Warren Buffett speaks to University of Georgia students

Innovación y Desempleo

 

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"Reinventing Economics" by Robert J. Shiller

The widespread failure of economists to forecast the financial crisis that erupted in 2008 has much to do with faulty models. This lack of sound models meant that economic policymakers and central bankers received no warning of what was to come. 

As George Akerlof and I argue in our recent book Animal Spirits , the current financial crisis was driven by speculative bubbles in the housing market, the stock market, and energy and other commodities markets. Bubbles are caused by feedback loops: rising speculative prices encourage optimism, which encourages more buying, and hence further speculative price increases – until the crash comes. 

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The New Conversation: taking Social Media from talk to action

The exponential growth of social media, from blogs, Facebook and Twitter to LinkedIn and YouTube, offers organizations the chance to join a conversation with millions of customers around the globe every day.

This promise is why nearly two-thirds of the 2,100 companies who participated in a recent survey by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services said they are either currently using social media channels or have social media plans in the works. But many still say social media is an experiment, as they try to understand how to best use the different channels, gauge their effectiveness, and integrate social media into their strategy.

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Design Thinking

Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services, processes and even strategy.

by Tim Brown

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Un estudio exploratorio sobre la generación de experiencias afectivo-sensoriales a través de los personajes de marca

La práctica y la teoría publicitaria han demostrado que el uso de los personajes de marca en las campañas de comunicación es una estrategia efectiva para crear una imagen positiva de la marca y una conexión personal con los consumidores. Actualmente, el interés tanto académico como empresarial por buscar nuevas vías de diferenciación más experienciales ha renovado el atractivo que tienen los elementos identificadores de la marca, entre ellos los personajes, como estímulos generadores de experiencias. Este trabajo analiza cómo las experiencias sensoriales y afectivas se ven afectadas ante la presencia del personaje de marca en función de la familiaridad con la marca, la implicación con el producto, y la ausencia de relación social del consumidor. De una manera muy preliminar y exploratoria los resultados obtenidos son una primera evidencia empírica del potencial que tienen los personajes como vía de diferenciación no funcional de la marca.

Universia Business Review 

Mª Elena Delgado-Ballester, Estela Fernández-Sabiote, Agueda Honrubia-Pardo 

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World Economic Outlook: Hopes, Realities, and Risks - April 2013

Global economic prospects have improved again, but the bumpy recovery and skewed macroeconomic policy mix in advanced economies are complicating policymaking in emerging market economies. Chapter 3 examines the prospects for inflation, particularly because inflation was remarkably stable in the wake of the Great Recession and, in fact, has become less responsive to cyclical conditions. Chapter 4 examines whether today’s fast-growing, dynamic low-income countries are likely to maintain their momentum and avoid the reversals that afflicted many such countries in the past.

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Do people resist change?

Resetting the compass. Navigating success in deal-making for mature market sellers and high growth market buyers

The geography of deal-making is changing fast. Over the last five years we have seen more deal value flow from the largest high growth markets (HGM) to mature market economies than in the other direction. Between 2008 and 2012 HGM companies invested US$161 billion into mature market companies, outstripping the opposite flow of US$151 billion. In 2012 alone, HGM companies closed deals for mature market targets worth US$32.6 billion, almost three times the amount they invested in 2005. 

We see these this shift in dealflow direction as the start of something bigger, that will not just bring a much needed boost to the global M&A market but that can stimulate growth for both mature and HGM market companies alike. In this report, we look at how dealflows are changing and we also consider how new types of HGM investors are turning to M&A and the factors driving their investment choices. Large and mid-sized private companies have now joined the state-backed investors who were among the first to acquire mature market targets. HGM investors’ scope is also widening, with HGM to mature market M&A activity ranging from energy, raw materials and engineering to media, retail and consumer goods companies.

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The Henry Fund: 2012 Annual Report

The Henry Fund, named for its two founding benefactors, was established in the spring of 1994 to provide University of Iowa MBA students with a forum to blend academic rigor with real-world portfolio management experience. Henry Royer, Henry Tippie, and the University of Iowa Foundation contributed the initial $50,000 investment that established the Henry Fund.

The Henry Fund is an equity portfolio listed as an outside investment by The University of Iowa Foundation. The Fund is required to meet the same basic performance guidelines as equity accounts in the long-term investment pool of The University of Iowa Foundation. In keeping with these requirements, managers of the Henry Fund seek to achieve the highest level of return while assuming risks similar to those of the S&P 500 index. The Henry Fund team, therefore, recommends a targeted portfolio of stocks from a broad set of industries, investing in well-managed, profitable businesses without unnecessarily exposing the fund to economic or industry risks.

The Fund is divided into three separate accounts: active, passive, and cash. The active account, comprising approximately 93.4 % of the Fund’s assets, currently consists of equity positions in 32 companies. This account represents the primary measurement of the manager’s stock selection ability. The passive account (6.6%) consists of holdings in a financial sector ETF (3.5%) and a consumer sector ETF (3.1%). The Henry Fund scholarship payments necessitate that The Fund keep cash in a money market account in order to meet its annual commitment. This account also receives dividends and is used to pay brokerage fees and other expenses incurred during the year.

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