New: GBR Blog Videos

Takeaways from Graziadio School faculty research now in video format!

The GBR Blog is now proudly presenting video interviews with Graziadio School faculty on how business managers can benefit from their research.

See below for the latest video interviews published on the blog, or sign up for the GBR Blog RSS feed in a reader or by email.

Comments

Values-Centered Leaders More Successful in the Long Term

Kevin S. Groves, PhD, Assistant Professor of Organizational Theory and Management at the Graziadio School of Business and Management, discusses succession planning, workplace mentoring, emotional intelligence, and values-centered leadership.

What's Next LA: The Road to Economic Recovery (A Preview)

Beacon Economics, the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University, and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce have joined forces to launch a new, annual Los Angeles Economic Forecast Conference.

Watch this video with Dave Smith of the Graziadio School and Chris Thornberg, GBR Editorial Review Board Member and principal of Beacon Economics for a preview of what's to come, then join us at the inaugural event on Tuesday, July 28 as we provide a thought-provoking look at where the national, state, and Los Angeles economies are headed. Go to beaconecon.com for more information.

Why Entrepreneurship Thrives During a Recession

Larry Cox, PhD, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and director of the new entrepreneurship program at the Graziadio School of Business and Management, on how smart entrepreneurs take advantage of low opportunity and material costs during a recession and why creativity and idea generation are the most important factors to entrepreneurial success.

The Employee Free Choice Act: Playing the Union Card

David M. Smith, PhD, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Economics at the Graziadio School of Business and Management discusses the negative impact he believes the proposed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would have on employers, unions, and the workforce.

Save the Last Document: Tips for Avoiding Data Loss

David M. Smith, PhD, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Economics at the Graziadio School of Business and Management discusses the takeaways from his recent paper, "Data Loss and Hard Drive Failure: Understanding the Causes and Costs." Hard drive failure is an inescapable reality, Smith writes, and most firms will face data loss unless they put preventive measures in place.

Econ Profs Question Conventional Buy-and-Hold Wisdom

Marshall D. Nickles, EdD, and Ray M. Valadez, EdD, professors of economics at the Graziadio School of Business and Management, discuss the findings from their paper, "Enhancing Returns in a Volatile Global Stock Market: A Time Limited Approach to Risk and Reward," which won the Best Paper in Finance Award at the 11th Annual Conference of the Global Business Development Institute in March 2009. While "buy-and-hold" is an approach that many investment advisors promote, Nickles and Valadez believe that by investing only during certain months of the year (that is, the seasonality approach), risk exposure can be minimized while at the same time, returns may be enhanced.

Comments (1)

Prof Nickles and Prof Valadez, Congratulations on your award. I have one comment regarding diversification and risk. The longer you’re exposed to total risk the greater your chances are of suffering losses. Your chance of suffering a loss is a function of time exposure to risk, the riskiness of the underlying security and the risk of the overall economic market. Portfolio diversification reduces un-systemic risk or the risk of underlying securities. And your seasonality approach reduces the probability of losses that can result from time exposure to risk. However, systemic risk, or the risk of the overall economic market, can never be eliminated. The stock market losses suffered during the Great Depression and the current recession were due to a collapse of the economic system. Thus investors suffered losses due to the system and not specifically to the buy-and-hold strategy, a buy and hold strategy increase investors’ time exposure to the systemic risk. My reasoning is that the buy-and-hold philosophy will naturally increase your long-term exposure to the overall system, and thus as time increases the probability of a decline as a result of the system will also increase, even with a diversified portfolio. I would say that while seasonality investing may be a great strategy one cannot completely depend on it reducing total risk exposure. And that a combination of diversification, needed to reduce un-systemic risk, and seasonality investing, to reduce time exposure to systemic risk, may be a more prudent approach. This will allow investors to take advantage of seasonality investing while at the same time reducing risk originating from individual investments. ...Timtohy Stuart 7/20/2009 4:35:31 PM