Business & Entrepreneurship

Richards”The Tenth Circuit’s decision upholding the constitutionality of the ‘Do Not Call’ registry is a straightforward application of the Supreme Court’s past rulings on commercial speech,” says Neil M. Richards, an expert in the fields of privacy law and constitutional law and an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “Telemarketers are a business like any other, and when they engage in abusive and annoying conduct in their attempt to sell its products, they should be subject to consumer protection regulation just like any other business.”

The European Union (EU) will impose trade sanctions on billions of dollars of U.S. goods starting March 1 if Congress fails to repeal an export subsidy ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The export subsidy provision — known as the “extraterritorial income” deduction — gives U.S. companies a big leg up on competitors, but is paid for by the U.S. taxpayer, said William J. Streeter, a professor of international business at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. Streeter says legislation to repeal the export subsidy that has yet to be passed by Congress is projected to save U.S. taxpayers $80 billion over the next decade, but will be offset by lower corporate taxes on the earnings of U.S. firms abroad.

Photo by Joe Angeles / WUSTL PhotoThe Truster hand-held “Emotion Reader.”Voice-stress analysis, an alternative to the polygraph as a method for lie detection, is already widely used in police and insurance fraud investigations. Now, however, it is being touted as a powerful and effective tool for an array of new applications — everything from screening potential terrorists in the nation’s airports to catching wayward spouses in messy marital disputes. Despite its booming popularity, recent federally sponsored studies have found little evidence that existing voice-stress technologies are capable of consistently detecting lies and deceptions. “You could have gotten better results by flipping a coin,” says Washington University in St. Louis psychologist Mitchell S. Sommers, lead investigator on a recent voice-stress study.

Determining the right pricing strategy can make or break the overall profitability of a firm. One such strategy, dynamic pricing, long practiced in the airline and hotel industries, is showing promise and profitability in the world of retail. When applied to products sold over a short sales season—new toys, skiwear, and the like— dynamic pricing can boost profits for a firm, according to research recently conducted by two professors at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis.

Super Bowl XXXVIII is over, but the Super Bowl ads — which cost a cool $2.3 million for a 30-second ad — are still battling it out. For the fourth year in a row, MBA students and faculty at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis critiqued and ranked the Super Bowl ads during the big game with veteran advertising executives. This year, the Olin MBA students huddled with senior ad execs from the Leo Burnett agency. But expectations were dashed as most of the Super Bowl ads fell flat. Click here to view the article on the Super Advertising Bowl from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

To some people, the Super Bowl is a football game. To others, it’s a marketing derby. “Careers are made, and careers are ended, on these commercials we’re about to see,” said Lewis Williams, a senior vice president, creative director, at Leo Burnett Worldwide Inc., a Chicago-based advertising agency. Williams was addressing more than 100 attendees of the fourth annual “Super Advertising Bowl” at Washington University’s Olin School of Business while Sunday’s game was starting on a giant screen above him. Every year, MBA students, their friends, Washington U. faculty and ad execs like Williams gather to rank Super Bowl ads. During halftime, Advertising Bowl participants vote for their favorite commercials.

The John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis has awarded a total of $70,000 in seed investment capital to two startup businesses in its annual Olin Cup entrepreneurship competition. The Olin Cup competition was launched last year with a new emphasis on life sciences, medicine, and technology startups, as well as other student started ventures. The business school’s Skandalaris Entrepreneurship Program sponsors the annual competition. This is the first time seed funding was awarded in the entrepreneurship contest.

As part of Washington University’s Sesquicentennial celebration, Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work (GWB), will host a lecture series titled “Exploring the Impact of Economic Inequality Upon American Society.” The series will kick off Jan. 21 with a lecture by Ichiro Kawachi, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and director of the Harvard Center for Society and Health, on “”Why Inequality is Harmful to Your Health,” at 1:10 p.m. in Brown Hall Lounge.

Photo by Joe Angeles/WUSTL PhotoAre gamblers impulsive?Why do people engage in behaviors they know are harmful to them in the long run? Why do we give in to that incredible chocolate cake even though we’re trying to lose weight and stay fit? The answer, suggests a recent study on the psychology of gambling and impulsive behavior, is a simple economic phenomenon known as discounting. While good health may be its own reward, research suggests that the value of that reward diminishes as it’s delayed; and the longer it’s delayed, the less it controls your present behavior. Although gamblers may deserve their reputations as notorious risk-takers, they often do better than non-gamblers at delaying gratification to maximize long-term rewards.

Despite the rejection of a provision to allow prescription drug imports from Canada in the Medicare bill passed by Congress, policymakers are still considering other bills that would allow the drug imports from North of the border. But Jackson Nickerson, a professor of organization and strategy at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, says that allowing the import of drugs from Canada would likely raise prices for both Canadians and U.S. consumers. Nickerson is currently engaged in a major research initiative with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the pharmaceutical industry to improve the manufacturing process for drugs.