Business & Entrepreneurship

With a $5 million commitment, Washington University in St. Louis has announced it will establish the George and Carol Bauer Leadership Center at the Olin Business School. The announcement came May 10, as George Bauer, an emeritus trustee and alumnus of the university, and his wife, Carol, delivered a keynote address about values-based leadership in Knight Hall on the Danforth Campus.

Recent research has indicated a general consumer preference for experiences over material goods when it comes to giving and receiving gifts. But new findings from researchers at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis show that major life events might be the exception to that rule.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found competing companies should carefully consider both the risks and rewards that can result when reminding consumers of buyer’s regret.

Social venture WOOTA (Water Out Of Thin Air) is the winner of this year’s School of Engineering & Applied Science’s annual Engineering Discovery Competition (EDC) and will receive $20,000 in cash, as well as $5,000 in legal services from Polsinelli for building a device that turns humidity in the air into clean drinking water.

The East St. Louis Initiative (ESLI) exists to support East St. Louis entrepreneurs with access to consulting, training, and legal services. In order to provide these services, ESLI connects student volunteers with a budding entrepreneur for four months of intensive support.

Today, new rules go into effect that allow anyone to invest in a startup and receive shares of that startup. Previously, the Securities and Exchange Commission required investors backing private companies to have a certain amount of net worth. A Washington University in St. Louis faculty member says the measures will expand the entrepreneurial playing field, to a point.

The U.S. Treasury Department has issued several rules recently aimed at cracking down on tax evasion and money laundering in the wake of the “Panama Papers.” Will continuing to add new, and increasingly aggressive, rules make any lasting or concrete changes to the American tax code? Maybe, but perhaps at a cost to the tax law as a whole, says Washington University tax expert Adam Rosenzweig.

In many workplaces, standard processes are the key to a successful operation, ensuring efficiency and safety. New research from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis shows that motivating compliance with standard processes via electronic monitoring can be a highly effective approach, despite concerns about employee backlash. However, the research also highlights that managers cannot simply “monitor and forget.”

On May 6, President Barack Obama introduced executive reforms designed to eliminate loopholes that allow foreigners to conceal tax fraud and evasion in the United States. Olin Business School’s Lamar Pierce said the move is an effort to show U.S. global partners that it is ready to practice what it preaches when it comes to curbing shadowy financial transactions.

IDEA Labs, a student-run bioengineering and design incubator started at Washington University in St. Louis, will expand its national reach through a partnership with the American Medical Association. The collaboration is aimed at supporting cutting-edge medical technology development from the next generation of young entrepreneurs.