Business & Entrepreneurship

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.

Mahendra R. Gupta, dean of Olin Business School, recently announced a four-year, $1.09-million gift from Roger and Fran Koch and Paul and Elke Koch that will launch the Olin Family Business Program.

After learning that local veterans were facing long waits for mental health services, a team of medical and engineering students at Washington University in St. Louis wanted to help in some way. The team created an app that measures a user’s stress and suggests steps to take to alleviate it.

Journalists continue to sort through and process the so-called “Panama Papers,” millions of financial documents offering a look at how politicians and public figures hide massive amounts of money in offshore accounts. A faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis says the case offers proof of the difficulty of government economic intervention.

Companies often pride themselves on creating a collaborative culture that encourages the free-flow of ideas between colleagues. But a recent study co-authored by Olin Business School’s Markus Baer shows that territorial marking in the office can quickly squash much sought-after workplace creativity.