Olin Business School

Thursday, March 30 at 5 p.m., the finalists will be announced for the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition, co-sponsored by Washington University and the YouthBridge Association. The event features Theresa Wilson, founder of The Blessing Basket, as a keynote speaker. Currently there are 14 semi-finalists. The finalists will be selected based on their two-minute presenations about their projects. The event takes place in May Auditorium in Simon Hall on the Washington University Hilltop Campus.

The Bush administration’s plan to push through health savings accounts is limited in how much it can lower healthcare costs, according to a business professor in the Olin School of Business at Washington University. He says that health savings accounts could work for some things – if the relationship between most doctors and patients changes, and if there were greater acceptance of the variety of ways to keep people healthy. More…

What is a ‘fair’ price for fairness? New research from Washington University’s Olin School of Business reveals that a just system of governance may not enhance trust when returns do not meet investors’ expectations. This is sobering news for businesses that have spent countless hours and large amounts of money complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in the hopes of building stronger corporate governance. More…

In recognition of the role that William H. (Bill) Danforth, life trustee and chancellor emeritus, his family and the Danforth Foundation have played in the evolution of Washington University in St. Louis, the Hilltop Campus will be renamed the Danforth Campus, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. An official recognition ceremony will be held Sept. 17, when the new name takes effect.

Businesses today are turning to quantifiable analysis to map strategies. According to a professor at the Olin School of Business, companies can address specific problems in a scientific way by using basic principals of game theory.

People’s suspicions about outsourcing are sometimes right; it is just a way for firms to save a buck. But when firms outsource IT projects or share resources with a supplier, they might be creating competitors who could steal customers or profit making ideas, says a professor from the Olin School of Business. Without knowing when it is appropriate to outsource, the financial impact could be quite harmful.

Investors are reluctant to devote resources to female-run companies, according to research from two professors at the Olin School of Business. They found that potential backers are likely to invest 300 percent more in male-run firms than in firms run by a woman; and they would pay a female CEO 86 percent of the salary they’d pay a male CEO.

No ad goes unnoticed: MBA students at the Olin School of Business evaluate Super Bowl XL commercials starting at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, with pre-game lectures by local advertising professionals.

Courtesy photoWashington University’s team: Shlomo Goltz, Nathan Heigert and Hubert CheungIn the world of advertising, the hardest thing to do is get people’s attention — a job that becomes exponentially harder as audiences diversify and traditional broadcasters compete with YouTube.com, MySpace.com and other online communities. So, rather than compete, companies are beginning to enlist those communities through what’s becoming known as “consumer-generated advertising.” This fall, a group of students from Washington University in St. Louis was one of five teams to make the finals of the “Chevy Super Bowl College Ad Challenge.” The winning team will be unveiled when its ad runs Feb. 4, during Super Bowl XLI. More…

When managers realize that their corporate earnings per share are in jeopardy of falling short of analysts’ quarterly forecasts, they usually look for a way to avoid that fate. While there has been plenty of research that looks at how companies beat analysts forecast by manipulating their earnings, the effects of stock repurchases has remained unexamined. A new study by a business professor at Washington University in St. Louis, finds that under the right circumstances, repurchasing stock in an attempt to increase earnings per share does not completely fool the market, although it is an effective way to avoid being throttled when earnings per share falls short of market expectations.