Research

Enhancing Corporate Strategy

Posted on by Claire Hall
UConn Management Professor Timothy B. Folta (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
UConn Management Professor Timothy B. Folta (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

International Conference Organized by Professor Folta Yields Strategic Management Book

An international conference about resource redeployment in multi-business or multi-product firms, organized by UConn management professor Timothy B. Folta, has yielded a new book on the subject. Continue Reading

Towards Sovereign Equity

Posted on by Nancy White

Stanford Journal of Law, Business, and Finance, Vol. 21, No. 2 (2016)

Stephen Park, Tim R. Samples

Sovereigns are unique market participants in the global financial system, and sovereign debt markets largely operate in a legal and regulatory void. This Article adds an important and timely perspective by examining the concept of equity in sovereign debt finance. Governments, unlike corporations, rely almost exclusively on debt to externally finance their investments and operations. GDP-linked securities, which provide interest payments indexed to the sovereign issuer’s rate of growth, are sovereign debt instruments with certain equity-like characteristics. This Article considers whether innovation towards sovereign equity can help mitigate problems associated with sovereign debt crises. To address this question, we analyze the use of GDP-linked securities in recent sovereign debt restructurings by Argentina, Greece, and Ukraine. Drawing on this analysis, we explore more broadly the legal implications of sovereign equity, and conclude that these applications offer opportunities to help manage sovereign finance in the absence of readily enforceable international financial regulation. Full article.

Contracting for Innovation and Innovating Contracts

Posted on by Nancy White

Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation (2016)

Thomas D. Barton, Gerlinde Berger-Walliser, Helena Haapio

This special issue of the Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation (JSCAN) is devoted to “contracting for innovation and innovating contracts.” From the inception of planning for the issue, the co-editors hoped to attract contributions from a full range of professionals engaged in contract theory and practice: research academics, contract managers, corporate executives, and legal counsel, plus what JSCAN Editor-in-Chief Tyrone Pitsis told us are called “pracademics:” those who straddle research and commercial environments, making concrete contributions through collaborative projects, experiments, interviews, software development, or theory-building. JSCAN is a natural publication outlet for such partnerships, since so many of the 40,000 worldwide members of the International Association of Contract and Commercial Management (JSCAN’s parent organization) are thought-leaders in every aspect of commercial contracting. Full article.

Subtle Bias Can Derail Results

Posted on by Claire Hall

crowdsourcing

If Not Well Managed, Crowdsourcing Contests Produce Undesirable Results, UConn Researchers Discover

Crowdsourcing firms and platform designers may need to revisit their strategies, according to UConn School of Business researchers, because the competitive nature of the work, eager newcomers trying to promote themselves, and subtle biases in presentations may be skewing the outcomes. Continue Reading

Myopic Views

Posted on by Claire Hall
Research by UConn management professors David Souder, left, and Greg Reilly confirms that businesses focusing on short-term results are 'leaving profits on the table.' (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
Research by UConn management professors David Souder, left, and Greg Reilly confirms that businesses focusing on short-term results are ‘leaving profits on the table.’ (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

UConn Professors Find Evidence that Short-Sighted Business Planning Costs Companies Money

When executives are committed to the long-term viability of their corporation, and invest money in future growth and technology that will not pay off right away, does that give the company a strong competitive advantage?

For years conventional wisdom said yes, even as many companies seemed focused on short-term results instead. New research by UConn management professors David Souder and Greg Reilly, and their colleagues, offers evidence that longer payoff horizons are indeed more profitable. Continue Reading

A Little White Lie – or Worse?

Posted on by Claire Hall

Lying?

UConn Researcher Discovers that Retail Execs Downplay, Mislead Outlook in Reports to Stockholders

Many CEOs from major U.S. retailers tend to soften, possibly even distort, their company’s financial standings and offer stakeholders pessimistic predictions about the future, even when their companies are thriving.Continue Reading

A Fast Track to Economic Growth?

Posted on by Claire Hall
Jeffrey Cohen, who specializes in real estate and finance, has received a $194,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation to start investigating economic changes along the CTfastrak bus route. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
Jeffrey Cohen, who specializes in real estate and finance, has received a $194,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation to start investigating economic changes along the CTfastrak bus route. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

Real Estate Professor Jeffrey Cohen Eager to Study Impact of New Transit System on Central Connecticut

Will the state’s new bus rapid-transit system – CTfastrak – which has already carried 4 million riders since its inaugural trip in March 2015, also spur growth in housing, restaurants, and other businesses along its route in central Connecticut?  Continue Reading

PROMESA and Puerto Rico’s Pathways to Solvency

Posted on by Melissa Ferrigno

Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation – Facing a self-declared “death spiral” of public debt, the Governor of Puerto Rico announced a debt moratorium earlier this year, halting payments to bondholders. A series of missed payments followed, including a landmark default on constitutionally guaranteed bonds in July. At the same time, Congress passed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA or “promise” in Spanish), which combines a debt restructuring system with federal controls over the island’s finances. But enacting PROMESA is only a first step. Coordination and engagement with creditors is the next step—and an even more complicated one—in Puerto Rico’s long journey towards solvency and fiscal stability.