Business & Entrepreneurship

StreeterThe European Union (EU) added 10 new member nations on May 1, enlarging the union to a total of 25 countries with a combined population of 458 million. The U.S., with a total population of 293 million is still the sole political and economic superpower of the world but may yet be challenged by the EU for that status, according to William J. Streeter, a professor of international business at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis.

The rise of corporate bankruptcies over the last few years has prompted legislators and academics alike to push for bankruptcy law reform. Fearing the death of legal liability, these reformers are calling for increased creditor protectionism through the weakening of limited liability and the reversal of “judgment proof” transactions such as the creation of special purpose entities (SPE) commonly used for the sequestering of assets. “Letting intellectual property (IP) assets slip into a bankruptcy estate is a dangerous idea,” says Troy Paredes, associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

The recently proposed rule by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) that requires companies to treat employee stock-option compensation as an expense on corporate income statements will reduce the reported income of firms, according to Todd Milbourn, a professor of finance at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. The new rule, if finalized after a 90-day comment period, will go into effect next year.

As the Securities and Exchange Commission debates new rules that would require mutual funds to disclose how fund portfolio managers are compensated, research by two scholars at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis shows that money manager pay is more influenced by the success of their firm than the investment performance of their clients. The survey of portfolio managers finds that firm success-factors such as firm profitability have more impact on portfolio managers’ bonuses than client success factors like investment performance, though managers are more likely to be dismissed for poor investment performance.

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HarringtonThe uncertain economy of the last few years has some wondering if American innovation and ingenuity is in decline, but not Kenneth Harrington and Robert Skandalaris. Harrington, director of the Skandalaris Entrepreneurship Program at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and Skandalaris, founder and Chairman of Noble International Ltd, are collaborating on a book on entrepreneurship and find it alive and well. But in a recent article, they caution that “people, organizations, institutions, and governments that don’t have a strategy to lead in entrepreneurial innovation will be displaced or at serious risk of becoming obsolete.” The Washington University business school launches its 2004 Olin Cup Entrepreneurship Competition this month with special events, speakers, and workshops. Washington University recently received a major grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to expand entrepreneurship education campus-wide.

ScholesMyron S. Scholes, world-renowned financial economist and co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Economic Science, will speak on “Financial Innovation in a Chaotic Environment” at 11:30 a.m. April 8 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom, Anheuser-Busch Hall.

Washington University in St. Louis will launch its 2004 Olin Cup Entrepreneurship Competition with kickoff events on April 1 and April 13 on the Washington University Hilltop and Medical campuses. The Olin Cup Kickoff events are free and open to the public. Washington University’s Skandalaris Entrepreneurship Program sponsors the Olin Cup Competition, that later this year will award a total of $70,000 in seed investment to the winners. Throughout the year, the Competition will hold over 50 workshops and other events, to promote learning, collaboration, and team formation. The events contribute to the goal of the Competition, to support the creation of new ventures.

Executives will meet March 22 at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education CenterThe John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis will hold a half-day conference on March 22 for executives of large and mid-cap companies interested in partnering with the business school. William Finnie, Interim Director of ExecEdge Corporate Education at the Olin School of Business, said that the business school is forming a consortium of leading Midwest companies to partner with the Olin School in a wide range of areas, including executive education, degree programs, and career development.

WarrenThe United States’ recent economic slowdown has been punctuated by some of the largest bankruptcies in history, including Enron and WorldCom. Leading academics and prominent practitioners will examine the fallout of these bankruptcies at the F. Hodge O’Neal Corporate and Securities Law Symposium April 2 at the Washington University School of Law.