New technologies can have teething problems such that some users give up the whole class of technology itself (and not just the brand). A case in point was 2G mobile internet services that used wireless application protocol (WAP). The performance was so unreliable that some consumers dubbed it “wait and pay” and stopped using 2G altogether. When the 3G ... Read More

Functional diversity in work teams should in theory lead to greater innovation as members bring different kinds of experiences to the table, such as marketing, engineering and R&D. But research on the diversity-innovation relationship has been mixed. Some have found team diversity to have a positive impact, others have found a negative or null effect. One ... Read More

Technological innovation plays a key role in promoting a nation’s long-term economic growth and competitive advantage. When it comes to innovation, politics is an important factor to consider, as politicians have the ability to implement policy or regulatory changes that can affect a nation’s innovation incentives. To examine the effects of politics on ... Read More

For most companies, TV remains the primary means of advertising, with commercials accounting for 40% of global advertising spending. However, increasingly, the TV industry is facing fierce competition from new media channels, as well as advances in technology that allow viewers to skip commercials all together. It is therefore imperative for the industry to ... Read More

Online marketplaces are a popular platform for buying or selling products. That said, one of the key challenges of e-commerce is managing the reputation of anonymous users. Online reputation trading is a relatively new phenomenon, which is facilitated by the success of e-commerce and social networks. Due to online anonymity, reputation is regarded as an ... Read More

The Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) is a belief system which includes the idea that hard work will breed success. According to the sociologist Max Weber, who introduced the idea, this belief system explains the development of Europe during the Industrial Revolution. Nowadays it is regarded as a secular belief which exists in most cultures, with variations across ... Read More

The past 20 years has seen a marked global increase in the amount of corporate board reforms aimed at increasing firm value. It is believed that with greater outside representation on the board, insiders – such as top executives and shareholders – will be discouraged from reaping private rewards, and instead will encourage investment in projects that benefit ... Read More

Hotels, like any businesses, are motivated by profit. But a strange pattern has emerged when it comes to low-cost amenities such as Internet services. One survey found only 54 per cent of luxury hotels offered free Internet compared to 91 per cent of budget hotels. As Song Lin points out, this phenomenon seems counterintuitive and has not been explained ... Read More

A conventional theory about US Treasury bonds is that when there is uncertainty about inflation, the yield curve should get steeper because investors demand a higher premium for the risk of holding long-term bonds, as opposed to less vulnerable short-term ones. However, recent evidence suggests this yield curve effect may not be happening and this has now ... Read More

Along with the chance to access a myriad sources of knowledge, going online also opens up countless, and often enjoyable, opportunities for distraction from the task at hand. This, of course, is not a problem for individuals who, say, start off on a golfing community site looking for advice on their putting technique only to end up, a few clicks later ... Read More