The Book Corner offers reviews by Graziadio School faculty for a variety of books on business topics.
In this issue:
by Daniel Kahneman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011
Reviewed by Sam Farry, MBA
Stop what you are doing and read this book now!
by Walter Isaacson
Simon & Schuster, 2011Reviewed by David Crain, PhD
Stop what you are doing and read this book now!
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
by Eric Larson
Vintage Books, 2003Reviewed by Leo Mallette
2012 is shaping up to be the year of global political change with important changes in the government in Russia, France, Italy, and of course the upcoming presidential election here in the United States. How will financial markets be influenced by such political turmoil and how can investors prepare?
Since 2004, the stock market environment has changed in ways that make it more important than ever to understand the relationship between politics and stock market behavior. Unlike the 2004 article that did not address the above in detail, this article will attempt to do so.
A CEO’s primary duty is to allocate capital to its highest and best use, this report ranks CEO performance of 125 of Northern California’s largest companies according to their ability to earn returns above their investors’ required return.
What accounts for owners selling items for more or less than they are worth? Do sellers and buyers see the value of an item in the same way? Can a third-party agent impact the selling price of an item to net the seller a higher profit? This article offers some surprising answers.
An implicit challenge is to coordinate the efforts of groups with different interests to realize expected gains. This means that acquisitions quickly go from numbers to considering the impacts on people, as achieving synergy requires clear communication of the implications of an acquisition to those impacted.
Decisions involving issues of sustainability tend to include an array of objective attributes along with highly subjective value judgments. Managers must find a way to factor qualitative attributes such as environmental, social, and ethical impact into the decision-making process.
This study examines measures of customer satisfaction is six countries within South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela over the five-year period 2013 through 2017.
As the role of the customer becomes more and more important to the sustainability of the firm, effective allocation of resources will provide a significant advantage to customer service organizations.
