Forefront

Research by René Stulz, the Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics, and Justin Birru, assistant professor of finance, provides insights as to the quality of short-term recommendations made by sell-side research analysts.

Terry Esper, associate professor of logistics at Fisher, says mentorship and continuous learning can help shrink the gender gap in logistics: “Young women should actively seek out mentors, and the earlier in their career, the better. One of the major concerns that we’ve heard through the annual study of women in the professional ranks is that they’ve often struggled with keeping up with the changing trends in the field. Hence, young women should enter the career with a resolve to stay abreast of the ‘latest and greatest’ through continuous learning and professional organization affiliations.”

Small businesses have been drawn to manufacturing overseas for the same reasons as Fortune 500 companies: Labor costs are lower than in the U.S. But there are downsides and complications to making goods overseas, said Professor of Operations John Gray: “It’s a vexing problem for anyone, but being small and offshore makes it harder.”

The embattled National Rifle Association reported some good news to its supporters earlier this year: Revenue from membership dues jumped 33% last year to $170 million. But that picture may not be as rosy as those numbers suggest: “The NRA is increasingly reliant on selling long-term memberships” and counting much of the revenue the first year, said Brian Mittendorf, the Fisher Designated Professor in Accounting. “A very conservative approach with a five-year membership would be to record one-fifth in the current year and defer the rest.”

When professor Brian Mittendorf asks his lecture hall full of accounting students on the first day of each semester to name the 10 highest-grossing charities in the U.S., the Red Cross, United Way or Habitat for Humanity come easily. But his students miss some big ones.

See why Tom Goldsby, the Harry T. Mangurian Jr. Foundation Professor and chair of the department of marketing and logistics at Fisher, was the only academic selected to be a part of DC Velocity's 2019 Rainmakers list.

A national survey by the National Center for the Middle Market finds that although midmarket revenue and employment growth are strong, confidence is starting to flag.

Learn how strength and culture types identified in research conducted by the National Center for the Middle Market can drive companies forward.

Fisher's Terry Esper discussed the “consumer-centric” supply chain at the WERC Annual Conference for Logistics Professionals in Columbus, saying that 67 percent of business buyers have switched vendors to get a more consumer-like experience, and in the days of Amazon, logistics matters more than it ever has.

Research by Steffanie Wilk, associate dean for diversity and inclusion at Fisher, shows that workers with more diverse personal relationships were, not surprisingly, better at building a racially diverse network on the job. This broader network is invaluable in improving career outcomes.

Private equity firms are now sitting on a record amount of uninvested capital, which is good news for businesses seeking funds.

Record damages and the increasing frequency in climate change-related weather events have driven risk analysts into uncharted waters in predicting the magnitude of future risks or finding ways to minimize or avoid them. "Whether it's fires or flooding or hurricanes, companies are starting to think that what used to be a once-in-500-years event may perhaps now be a 10- to 20-year event," said Phil Renaud, the executive director of the Risk Institute.

Thomas A. Stewart, executive director of the National Center for the Middle Market, examines the strategy behind data and how it can help your business make better decisions.

Experts in crisis management say the damage to the Mount Carmel brand is significant but not beyond repair. Deborah Mitchell, who teaches marketing at Fisher College of Business, says there are plenty of examples of company brands surviving extraordinary damage. 

Philip S. Renaud, executive director of the Risk Institute, details research from the center that found 28 percent of financial, non-financial, public and private firms have been victims of a cyber-attack, and that 33 percent of firms don’t think that they are at risk of a cyber-attack.

Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate at Fisher, and his colleagues studied the impact of large institutional ownership on stock prices in the US market. The researchers showed that ownership by large institutions increases volatility in the underlying securities, and that this increase reflects a rise of noise in stock prices.

Most mutual fund investors trade on noise rather than fundamentals. Research by Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, and his colleagues, shows that many mutual fund investors "naively rely on external rankings as a way to chase past winners."

As part of the "There's a Better Way" podcast, Aravind Chandrasekaran, associate director of the Center for Operational Excellence, talks with Tanya Menon, associate professor of management and human resources at Fisher, about team building, micro- vs.

According to a forthcoming publication, extroverts tend to have consistent advantages over everyone else in the workplace, which jibes with other research on the benefits associated with extroversion. For example, extroverts are more likely to become leaders and to lead effectively, according Timothy Judge, the Joseph A. Alutto Chair in Leadership Effectiveness and executive director of the Fisher Leadership Initiative.

How do organizations remain committed to continuous improvement when the leader who championed lean strategies leaves? Researching within the health care industry, Aravind Chandrasekaran and John Toussaint identify a set of practices that can stop this backsliding and sustain a culture of continuous improvement after such departures.

A good leader needs some kind of presence around the office—how else do you communicate that there’s an authority around? But it seems that while a little attitude can go a long way, too much of it can be counterproductive, according to research by Fisher's Jasmine Hu.

New documents leaked about National Rifle Association top executive Wayne LaPierre's lavish clothing and travel expenses contrast with the culture of fear, poor pay and an underfunded pension described by former staffers. Brian Mittendorf, the Fisher Designated Professor in Accounting, helped NPR review copies of 2019 NRA pension documents.

As part of the "There's a Better Way" podcast, Aravind Chandrasekaran, associate director of the Center for Operational Excellence, talks with Ellis Jones (MBOE '15), senior director of global environment, health, safety and sustainability for Goodyear,  to discuss strategy deployment and ho

Researchers including Fisher's Itzhak Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate, and René M. Stulz, the Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics, find that financially distressed banks don’t try to gamble their way out of trouble by making riskier loans or investments, but instead act to decrease their debt and raise additional equity.