by Christopher Parsons, Faculty In his influential book “The World is Flat,” New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman credited technology with a “flattening” of the economic landscape. Innovations like the Internet were making it virtually costless to transmit information, allowing people located across the world to communicate as though they were across the room….
Assigning Property Rights to Human Tissue
by Marcella Bothwell, MBA ’14, and Erez Yoeli, Lecturer Biotechnology researchers sometimes use human tissue samples collected from patients during necessary procedures to develop immortal cell lines. These cell lines are used in the research and development of drugs and other treatments for diseases. These immortal cell lines can be immensely profitable for their developers,…
Industry Analysis: The Sources of Profit for San Diego’s Privatized Prisons
by Elizabeth Liner While the rest of America has been mired in economic volatility, the prison-building industry has been holding steady. As of 2011, the U.S.’s correctional system incarcerates one of every 107 adults1 and contains the world’s largest prison population.2 With an in-prison population of more than 133,000, California has the nation’s third-largest number…
MYANMAR and the Myth of Cheap Land
by Aung Kyaw Myo, MBA ’13 Since 2011, the world has been closely watching a small nation in southeast Asia emerge from decades of economic sanctions and military rule. Formerly an outcast state, Myanmar appears to be on a steady path toward rehabilitation and economic development. The opportunities for foreign investment are plentiful in a…
Powering the Trend in Renewable Energy Credits
by Andrew Zorko, MBA ’14 Over the past decade, companies’ desire to become more environmentally friendly has grown. For example, California-based Kendall-Jackson Winery has chosen to purchase all of its power through renewable energy sources. Not only are the business operations run on renewable energy, but the winery also purchases 100 percent renewable energy for…
The Risks of Avoiding a Debate on Gender Differences
by Moshe Hoffman, Postdoctoral Scholar, and Erez Yoeli, Lecturer Men are more likely to own risky stocks. They are more likely to choose competitive careers. And they are more likely to bargain aggressively for their starting salaries. The evidence is overwhelming: In virtually every setting ever studied – in laboratory experiments where people choose between…
Are Short-Sellers Really the Bad Guys?
by Joseph Engelberg, Faculty With crises come blame, and following the 2008 financial crisis, there has been plenty of blame laid at the feet of short-sellers. It did not take long for regulators to pass judgment on these traders. In the midst of the crisis, short-selling bans were implemented in the U.S., the U.K., Japan,…
The Ethical Imperative: More Important Than Ever
by Blair Sadler, Lecturer ItĀ seems particularly timely for the Rady Business Journal to devote an issue to the topic of ethical behavior in organizations. In today’s corporate world, the landscape is littered with examples of self-serving, irresponsible behavior – Enron, British Petroleum, big banks, and investment firms, to name a few. The nonprofit sector is…
CEO Tanya Maslach: Her Path to Entrepreneurship
by Danielle Berman, MBA ’12 Tanya Maslach is the founder and CEO of GOTRIbal, a unique organization dedicated to connecting and empowering women through endurance sports. She was recently nominated by the San Diego Business Journal as one of the “Most Admired CEOs.” It is easy to see why GOTRIbal, which launched in 2010, has…
Unpacking the Golden Parachute
by Carlos Uribe, MBA ’12 At the Rady School of Management, certain professors tend to answer crucial questions with the response, “It depends.” This is an interesting approach, as it basically says, “Well, there’s no one cookie-cutter solution to any issue; no one answer solves all problems; and many factors have to be considered, weighed…