2012 Volume 15 Issue 3

Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note

In the fall issue of the Graziadio Business Report we have published five great articles, plus we want to let you know about two features that were added to the last issue.

Facilitating the Inventor – Entrepreneur Interaction: Super-Charging the IP Commercialization Process

By Larry William Cox, PhD

According to leading economists, entrepreneurs are those individuals who both identify and exploit commercial opportunities. This article proposes that more technologies could be commercialized and with greater economic value if a university-neutral foundation was established that allowed entrepreneurs to dialogue with inventors at an early stage and used principles of creative problem solving.

Bridging the Complexity Gap: Leading Effectively in a VUCA World

By Suzanne Lahl, MSOD, and Terri Egan, PhD

In the weeks before September 11, the U.S. Army War College coined the term VUCA to stand for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments. Globalization, information technology, economic and political instability, and climate change create a level of interconnection and interdependence that requires a new kind of leadership.

Be sure to check out the videos at the end of the article for additional information.

A No Fault Approach to Recouping Executive Compensation

By Gina Joan Kim, JD, MBA, and Gia Honnen Weisdorn, JD, LLM, MBA

Having improved financial performance justifies compensation, but what happens to the compensation after a restatement? The argument for a strict liability approach in reforming compensation practices is that the repercussions of risk-taking that results in erroneous gains should be the same.

Implementing Intrapreneurship: A Structural and Cultural Approach

By Jhony Choon Yeong Ng, DBA

Today, organizations operate in a very complex and uncertain landscape. In order to survive, they must learn to work creatively in hostile environments. To compete with more agile small entrepreneurial firms, large corporations in particular must explore ways to foster innovation. As a result, many organizations are turning to a process called “intrapreneurship.”

Facebook: Data Mining the World’s Largest Focus Group

By Brian M. Kwong, Sean M. McPherson, Jonathan F. A. Shibata, and Oliver T. Zee

With the seemingly indomitable amount of data at Facebook’s disposal, can the company accurately predict outcomes within the typically volatile financial markets? If Facebook is able to predict such outcomes, can it go a step further and manipulate or influence such predicted events?

You My Have Missed

Although the election is over, you may find interesting the following two features: one article and one video, which pertain to an uncertain economy in an election year. These were added to the last issue a few weeks ago.

The Four-Year U.S. Presidential Cycle and the Stock Market

By Marshall Nickles, EdD and Nelson Granados, PhD

This article is an updated analysis of the 2004 article “Presidential Elections and Stock Market Cycles,” written by Marshall Nickles, which is one of our most read. That article found that all of the major stock market declines occurred during the first or second years of the four-year U.S. presidential cycle. No major declines occurred during the third or fourth years. More specifically, from 1950 to 2004 (using the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index), the most favorable period (MFP) for investing was from October 1 of the second year of a presidential term to December 31 of the fourth year. The remaining period—from January 1 of the first year of the presidential term to September 30 of the second year—was the least favorable period (LFP) for stock market investors. It appeared that politicians were anxious to exercise policies that were designed to pump up the economy just prior to a presidential election, which in turn had a positive affect on stock prices. 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.

VIDEO: Wall of Worry: Elections and the Markets

A Pepperdine Faculty Panel Video Discussion

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?

Access to the GBR

Video Library and the Dean’s Executive Leadership Series podcasts can also be found on our home page.

We hope you will find the GBR informative and enjoyable to read. Please contact me with questions or submissions at nancy.dodd@gbr.pepperdine.edu or 310-568-2313.

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Author of the article
Nancy Ellen Dodd, MPW, MFA
Nancy Ellen Dodd, MPW, MFA, serves as academic editor of the “Graziadio Business Review and teaches presentations and stories at the Graziadio School.” Her book on creative writing, “The Writer’s Compass: From Story Map to Finished Draft in 7 Stages,” was published by Writer’s Digest Books in June 2011. She also served as editor of Marshall, a USC academic/alumni magazine, and started the Marshall Review, an online journal for the Marshall School of Business at USC. More than 135 of her articles have been published in local and national publications. Dodd received her master’s in Professional Writing from USC with a concentration in screenwriting and an MFA in playwriting at the USC School of Theatre. Ms. Dodd also teaches screenwriting as an adjunct faculty in Seaver College at Pepperdine University. She is currently working on her PhD dissertation in Global Leadership and Change.
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