Author: Neil Schoenherr

Coco Chanel never took a marketing class, but she’s helping teach one this semester at Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis. Students in the new course, “Luxury Apparel-Marketing B53” are examining case studies of brands that make up the $237 billion industry that has its roots in Chanel’s famous perfume and little black dress.

Seethu Seetharaman, PhD, W. Patrick McGinnis Professor of Marketing at Olin Business School will speak May 17 in Kansas City about marketing in the digital age.

Greece’s credit rating was reduced two levels to BB- by Standard & Poor’s this week, which said further reductions are possible as the risk of the country’s default increases. How can a nation facing its most severe economic crisis since the restoration of democracy in 1974 climb out of this deep recession? Reform may require a substantial weakening of labor unions in Greece, says an economist at Washington University in St. Louis who has studied the Greek economy.

Despite efforts to freeze non-security discretionary spending, the budgets of federal regulatory agencies are increasing in both 2011 and 2012. The estimated cost of running regulatory agencies in fiscal year 2011 is $54.9 billion, a 5.7 percent increase over 2010 spending, according to a new study from the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis.

Mahendra Gupta, PhD, dean of Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, will host a roundtable discussion May 9 with business leaders, as well as a contingent from Shanghai, on opportunities for increased two-way trade and investment between Shanghai and the central United States and actions to help grow those relationships. Members of the media are invited to attend a reception following the roundtable where participants will be available to answer questions.

A trio of Olin Business School researchers — Radhakrishnan Gopalan, PhD, assistant professor of finance; Todd Milbourn, PhD, the Hubert C. and Dorothy R. Moog Professor of Finance; and Anjan Thakor, PhD, the John E. Simon Professor of Finance — says companies have not previously had the proper tools for determining how to pay executives and have developed a formula that businesses can use to align the duration, or payout, of an executive’s compensation with the strategic needs of the company.

Despite all the “irrational exuberance” April 26 surrounding the first-ever news conference conducted by a Federal Reserve bank chair, the issues that Chairman Ben Bernanke chose to dance around were equally unsurprising as those he managed to address, says Michele Boldrin, PhD, the chair of the Department of Economics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Nick S. Argyres, PhD, the Vernon W. and Marion K. Piper Professor of Strategy at Olin Business School, straddles two worlds, balancing his role as professor and researcher with his position as senior associate dean of faculty.

Pinelopi Goldberg, PhD, the William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Economics at Yale University, will address “Exchange Rates & Prices: A Micro Approach” for the Distinguished Women in Economics & Strategy lecture series at 4 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, in Simon Hall, Room 103. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by WUSTL’s Center for Research in Economics & Strategy.

Ken Harrington (second from right), managing director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, jokes with members of team Edele, which was awarded $10,000 from the center and the $5,000 student prize during the annual YouthBridge Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition April 14 in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium. Edele means “opportunity” in Amharic and is a social enterprise selling running apparel with the proceeds funding organizations addressing malnutrition in developing nations.