B-School Bulletin: Emory Students To Amazon: Choose Atlanta

News from Emory University Goizueta Business School

“Cities around the country are buzzing about where Amazon will choose as the location for its second headquarters. In January, when the shortlist of 20 cities was announced and Atlanta made the cut, Emory seniors Georgia Kossoff, Sanjay Velappan, Grace Cleland, Anshuman Parikh and junior Ellen Shi were already working on a way to advocate for the city that has become their home.

“After reading a Wall Street Journal article in November 2017 that discussed the strengths and weaknesses of potential contenders, the students immediately recognized Atlanta as a clear fit for Amazon. That’s when they came up with the idea for #WhyAtlanta, a statewide student video campaign.

“After all, “Why Atlanta?” was a question the students had already asked themselves a few years earlier when deciding on where to embark on their undergraduate careers.”

Read more …

---

From Motorcycle Mechanic To MBA

News from Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business

“Minoli was planning to speak in a course taught by Giovanni Gavetti, associate professor of business administration, who previously authored a case study on the Italian motorcycle company.

“’Minoli is the godfather of modern Ducati,’ Josh says. ‘He helped to shape Ducati into what it is today.’”

Read more …

---

Politicians’ Lies And The Power Of Imagination

News from London Business School

“Remember all the fuss over those inauguration photos? On the day that Donald Trump was officially sworn in as US president, the National Park Service tweeted photos comparing the crowd size at Trump’s inauguration to the larger crowd at former president Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. Trump had boasted that he’d get an ‘unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout’ – but he didn’t.

“Over the next few days, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer falsely claimed that Trump’s crowd was ‘the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.’ What happened next caught the interest of Daniel Effron, associate professor of organizational behavior at London Business School. At some point, Trump’s people stopped defending the literal truth of that claim and started implying that it would have been true, if only something had been different – for example, the inauguration would have been bigger if the weather had been nicer.

“’I found it very interesting that Trump’s spokespeople were making these statements about how the inauguration could have been bigger,’ says Dr. Effron. ‘This type of statement doesn’t change the literal truth of a false claim but, psychologically, it may bring the claim a little closer to the truth. Falsehoods that feel close to reality may be perceived as less dishonest when people imagine how they could have been true in alternative circumstances.’”

Read more …

---

The Case For Investing In Green Companies

News from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management

For investors focused on profit, investing in environmentally friendly firms may not seem like the most lucrative strategy. They may worry that adopting greener practices could hurt a company’s share price.

“’They can adapt better to these kinds of changes,’ says Ravi Jagannathan, a professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management. ‘Firms that are truly doing better along those dimensions are safer.’”

Read more …

---

Study: Dual-class firms have higher market valuations near time of IPO that drop over next 6 years

News from Notre Dame University Mendoza College of Business

“Facebook, Google, Comcast and Berkshire Hathaway are among a number of large companies that have dual-class stock structures, providing controlling shareholders with majority voting power despite owning a minority of total equity.

“For these dual-class firms, market valuations are higher early in their life cycles, while the valuation premium tends to disappear about six years after their IPOs, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame.

“The Life Cycle of Dual-Class Firms, released this month by the European Corporate Governance Institute, was co-authored by Martijn Cremers, Bernard J. Hank professor of finance in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, along with Beni Lauterbach from Bar-Ilan University and Anete Pajuste from the Stockholm School of Economics in Latvia.”

Read more …