Business News

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Corporate CEOs may propose some takeover deterrents for their companies in order to protect their above-average levels of compensation, a new study suggests.

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Now that many large American companies have tried downsizing to boost profits, Regina Conti, assistant professor of psychology at Colgate University, says there are costs to downsizing that are not anticipated and fail to inmprove the financial status of organizations

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The Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University has developed a special program designed to repay up to $25,000 of student loan debt as a way of helping its MBA graduates pursue entrepreneurial ventures straight out of school.

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Virtual Reality (VR)-based training for learning equipment maintenance skills improves traineesí ability to acquire and perform critical skills, increases the number of students who can be trained, and reduces the overall cost of gaining and maintaining critical skills.

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A unique joint university-industry-government research project demonstrates how innovative "engineered lumber" can bring higher-performing building products to the marketplace in a cost-effective, ecologically sound way.

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An undeveloped residential lot that's covered with grass is likely to bring a bigger profit to the developer than a more typical bare-soil lot, according to a Purdue University study. The grass-covered lot also will profit the environment and may help the developer comply with local or state regulations.

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The WV economy is forecast to grow and become more diversified for the next five years, according to West Virginia University researchers. The growth is slower than it was in the first half of the 1990s but is still expected to average 1.4 percent through 2002.

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New studies supported by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) and published in today's issue of the journal, Health Affairs, present the first comprehensive look at what is currently happening in the health care marketplace. The articles form an invaluable evidence-based core of information for current discussions of policy options by all health care system participants -- both public and private.

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Women and employees with working spouses may be offered fewer chances to relocate because of a not-so-subtle bias among employers, according to a new study led by a researcher at the University of Georgia.

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Faculty in the Purdue University School of Agriculture give a better-than-educated guess of what the future holds for American food and fiber industries with a new book and video set entitled "FoodSystem 21: Gearing Up for the New Millennium." Purdue Agricultural economist Mike Boehlje calls it "a frank and brutal look" at where farms, input suppliers, processors and consumers are heading.

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Law students at Nova Southeastern University are mediating employment discrimination cases for the U.S. Postal Service. This is the only program of its kind in the nation which works with the Postal Service. It's been so successful that it is now expected to be duplicated at other law schools throughout the country. The cases are complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that go to mediation instead of hearing with the EEOC's administrative judges.

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International M&A, Joint Ventures and Beyond: Doing the Deal, the first comprenehsive, hands-on manual designed for those charged with the day-to-day implementation of such transactions, is set to be published by John Wiley and Sons on Nov. 28. The book is edited by mergers & acquisitions experts David J. BenDaniel, professor of entreprneurship at Cornell's Johnso Graduate School of Management, and Arthur H. Rosenbloom, special partner and former chairman of Patricof & Co. Capital Corp.

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Research Triangle Institute has produced a guide to help entrepreneurs and small-business managers grow high-tech businesses. Making Money with Your Technology is based on more than 100 interviews, focus groups, and literature research. It was written to inform and encourage innovators of new technology and to serve as a catalyst for action.

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While regulators, environmentalists and industry debate whether there's enough evidence to warrant restrictions on mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants, researchers say that questions remain on how to accurately measure such emissions and control them in a cost-effective manner.

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If you buy a "Beamer" you're more likely to take good care of it, according to a new study by three Notre Dame management professors.

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Free trade and more agricultural research are essential to meet the food demands of a world population expected to triple by 2050, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) told 200 Purdue University agriculture students and faculty during a recent visit.

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More coaching and less score-keeping by sales managers produces a more effective sales organization. That's according to results of a two-year study of sales effectiveness, "Improving the Effectiveness of Field Sales Organizations," by two marketing professors at Texas Christian University.

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This year's holiday retail outlook is about as merry and bright as it can be, says Jack Gifford, professor of marketing at Miami University.

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Miami University's initiative to bring the worlds of business and science together to work on environmental challenges has undergone an evolution of its own. Originally an interdisciplinary course for business and science students, the Miami University Sustainability Project was seen as a way to teach these divergent majors how to talk to one another. Its inspiration? The corporate world.

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A patent disclosure filed Oct. 27 by University of Delaware scientists describes a technique that uses soybean oil--rather than petroleum-derived resins--to produce inexpensive, lightweight and potentially biodegradable composites for tractors, supercars, bridges and military vehicles.

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Purdue agricultural economist Michael Boehlje [BOWL-jee] is constantly having to explain to people how agriculture is changing at the end of the 20th century.

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From 1985 to 1996, the number of leased workers in the U.S. increased from 10,000 to more than two million, but this cost-cutting measure may not make for good human resource management, says Dr. Carol Harvey, who is an associate professor of management and marketing at Assumption College (Worcester, MA).

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Managers seldom view the maintenance function as a competitive factor in their firm's business strategy. Nevertheless, as the U.S. moves towards just-in-time (JIT) and computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) an effective maintenance management program becomes crucial to a firm's competitiveness. So says Tracy D. Rishel, associate professor of production and operations management at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA. She researches the impact of incorporating scheduled maintenance policies into manufacturing.

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The use of on-board satellite communications systems in the trucking industry has grown in the last decade. Tracy D. Rishel, associate professor of production and operations management at Susquehanna University, is researching the benefits these systems may provide for both careeris and shippers. She co-authored a presentation on the topic.

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Small manufacturing firms investing in advanced manufacturing technology will require signficantly more highly-skilled employees than their traditional technology counterparts. That's according to research by Tracy D. Rishel, associate professor of production and operations management at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove PA.

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While the percentage of women in job training doubled between 1970 to 1991, a greater proportion of white women were engaged in managerial or professional training than black women. That's according to a new study co-authored by Mary Cianni, associate professor of management at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA. It investigates the training patterns of white and black women across two decades

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Employed wives are not automatically defined as "breadwinners," even when family finances are their primary motivation for employment and their jobs account for a substantial portion of the family income. That's according to a study by Jean L. Potuchek, which has been turned into a book, "Who Supports the Family? Gender and Breadwinning in Dual-Earner Marriages."

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Leaders of U.S., Canadian and Japanese corporations and universities, the twin engines of economic growth in technologically advanced nations, will meet at Lehigh University Oct. 23-24 to focus on creative and collaborative strategies for infusing entrepreneurial spirit in these systems.

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Long before recycling and the greening of corporate America became politically correct, there was Sea Worl, the theme park where the wonders of nature are performed, marketed, and sold.

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Emerging management technologies such as data warehouses, call centers, and specialized web sites are converging with the increased globalization of business to revolutionize customer relationships, finds UT Austin and businesspartner Andersen Consulting. Businesses in great need of leaders who understand the trends and can deploy the right technologies to identify, build, and maintain profitable customer relationships can now look to the first ever Center for Customer Insight, located at the Texas Business School.

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What do landscape architects, zookeepers, food technologists and forest rangers have in common? Chances are it's a degree in agriculture. A strong and varied job market is getting some of the credit for the increasing number of students signing up for classes in Purdue University's School of Agriculture.

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The Abrams Curve--discovered by University of Delaware economist Burton A. Abrams and disclosed Oct. 15--provides direct evidence of a relationship between the size of a country's government and its unemployment rate, according to a forthcoming article in the journal, Public Choice. The curve suggests that "at least some of the increases in jobless rates in the United States since 1949 have resulted from increases in government outlays," says Abrams. Reducing the size of the U.S. government would, therefore, probably reduce the unemployment rate, he says.

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A global climate change policy that includes stringent carbon emission reductions could harm the economic well-being of Wyoming's coal industry, according to a University of Wyoming professor who recently completed a term on the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

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If workers aren't prepared for the workplace responses to climate change, there's stormy economic weather ahead, a report from the Cornell University Work and Environment Initiative predicts.

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As the 10-year anniversary of the 1987 Stock Market crash approaches, Baylor University investment professor Dr. William Reichenstein says its unlikely "Black Monday" could happen again. On Monday, Oct. 19, 1987, the worst financial day in U.S. history occurred.

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Students in Professor Dave Raphael's MBA 670 Global Trends class at the University of San Francisco McLaren School of Business predict the U.S. GDP will rise faster in 1997 than it did in 1996, and they believe Hong Kong's stock market will stumble by the end of the year.

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Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have incorporated virtual reality technology into a manufacturing design tool that allows the user to visualize and plan a factory while it is still in the design phase. The tool, a computer simulation, is proving its usefulness at Searle, a pharmaceutical company based in Skokie, Ill.

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A new study released by the Simon Graduate School of Business reveals that the primary issue hampering diversity in the workplace is its economic impact to a company's bottom line. In other words, diversity costs. These findings sharply contrast previous studies that identify discrimination, favoritism and legislative mandates such as affirmative action as the factors that motivate hiring practices.

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Two professors in the Purdue Krannert Graduate School of Management have teamed up with a computer science professor to develop a business "war game" that can help answer strategic- management questions. The game creates a synthetic environment where people are free to make mistakes and learn from them. It was inspired by Pentagon war game exercises.

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Do your Christmas shopping early this year because retailers throughout the country will be hit with a deluge of consumers greater than in any year since 1992. So predicts Anthony Liuzzo, associate professor of business and economics at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA. He analyzes retail trends and issues annual forecasts for the holiday shopping season. Liuzzo says every sector of the reatil economy should experience solid sales and profit growth.

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Mass. educators who specialize in media literacy--critical thinking about television, newspapers, radio, magazines, movies. and the Internet--are the recent recipients of a $50,000 grant from the Felton Media Literacy Scholars Program. Renee Hobbs, associate professor, communication, Babson College will direct the program scheduled to begin this spring for 15 Boston-area educators and media professionals.

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Tobacco and pharmaceutical drug companies to compete for the hearts and lungs of nicotine-dependent consumers in emerging, multi-billion dollar, nicotine maintenance market, says U-M health policy researcher.

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Latin American markets are accurately characterized as being among the riskiest capital markets in the world, but Latin American markets have outperformed the Standard & Poor's over the last 20 years. That's according to research by two professors at Texas Christian University who have researched Latin American market's performance as compared with the S&P 500 over the last 20 years.

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A Purdue University study sheds new light on the old practice of marrying for money. "Marriage has a lot to do with wealth accumulation," says Janet Wilmoth, assistant professor of sociology. "Getting and staying married appears to provide institutional benefits that greatly impact long- term economic well-being."

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Some managing directors and financial analysts on Wall Street learned their jobs as undergraduate and MBA students at Texas Christian University while overseeing one of the largest student-managed funds in the U.S. The $1.5 million student-managed Educational Investment Fund at TCU is the second oldest student-managed fund in the U.S. and among the top 5 in portfolio size. It has been in existence for 25 years.

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The business school environment has never been more competitive and students have higher expections of their schools that must be met, said former Wall Street executive and academic leader Leo I. Highdon, Jr., during his inauguration as tenth president of Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA. Babson is recognized internationally for its strength in entrepreneurial management education.

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Purdue University has doubled the number of instructors teaching American Sign Language on its West Lafayette campus this year, but for every student enrolled in a class, two to three more are turned away. The classes have always been a popular option for future educators and health care professionals, but now business majors are starting to jump on the bandwagon.

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The beauty of the Internet is also a beast. The Internet is a global network of networks -- mostly private, and often competing among themselves. While the diffuse structure of the Internet is one of its strengths, the competitive environment has made collaboration on operational and engineering requirements difficult, and has made research on the metrics of the Internet virtually impossible.

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"Unemployment has become less relevant to inflation," says economist Gary Shoesmith, director of the Center for Economic Studies at Wake Forest University's Babcock Graduate School of Management. "Unemployment has now been below 6 percent for three years, but inflation has continued to ease downward, plainly opposite the pattern seen in the business cycles of the 1960s, '70s and '80s. The old business cycle has changed."

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A minority-owned small business in New York and the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are uniting to harness the power of knowledge through the innovative Community of the Future Initiative.