oil.”

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Consolidation cutbacks and competition from the web -- these are the headlines grabbing the attention of business journalists around the world. Concerns about the quality of reporting and information have risen steadily as the industry has undergone dramatic changes. How has global expansion affected the standards of news organizations? What impact have blogs and ”citizen journalism” had on the industry? And what role does investigative journalism play in an age of around-the-clock cable news updates and shrinking budgets? To answer these and other questions Knowledge at Wharton spoke with four news professionals from the U.S. and abroad who attended the 2007 Wharton Seminars for Business Journalists.

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Oil is marching toward $100 a barrel largely due to China’s boom. Demand for ethanol is pushing corn prices up. Soybean prices are rising because so many bean fields have been switched to corn. In short prices of commodities worldwide are soaring making for frenzied action in commodities futures markets. New research by Wharton finance professor Gary Gorton and two colleagues shows how spot and futures prices are good indicators of low-inventory commodities which in turn can offer outsized investment gains. Their research is presented in a paper titled ”The Fundamentals of Commodity Futures Returns.”

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Entrepreneurs love to grumble about the roadblocks and delays created by bureaucrats. Government officials they say are slow bumbling and concerned only about sticking to the rules and clocking out at 4:55 p.m. But in a study of global entrepreneurship Raffi Amit and Mauro Guillen both Wharton management professors have found that a simple if smart bureaucratic initiative mattered critically in determining a country’s level of entrepreneurship.

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For marketers the Internet changes everything -- and nothing at all. For example it enables companies to instantly reach consumers in different countries and economically tailor messages to them based on demographics buying habits and other information. Yet it doesn’t free these companies from the constant challenge of building distinct durable brands. At the 2007 Wharton Marketing Conference participants on a panel titled ”The Challenge of Going Global and Staying Local ” debated the potential pitfalls of global marketing. A second panel discussed new media strategies and asked whether traditional off-line media are no longer effective.

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