Lion's Share: The Research Cast

ENTR 820 | Session 8 | Intellectual Property and Business Model Innovation Summary: To succeed in competitive markets, firms must move beyond an "innovation blind spot" that focuses solely on creating value and instead develop strategies to capture value. While innovation is often seen as a driver of growth, business history is full of pioneers, such as Netscape and Xerox PARC, who failed to profit from their breakthroughs because they could not secure the economic returns. The Profiting from Innovation (PFI) framework highlights that value capture depends on a firm's appropriability regime—the strength of its intellectual property and natural barriers to imitation—and its control over complementary assets, such as distribution or manufacturing. Managers can actively shape these outcomes by choosing between proprietary strategies that strictly protect IP and open strategies that share technology to drive industry standards. Furthermore, firms can innovate their business models by changing five key focal points: the price-setting mechanism, the payer, the price carrier, the timing of the exchange, or the market segment. Ultimately, the ability to extract value depends on understanding the industry architecture and positioning the firm to control critical bottlenecks in the value chain.

ENTR 502 | Session 8 | Foundations of Startup Architecture Summary: Building a successful startup requires strategically assembling a multitalented, flexible team capable of navigating the inherent chaos of a new venture. Leadership typically centers on a visionary CEO who can motivate others through a "reality distortion field," complemented by a COO who manages daily operations. Beyond these roles, a core founding team often needs a balance of technical, sales, and creative expertise—sometimes simplified as a hacker, hustler, and designer—to handle product development, marketing, and user experience. As the company grows, it is essential to fill specialized positions such as product managers, sales managers, and customer service representatives to drive revenue and maintain the brand's reputation. Because hiring is costly and time-consuming, founders are encouraged to hire slowly for cultural fit, prioritize candidates with shared values, and consider outsourcing non-essential functions such as legal and accounting services to prevent employee burnout and manage limited resources.

ENTR 820 | Session 7 | Lean, Agile, and Design Thinking Summary: Modern innovation strategies integrate Lean, Agile, and Design Thinking to foster efficiency and user-centered development. Lean prioritizes value creation through waste reduction and early validation, while Agile focuses on rapid, iterative execution. Design Thinking adds a human-centered layer by emphasizing empathy to define problems and ideate solutions. These frameworks rely heavily on prototyping and Minimum Viable Products (MVPs)—low-cost tools such as paper models, landing pages, or "concierge" services—to test hypotheses "outside the building" and gather real-world feedback. By engaging in this iterative cycle, organizations can pivot away from failing ideas before committing significant resources, ultimately achieving a balance between entrepreneurial agility and strategic direction. Additionally, academic resources such as the Student News Readership Program support these skills by providing students with free access to credible news, enhancing their critical thinking and civic engagement.

ENTR 502 | Session 7 | Validating the Venture: The Customer Discovery Blueprint Summary: Customer discovery is a structured, empirical process focused on validating business hypotheses by "getting out of the building" to learn directly from potential customers. Rather than selling, the goal is to determine whether a problem is significant enough to support a business by designing objective pass/fail experiments and using minimum viable products (MVPs) to elicit honest feedback. To gather reliable data, entrepreneurs must apply "The Mom Test," which involves asking specific questions about a customer's past behavior and life rather than seeking opinions or hypothetical validation, which often results in biased "bad data" such as compliments and fluff. This phase also requires mapping the customer's buying process, understanding their unique motivations, and identifying a homogeneous group of the "Next 10 Customers" who closely fit the target profile to ensure the solution is replicable. Ultimately, this phase concludes with a pivot-or-proceed decision, where the founding team assesses whether they have found "earlyvangelists" with an urgent need or whether they must refine their value proposition based on factual market insights rather than potentially expensive assumptions.

ENTR 502 | Session 6 | Competitor Analysis and Benchmarking Summary: Business market analysis and strategy are critical for navigating today's competitive landscape, enabling companies to make informed decisions by evaluating customer preferences, industry trends, and competitor activities. A comprehensive approach requires identifying both direct and indirect competitors across marketing, product, and pricing perspectives, while leveraging AI-driven intelligence to automate data collection and track strategic shifts in real time. To position a venture effectively, entrepreneurs should chart their competitive position based on the target persona's top priorities and validate assumptions through a Minimum Viable Business Product (MVBP) to ensure the customer receives meaningful value. Success also depends on avoiding common pitfalls like "first-and-only-itis" and neglecting the customer's status quo, which remains a primary obstacle to market adoption. Ultimately, a robust strategy must be supported by strong leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and continuous evaluation to remain relevant amid evolving technological and economic conditions.

ENTR 820 | Session 6 - Cultivating the Fuzzy Front End Summary: Innovation and idea generation are described as dynamic, iterative processes that often begin in the "Fuzzy Front End," an ambiguous phase that requires refinement and a focus on asking the right questions rather than jumping to immediate answers. Instead of isolated "eureka" moments, breakthrough insights frequently emerge as "slow hunches" that evolve over long periods through "liquid networks"—environments such as historical coffeehouses or collaborative lab meetings where diverse perspectives can collide and connect. Organizations can stimulate this creativity by using structured techniques such as SCAMPER or brainwriting to overcome cognitive barriers and by implementing deliberate systems for startups that systematically map specific customer needs against various business models. Ultimately, sustaining innovation requires a culture of psychological safety, the rigorous use of customer insights and external validation, and a greater emphasis on connecting ideas across open systems rather than solely protecting intellectual property.        

FIN 588 | Session 6 | The Cross-Section of Bank Value - 2022 Mark Egan, Stefan Lewellen, Adi Sunderam Summary: We study the determinants of value creation in U.S. commercial banks. We develop novel measures of individual banks' productivities at collecting deposits and making loans that we relate to bank market values. We find that deposit productivity accounts for two-thirds of the value of the median bank and most of the variation in value across banks. Variation in productivity is driven by differences across banks in technology, customer demographics, and market power. We also find evidence of synergies between deposit-taking and lending. Our findings suggest that there is significant heterogeneity in banks' ability to capture value by manufacturing safe assets.  

ENTR 820 | Session 5 | Developing an Innovation Strategy Summary: An innovation strategy is a deliberate framework that aligns an organization's development of new products, services, and processes with its overarching business objectives to drive growth and maintain competitive relevance. It provides essential guidance for idea generation, project selection, and organizational culture, ensuring that innovation efforts are intentional rather than reactive. To navigate uncertainty, organizations use strategic analysis tools such as SWOT and PESTEL, as well as scenario planning to explore multiple future possibilities and challenge narrow mental maps. Key methodologies within this strategy include business model innovation using the Business Model Canvas, the creation of new market spaces through Blue Ocean Strategy, and the monitoring of disruptive technologies and S-curves to time market entries effectively. Furthermore, modern innovation often relies on open innovation and collaboration within ecosystems to access external expertise and reduce time-to-market, ultimately aiming to deliver "excitement features" that provide significant differentiation and customer satisfaction.        

ENTR 502 | Session 5 | The Business Model Canvas Strategy Summary: A successful startup requires a viable business model that effectively balances the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) against the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to ensure long-term profitability. CAC is the total cost of convincing a potential customer to purchase a product. For a business to be sustainable, the value a customer brings over their lifetime should be significantly higher than this acquisition cost. To strategically design and visualize these models, entrepreneurs frequently use the Business Model Canvas, a tool comprising nine building blocks—including Customer Segments, Revenue Streams, and Cost Structure—that illustrate how an organization creates and captures value. A critical component of this canvas is the Value Proposition, which must be clearly quantified by comparing a customer's current "as-is" state with the "possible" state achieved through the product's benefits. Because high acquisition costs and a lack of clear financial planning are leading causes of startup failure, businesses must continuously monitor these metrics and iterate on their strategies to achieve scalable growth.        

ENTR 820 | Session 4 | Architectures of Service Innovation Summary: Service innovation is defined as improving an existing product or service and serves as a vital economic driver in advanced nations, where the service sector can account for approximately 80% of employment. Because services possess unique characteristics such as intangibility, heterogeneity, customer contact, and perishability, they are often more difficult to conceptualize and evaluate than physical goods. To manage these complexities, organizations use structured models like the Pentathlon Framework and tools such as service blueprints to map customer journeys and close the gap between customer expectations and actual delivery. While innovation styles vary by sector—ranging from servitization in manufacturing to social innovation in the nonprofit world—successful implementation requires a shift toward outside-in thinking and a clearly defined business model to ensure profitability. However, a significant barrier remains the reluctance of senior executives, who may view innovation as a financial risk. Innovators must therefore use strategic language about upselling, cross-selling, and customer retention to justify investment and secure necessary support.    

ENTR 502 | Session 4 | Value Proposition, Product Development, and the Customer Summary: The process of value proposition design focuses on discovering and creating unique benefits for customers by identifying the specific "jobs" they "hire" products to perform in their lives. Using tools like the Value Proposition Canvas, businesses can systematically map customer profiles—including their tasks, pains, and desired gains—against a value map to achieve precise product-market fit. To validate these assumptions effectively, entrepreneurs should build a Minimum Viable Business Product (MVBP), the simplest version of a product designed to test value and secure payment while initiating an iterative feedback loop. Techniques such as "concierging" allow teams to provide personalized, hands-on support to understand unique requirements and "fake it" behind the scenes without initially overspending on complex technology. Finally, a structured Product Plan ensures long-term success by outlining how to expand from an initial beachhead market into adjacent areas, balancing functional enhancements with high-quality releases to achieve a sustainable business model fit.

ENTR 820 | Session 3 | Innovation in Context: Driving Change and Market Evolution Summary: Innovation is propelled by a multifaceted interplay of contextual drivers, including financial pressures for efficiency, shifting demographic and market trends, and the rapid advancement of technologies such as AI and robotics. While businesses often innovate to meet rising consumer expectations, regulatory standards, or shorter product life cycles, highly risky and expensive ventures with no immediate return on investment—such as early space exploration—are typically pioneered by governments rather than private capital, which requires a proven business case. Effective innovation management requires understanding the diffusion process of new ideas, balancing the complexity and risks of new systems, and strategically aligning innovations with a firm's core competencies and 'imitability' to ensure long-term profitability. Ultimately, proactive managerial decision-making and the adoption of models like open innovation are essential for organisations to navigate maturing markets and sustain a competitive advantage in a changing global economy.

ENTR 502 | Session 3 | Venturing from Opportunity to Market Validation Summary: Successful entrepreneurship begins with identifying a viable market niche or a specific problem to solve, often rooted in personal passion or experienced pain points. Centring a business on customer needs—including functional, emotional, and social requirements—is critical for driving innovation, fostering loyalty, and sustaining long-term growth. Identifying these needs requires a combination of market research, analyzing existing data, soliciting direct feedback, and monitoring social media trends to understand the "who, what, and why" of consumer behaviour. Modern businesses can significantly enhance this process by leveraging machine learning and AI tools to automate routine tasks, perform sentiment analysis, and gain deeper consumer insights at scale. To stand out in competitive markets, founders must articulate a clear product vision and positioning statement that defines their unique benefit and differentiation from existing alternatives. Finally, adopting a Lean Startup approach—prioritising "validated learning" through the build-measure-learn feedback loop—allows entrepreneurs to iterate products rapidly and pivot when necessary to avoid wasting resources on solutions that do not meet market demand

FIN 588 | Session 5 | Roche's Acquisition of Genentech - 2026 In 2008, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche proposed acquiring the remaining 44% of its fiercely independent biotech subsidiary, Genentech, offering $89 per share in a deal valued at approximately $100 billion. This strategic move was designed to reduce operational overlap, secure unfettered access to Genentech's substantial free cash flow, and protect Roche's access to an innovative drug pipeline before a key licensing agreement expired in 2015. However, the acquisition faced a significant valuation impasse when Genentech's special committee rejected the offer as inadequate, countered with a price of $112 to $115 per share, and refused to negotiate downward despite the burgeoning 2008 global financial crisis. Roche's leadership, including Franz Humer and Severin Schwan, had to navigate the extreme difficulty of securing $44 billion in debt financing during a worldwide credit freeze while fearing that a hostile tender offer might alienate the star scientists and managers central to Genentech's success.  

FIN 588 | Session 4 | CEO Compensation - Evidence from the field - 2022 Alex Edmans, Tom Gosling, Dirk Jenter Summary: We survey directors and investors on the objectives, constraints, and determinants of CEO pay. We find that directors face constraints beyond participation and incentives, and that pay matters not to finance consumption but to address CEOs' fairness concerns. 67% of directors would sacrifice shareholder value to avoid controversy, leading to lower levels and one-size-fits-all structures. Shareholders are the main source of constraints, suggesting that directors and investors disagree on how to maximize value. Intrinsic motivation and reputation are seen as stronger motivators than incentive pay. Even with strong portfolio incentives, flow pay responds to performance to fairly recognize the CEO's contribution.

ENTR 820 | Session 2 | Understanding Innovation Management Innovation is far more than a "light bulb" moment of pure creativity; it is a disciplined management process that transforms ideas into tangible value through structured frameworks and integrated scientific, financial, and technical activities. It encompasses dimensions beyond products, including process, business model, and service innovations, which often provide a more sustained competitive advantage because they are more difficult for competitors to copy. To succeed, organizations must balance a portfolio of incremental, breakthrough, and radical innovations while fostering a cross-functional environment that integrates R&D, marketing, operations, and external partnerships. Ultimately, effective innovation management—often conceptualized through models like the Innovation Pentathlon—requires aligning strategy, people, and culture to navigate the "messy" reality of feedback loops, dead ends, and environmental uncertainty.

ENTR 502 | Session 2 | Corporate Structures A business entity is a legal designation that establishes a company's separate existence. Choosing the right structure is vital because it determines taxation, management frameworks, and the protection of personal assets. Simple structures such as sole proprietorships and partnerships are relatively easy to form but often involve unlimited liability or lack long-term business continuity. Conversely, Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) and corporations (C-corps and S-corps) provide greater liability protection, though they differ significantly in tax treatment, ranging from pass-through taxation to the "double taxation" faced by C-corporations. The formation process generally involves registering with a Secretary of State, obtaining an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS, and ensuring foreign entity registration if the business operates outside its home state. Furthermore, selecting a jurisdiction such as Delaware, Nevada, or Wyoming can offer additional strategic benefits, including enhanced privacy and more favorable tax laws.

ENTR 502 | Session 1 | Orientation Entrepreneurial Mindset Summary: An entrepreneurial mindset is a multifaceted set of mental attitudes and behaviors, such as resilience, adaptability, and proactivity, that drive individuals to recognize opportunities and innovate in uncertain conditions. According to the sources, this mindset is a universal necessity across all sectors, including government and large corporations, to solve complex global challenges like climate change and healthcare. Core traits include calculated risk-taking, creative problem-solving, and self-motivation, which can be cultivated by setting clear goals, networking, and viewing setbacks as learning experiences rather than endpoints. While sources debate age—suggesting that older entrepreneurs may be more successful due to industry experience and financial security, whereas 20-somethings offer fresh perspectives and have less to lose—the mindset remains a catalyst for personal and professional growth. Developing these skills ultimately equips individuals to drive positive societal change by transforming obstacles into platforms for success.   To help solidify this concept, you might think of an entrepreneurial mindset as a biological immune system for a career; instead of being weakened by the "germs" of failure or change, the mindset learns from them, becoming stronger and more capable of handling the next challenge. Please note that this analogy is my own and is not drawn from the provided sources.

FIN 588 | Session 1-3 | Foundations and Frontiers of Corporate Finance Research Summary This is an overview of the optional readings for Sessions 1-3. The sources examine the evolution of corporate finance from the Modigliani-Miller irrelevance propositions to complex frameworks that incorporate agency costs and incomplete contracts, where ownership is primarily defined by residual rights of control. Research indicates that a firm's capital structure is often remarkably stable over decades, typically driven by unobserved time-invariant effects or historical market timing rather than current optimal trade-offs. Debt maturity and seniority are strategically used to manage creditor conflict and control, yet shorter maturities can paradoxically worsen debt overhang during future periods of financial distress. Real-world investment efficiency is further affected by headquarters' proximity to plants and the "WACC fallacy", a common error in which managers destroy value by applying a unique discount rate to diverse projects. Furthermore, while the prevalence of secured debt has declined alongside improvements in accounting transparency, corporate decisions such as dividend payments are often driven by managers catering to fluctuating investor sentiment regarding stock characteristics.

FIN 588 | Session 3 | Corporate Financing and Investment without Information - 1984 Stewart C. MYERS, Nicholas S. MAJLUF Summary The sources examine how asymmetric information—specifically, when managers possess superior knowledge of a firm's value compared to outside investors—affects corporate behavior. Because managers aim to protect the interests of existing shareholders, they may decline to issue new stock if the market price is too low, even if the capital is needed for valuable investment opportunities. This reluctance can result in a "financing trap" in which firms forfeit projects with a positive net present value (NPV) to avoid diluting the value of old shares. Consequently, the model suggests a pecking order for financing, where firms first rely on internal funds (financial slack), then prefer debt over equity to minimize the negative signals associated with new issues. The decision to issue equity is often interpreted by the market as a sign of overvaluation, which typically causes the stock price to fall. Ultimately, maintaining ample financial slack allows a firm to decouple its investment decisions from these information-related conflicts of interest. This situation is like a collector who refuses to sell a rare painting at a discount to fund a new acquisition; they would rather miss out on the new piece than let the current one go for less than they know it is worth.

FIN 588 | Session 1 | The Modigliani-Miller Theorems: A Cornerstone of Finance - 2005 Marco Pango Summary: The Modigliani-Miller (MM) theorems are regarded as the foundational cornerstone of modern finance for both substantive and methodological reasons. Substantively, they serve as "irrelevance propositions," providing a clear benchmark in which a firm's value is unaffected by its capital structure or dividend policy. This invariance holds under specific idealized conditions: the absence of taxes, no bankruptcy costs, and perfectly competitive, frictionless markets free of informational asymmetry. By establishing this neutral baseline, the theorems have driven the subsequent development of corporate finance toward exploring how relaxing these assumptions—such as considering the tax advantages of debt or the impact of asymmetric information—affects firm performance and value in the real world. Methodologically, the MM theorems introduced arbitrage arguments to financial theory, shifting the field from descriptive methods to formal, deductive reasoning and setting a precedent for subsequent breakthroughs in asset pricing, such as the Black-Scholes formula.   To understand these theorems, it may be helpful to think of them as a map of a frictionless world; while such a world does not exist, having the map allows researchers to identify and measure the specific "frictions"—like taxes and information gaps—that alter a firm's true value.  

ENTR 810 | Session 12 | Netflix, IP Strategy, and Entertainment Trends Introduciton: Netflix established itself as a global entertainment leader by successfully pivoting from DVD rentals to streaming, notably overcoming Blockbuster, which declined the founders' $50 million sale offer in 2000. Guided by a culture of reinvention and leadership from figures like co-founder Reed Hastings and co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Netflix secured its competitive edge by shifting to an original content strategy—highlighted by the 2013 success of House of Cards—that emphasized diversity, global reach, and substantial investment to attract top talent. Today, Netflix maintains its position as the subscription streaming leader with 260 million paying customers, even as analysts proclaim the "streaming wars" are largely won, evidenced by rivals licensing content to the platform. To ensure continued growth in a market where streaming viewing has now surpassed linear TV for the first time, Netflix has cracked down on password sharing, diversified its offerings into live sports like WWE's Raw, and is pursuing future innovations such as personalized trailers and interactive content using AI technology. Furthermore, the company plans to engage fans in new ways by launching physical retail and experience locations called "Netflix House" starting in 2025.

MBADM 850 | Session 12 | Business Models and Innovation Monetization Introduction: A business model is a framework that supports a product or company's viability by showing how it creates, delivers, and captures value and revenue while meeting customer needs. Monetization involves generating income from assets or actions, effectively turning product or service usage into profit. Common strategies include offering products for free while earning from advertising, using the freemium model where basic services are free but premium features require a subscription (e.g., LinkedIn and Spotify), charging a recurring low fee (e.g., Netflix), applying tiered pricing based on volume, or adopting the Razor and Blades model, where a low-cost item requires expensive, disposable supplies. Companies like Amazon innovate mainly in sales and delivery channels, while Spotify disrupted the music industry with new revenue models, showing that success often results from optimizing or radically changing one part of the business. Achieving product-market-pricing fit is crucial, ensuring customers need, see value in, and are willing to pay for the product, often by discussing pricing early in the R&D process. Disruptive innovations, such as how airline loyalty programs evolved into large banking-partnered financial systems after deregulation, demonstrate how new business models can completely transform industries.

MKTG 556 | Session 9 | Augmented Reality in Retail and Its Impact on Sales - 2022 Yong-Chin Tan, Sandeep R. Chandukala, and Srinivas K. Reddy Introduction: The rise of augmented reality (AR) technology offers marketers exciting opportunities to engage customers and enhance their brand experience. Although companies are eager to invest in AR, research showing its real-world impact is limited. In this article, the authors identify four main ways the technology is used in retail settings. They focus specifically on AR's role in helping customers evaluate products before buying and analyze its effect on online retail sales. Using data from an international cosmetics retailer, they find that AR use on the retailer's mobile app correlates with higher sales for less popular brands, niche products, and more expensive items. Additionally, the impact of AR is stronger among customers new to the online channel or product category, indicating that sales growth results from increased online channel adoption and category expansion. These findings support the idea that AR is most effective when product-related uncertainty is high, showing the technology's potential to boost sales by reducing uncertainty and building purchase confidence. To promote more meaningful research, the authors outline a research agenda for AR in marketing.

MKTG 556 | Session 9 | AI–Human Hybrids for Marketing Research: Leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) as Collaborators - 2025 Neeraj Arora, Ishita Chakraborty, and Yohei Nishimura Introduction: The authors' main idea is that a hybrid approach combining humans and large language models (LLMs) improves efficiency and effectiveness in marketing research. In qualitative research, they show that LLMs can help with both data generation and analysis; LLMs effectively create sample characteristics, generate synthetic respondents, and conduct and moderate in-depth interviews. The AI–human hybrid produces information-rich, coherent data that exceeds human-only data in depth and insightfulness and matches human performance in tasks like generating themes and summaries. Evidence from expert judges indicates that humans and LLMs have complementary skills; the human–LLM hybrid outperforms either humans or LLMs alone. For quantitative research, the LLM correctly identifies the answer's direction and valence, with the quality of synthetic data greatly improving through few-shot learning and retrieval-augmented generation. The authors highlight the value of the AI–human hybrid by working with a Fortune 500 food company and replicating a 2019 study using GPT-4. For their empirical work, they design system architecture and prompts to create personas, ask questions, and gather responses from synthetic respondents. They provide road maps for integrating LLMs into qualitative and quantitative marketing research and conclude that LLMs are valuable partners in generating insights.

ACCTG 502 | Session 9 | The Timeliness of Bad Earnings News and Litigation Risk - 2012 Dain C. Donelson, John M. Mclnnis, Richard D. Mergenthaler, Yong Yu Introduction: This study examines whether the prompt disclosure of bad earnings news is linked to a lower rate of litigation. The promptness of earnings news is measured by a new metric based on the progression of the consensus analyst earnings forecast. After controlling for total bad earnings news and other factors influencing litigation, we find that earlier disclosure of bad earnings news decreases the likelihood of litigation. This finding applies to both settled and dismissed lawsuits. Additionally, we compare our results with previous research that measures timeliness through managerial warnings issued via press releases. These tests indicate that our findings are due to the ability of our timeliness measure to detect bad earnings news disclosed through channels other than press releases.

ACCTG 502 | Session 9 | Rules-Based Accounting Standards and Litigation - 2012 Dain C. Donelson, John M. Mclnnis, Richard D. Mergenthaler Introudction: Some claim that rules-based accounting standards shield firms from litigation, while others argue that violations of detailed rules give plaintiffs a "roadmap" to successful litigation. We inform this debate by investigating whether rules-based standards are associated with the incidence and outcome of securities class action litigation. Overall, our results suggest that rules-based standards are associated with a lower incidence of litigation but are not associated with litigation outcomes. These results are of interest in the debate regarding the switch from a more rules-based U.S. GAAP a more principles-based IFRS.

ACCTG 502 | Session 7 | Fair value accounting standards and securities litigation - 2025 Musaib Ashraf, Dain C. Donelson, John McInnis, Richard D. Mergenthaler Introduction: We examine the effect of fair value standards on firms' litigation risk. The discretion required by fair value allows plaintiffs to "second guess" managers' judgments, potentially increasing litigation risk. Alternatively, the complexity of fair value may decrease litigation risk if it's more difficult to demonstrate scienter. Our evidence suggests firms that rely more on fair value standards are relatively less likely to be sued. We find no evidence of a relation between fair value and the risk of misstatements or fraud, but do find evidence of a slight increase in firms' litigation risk via an increase in volatility. However, the primary effect of fair value standards in reducing litigation risk dominates the volatility effect. Finally, we find average litigation rates increase after the passage of new standards, but less so for fair value standards. On balance, our evidence suggests fair value is a relatively low litigation risk area in GAAP.

MBADM 850 | Session 11 | Benchmarking and Competitive Analysis for Innovation Introduction: The essential practices of competitor analysis and benchmarking are important for both startups and established companies seeking innovation and a competitive edge. Competitor analysis for a startup involves identifying rivals, understanding their products and market segments, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, and using this information to anticipate reactions or attract customers. For new markets, the traditional X/Y axis competitive graph is often inadequate, so the recommended "Petal Diagram" is used to visualize potential customer segments from neighboring markets. Benchmarking is a systematic process, separate from competitor research, that measures performance against best practices or world-class standards, often outside one's own industry, to identify performance gaps and promote continuous improvement. Various types include process, strategy, and performance benchmarking, with Net Promoter Score (NPS) frequently serving as a key comparative metric. In large organizations, recent data shows a shift, with less time and resources allocated to transformational innovation (Horizon 3) and more focus on incremental and adjacent innovations. The success of innovation initiatives and the ability to secure additional resources depend heavily on gaining leadership support and demonstrating impact on revenue, although innovators often cite politics, turf wars, and cultural issues as their main challenges.

ENTR 810 | Session 11 | AI: Von Neumann to Altman Hardware Evolution Introduction: The history of Artificial Intelligence (AI) ranges from its foundational theories to its present role as a transformative technology, illustrating the close connection between software models and the hardware that supports them. Early pioneers like Alan Turing, who helped crack the Enigma code and introduced the Turing Test for machine intelligence, and John McCarthy, who coined the term "Artificial Intelligence" at the 1956 Dartmouth Workshop, laid the groundwork for the field. John von Neumann also made significant contributions by imagining adaptive systems and defining the "von Neumann Architecture" for computer design, which remained the standard into the 21st century. After challenging periods such as the "AI Winter," the field saw a resurgence fueled by deep learning—a method that uses deep neural networks and improves predictably as more compute power and data become available. Today's AI boom relies heavily on massive computational infrastructure, with GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) serving as the "heartbeat of AI." Nvidia capitalized on this shift, transitioning from a gaming company to the key provider of AI acceleration hardware, offering GPUs and CUDA libraries. Breakthroughs in software, especially the 2017 introduction of Transformers by Google Brain, enabled models to learn context and track relationships in sequential data, leading to the development of the Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT) and the landmark release of ChatGPT in 2022. Although this progress is expected to usher in an "Age of Intelligence" characterized by widespread prosperity, personalized assistants, and solutions to complex problems, experts also raise serious concerns about ethics, potential disruptions to labor markets, and the fundamental risk that AI goals could diverge from human values, or that humans might weaponize the technology.

MBADM 850 | Session 10 | Innovation, Organization, and Culture: Building Creative Workplaces Introduction: A thriving culture of innovation is vital for any business to survive, driving results like increased revenue and higher employee engagement. This culture promotes questions, conversations, and new ideas from everyone, greatly benefiting from diverse perspectives—a philosophy called "Innovation By All." Building this environment involves specific practices such as fostering psychological safety where failure is seen as a learning opportunity, recognizing employees' efforts, investing in everyone's growth, democratizing idea generation, and dedicating time for experimentation. Innovative cultures are naturally paradoxical, requiring a balance between "soft" values like creativity and freedom, and "hard" elements like discipline, accountability, and high standards. Changing organizational culture is challenging because it is implicit, but leaders can facilitate this transformation by applying the Attraction, Selection, and Attrition (ASA) framework to align personnel with desired values and by targeting change initiatives at early adopters to reach the 15 to 18 percent market penetration necessary for a new idea or culture to become established.

ENTR 810 | Session 10 | Manufacturing, 3D Printing, and Genomics Introduction This compilation offers a comprehensive overview of breakthroughs in advanced manufacturing, 3D printing, and personalized medicine, emphasizing a global technological shift toward precision, customization, and efficiency. In the industrial sector, companies are adopting Industry 4.0 digital technologies, such as flexible automation and AI-powered inspections, to enhance agility, sustainability, and productivity. A significant advance in additive manufacturing is the development of Laser-Assisted Cold Spray (LACS), a technique that uses localized laser heating to repair and construct high-strength components with less thermal impact and without the high cost of helium, providing notable benefits for the aerospace and energy sectors. Simultaneously, 3D printing is being applied in biofabrication for healthcare, especially through the successful creation of functional human pancreatic islets using a novel bioink, which could potentially enable personalized, implantable therapies to eliminate insulin injections for Type 1 diabetes patients. The use of specialized bioinks also extends into food technology, where hydrophobic sorghum protein has been developed as a stable material for 3D-printed food and pharmaceutical delivery systems. These manufacturing innovations are matched by the genomics revolution and the rise of precision medicine, which leverages genetic and biological traits to customize treatments in areas such as oncology and pharmacology, moving beyond the traditional one-size-fits-all model. Central to this medical advancement is the gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9, which has led to the first FDA-approved gene therapies for severe blood disorders, with ongoing efforts to expand applications into fields like diabetes and autoimmune diseases. The foundation of these breakthroughs in precision medicine is Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is vital for swiftly analyzing large datasets, speeding up drug discovery, and detecting patterns, though ongoing challenges related to equitable access and the lack of diversity in genetic research still need to be addressed.

ACCTG 502 | Session 8 | The Information Content of Business Combination Disclosure Level - 2009 Ron Shalev Introduction: This study examines how the level of disclosures in business combinations relates to the acquirers' subsequent performance. It finds that acquirers with higher-than-expected disclosure levels tend to perform better in the future, as measured by return on assets (ROA) and abnormal stock returns. Conversely, firms that allocate unusually large portions of the purchase price to goodwill tend to disclose less information. These findings support disclosure theory, suggesting that managers selectively withhold unfavorable ("bad news") information. The study also shows that investors do not fully incorporate disclosure-level information immediately, especially reacting faster to negative abnormal disclosures. For both scholars and practitioners, the results highlight how strategic disclosure choices send hidden signals about acquisition quality and managerial confidence.

ACCTG 502 | Session 8 | Audited financial reporting and voluntary disclosure as complements: A test of the Confirmation Hypothesis - 2012 Ray Ball, Sudarshan Jayaraman, Lakshmanan Shivakumar Introduction: The article examines the Confirmation Hypothesis, which suggests that audited financial reporting and voluntary disclosure serve as complements rather than substitutes in providing information to investors. The authors contend that independent verification of financial results promotes managerial honesty and accuracy in voluntary disclosures, thereby boosting their credibility. Through empirical analysis, they discover that firms that invest more in audit verification also produce more informative and frequent management forecasts, and that markets respond more strongly to these forecasts, indicating a complementary relationship between the two information channels.

ACCTG 502 | Session 8 | Do Managers Issue More Voluntary Disclosure When GAAP Limits Their Reporting Discretion in Financial Statements? - 2022 PAUL HRIBAR, RICHARD MERGENTHALER , AARON ROESCHLEY , SPENCER YOUNG ,  AND CHRIS X. ZHAO Introduction: The study examines whether managers make up for restrictions in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) by providing more voluntary disclosures. Through textual analysis of GAAP standards, the authors develop a new measure of how much each standard limits managerial discretion and look at various disclosure channels such as management forecasts, non-GAAP earnings, and Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) narratives. They find that when GAAP creates tighter limits, managers increase voluntary disclosures to fill information gaps for investors.

ENTR 810 | Session 9 | Modular Systems and the Amazon Paradigm Introduciton Modularity, often called the Theory of Interdependence and Modularity, is a strong framework that involves splitting a system into smaller, independent parts called modules that work together as a unified whole. This design approach standardizes components, ensuring they fit together consistently and allowing each part to be developed, modified, tested, or replaced independently. Modularity is highly relevant across many industries, including automotives, construction, electronics, and increasingly in areas like healthcare and software architecture, where Amazon has used it strategically through microservices and AWS. A major benefit is greater flexibility, scalability, and faster time to market, helping companies introduce new technology quickly while also providing the variety customers want. This approach solves the dilemma of choosing between customizing products and achieving operational efficiency with fewer variations. Modularity also reduces costs—for example, in modular housing or by enabling MedTech manufacturers to reuse approved components—and improves risk management by isolating problems within specific modules, as seen in the Spotify platform. Additionally, it is embraced in fashion as a smart design tool for sustainability, cutting waste and overconsumption by focusing on versatile, fewer key pieces. Despite these important advantages, challenges remain, mainly related to the complexity of integrating many modules, managing their interactions without performance issues, and the critical need to establish and enforce common standards and standardized interfaces across all teams or partners.

MBADM 850 | Session 9 | Human Capital, Innovation Teams, and Management Strategy Introduction The foundation of organizational success lies in adopting a philosophical mindset that rejects the idea of a fixed world, encouraging individuals to embrace change and influence life, driven by the realization that current systems were created by people no smarter than themselves. Effective leadership supports this by providing a clear common vision, recruiting self-managing individuals who are passionately excited about the mission, and prioritizing the hiring of great individual contributors over typical professional management. Innovative teams must be structured intentionally: they should be small (six to eight people, referred to as "two American pizza teams"), collocated or collaborating synchronously, fully dedicated, and self-sufficient, possessing all necessary competencies internally to minimize external dependencies. Strategic direction should prioritize an emerging strategy based on constant experimentation, shifting the focus from delivering fixed features (output) to achieving measurable business outcomes (changes in customer behavior) by treating roadmaps as critical questions and hypotheses to answer, and maximizing the number of experiments per unit of time. Crucially, innovation is profoundly enhanced by diversity in background, experience, and perspective, which creates a larger knowledge base—or "bigger box"—leading to better problem-solving and decision-making, provided teams harness constructive conflict (debate over the work) while eliminating interpersonal conflict. The day-to-day creative environment is dynamic and can manifest in five profiles, ranging from the highly productive Ideal Day (high stimulants like freedom and support) to the detrimental Toxic Day (low stimulants, high obstacles like political contention), demonstrating that maximizing positive daily experiences and minimizing obstacles are essential for continuous creative performance.

MKTG 556 | Session 8 | Platform Exploitation: When Service Agents Defect with Customers from Online Service Platforms - 2022 Qiang (Kris) Zhou, B.J. Allen, Richard T. Gretz, and Mark B. Houston Introduciton: This research investigates "platform exploitation," a phenomenon where service agents on purely labor-based online platforms (e.g., Zeel, Freelancer, Rover) defect with customers to transact off-platform, thereby avoiding commission fees. Through multiple methods—a qualitative theories-in-use study, a large-scale hazard-model analysis, and two experiments—the authors identify antecedents, mechanisms, and managerial countermeasures. They discover that high-quality and long-tenured agents are more likely to defect, that interaction frequency and service repetitiveness increase off-platform behavior, and that interventions such as sliding-scale fees or community-building efforts can reduce exploitation.

MKTG 556 | Session 7 | Guardians of Trust: How Review Platforms Can Fight Fakery and Build Consumer Trust - 2024 Ben B. Beck, Stefan Wuyts, and Sandy Jap Introduction: This research investigates how online review platforms can serve as "guardians of trust" in an era of widespread misinformation and fake reviews. Drawing on governance and identity-disclosure literature, it proposes five mechanisms—monitoring, exposure, community building, status endowment, and identity disclosure—that help reduce fakery and foster consumer trust in these platforms. Through five complementary studies, it demonstrates how these practices both individually and collectively enhance trust, identify mediating processes (such as reducing perceived firm opportunism and increasing reviewer credibility), and confirm ecological and managerial relevance. Importantly, the authors find that certain governance mechanisms (e.g., exposure, community building, status endowment) can substitute for identity disclosure, providing privacy-preserving options for trust building.

ENTR 810 | Session 8 | Autonomy, Robotics, and Drones: Core Concepts Introduction: A widespread industrial transformation is underway, driven by increasing autonomy and robotics, spanning from warehouse operations to global transportation and agriculture. Amazon is approaching a milestone where its facilities utilize nearly as many robots (more than one million) as human workers, using advanced machines for tasks like picking and packing to significantly enhance productivity and efficiency. This shift also involves retraining human employees for higher-skilled roles managing automated systems, while potentially slowing overall hiring. Globally, the autonomous vehicle (AV) market is valued in the trillions and expected to grow substantially, supported by ongoing advancements in AI and sensor technologies, with Asia-Pacific leading the industry share. This growth includes both passenger vehicles, where lower levels of automation (L1-L3) are common, and the highly anticipated commercial sector, such as driverless semi-trucks tested by companies like Waymo to address driver shortages. However, deploying fully autonomous systems faces challenges—particularly due to the unpredictable behavior of human drivers and the absence of a clear, standardized global regulatory framework. Separately, drones are becoming a vital tool in agriculture, offering crucial precision in surveying and spraying that increases crop yields and conserves resources. They are also poised to transform last-mile delivery, though making delivery cost-effective requires significant regulatory changes to enable one human operator to oversee multiple autonomous drones.

MBADM 850 | Session 8 | Entrepreneurial Strategy, Innovation, and Business Alignment Introduction: The Business Model Canvas (BMC) provides a visual framework for describing, visualizing, and developing a business model on a single sheet of paper. It outlines how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value. This framework consists of nine building blocks: Customer Segments, Value Propositions, Channels, and Customer Relationships, which mainly focus on the right side of the canvas related to revenue generation, and Revenue Streams, which show how the business earns money. The left side emphasizes infrastructure and costs, including Key Resources, Key Activities, Key Partnerships, and the overall Cost Structure. Besides mapping the core parts of the business model, long-term success also depends on an effective business strategy—defined as the actions a company takes to reach its goals and gain a competitive edge—that should align with market dynamics, core competencies, and the competitive landscape. Innovation strategy, which supports the overall business strategy, needs to focus on aligning innovation efforts—whether emphasizing process innovation for cost leadership or product innovation for differentiation—with strategic objectives. For new ventures and startups, while execution and the idea itself are vital, research indicates that timing is the most crucial factor for success, accounting for 42 percent of the difference between success and failure, followed by the team and execution. A clear business model is important too, but often takes a backseat to timing because customer readiness for the offering is ultimately more critical, especially in dynamic markets.

MKTG 556 | Session 7 | Transaction Cost Analysis: Past, Present, and Future Applications - 1997 Arie Rindfleisch & Jan B. Heide Introduction: The abstract presents Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) as a leading framework for understanding governance in marketing channels. Rindfleisch and Heide's main goal is to review TCA's origins, analyze its practical applications in marketing, and identify areas for future research. They position TCA as a link between economics and marketing, emphasizing both its theoretical depth and practical usefulness in managing interorganizational exchanges.

MKTG 556 | Session 7 | Marketing Alliances, Firm Networks, and Firm Value Creation - 2009 Vanitha Swaminathan & Christine Moorman Introduction: The article examines how marketing alliances and firm networks contribute to firm value, measured through abnormal stock returns. The authors argue that while alliances can create shareholder value, the broader network context—such as efficiency, density, and reputation—amplifies or diminishes this effect. Using event study methodology on a sample of marketing alliances in the high-tech industry, the study shows how network characteristics shape value creation.

MKTG 556 | Session 6 |Cross-border marketing ecosystem orchestration: A conceptualization of its determinants and boundary conditions - 2022 Kelly Hewett, G. Tomas M. Hult, Murali K. Mantrala, Nandini Nim, Kiran Pedada Introduction: The article presents the concept of Marketing Ecosystem Orchestration (MEO) as a new strategic approach for international companies to create and capture value across borders. The authors contend that traditional internationalization theories—such as internalization, eclectic (OLI), and the Uppsala model—are inadequate in the age of digital disruption and interconnected markets. MEO focuses on orchestrating interdependent yet autonomous actors, resources, and institutions within a marketing ecosystem. The abstract underscores the development of a conceptual framework based on three sub-ecosystems: supply chains and fulfillment, marketing communications, and transactions and payments.

MBADM 850 | Session 7 | Assessing and Enabling Organizational Innovation Potential Introduction Innovation and creativity are key traits of industry leaders, essential for long-term success in a fast-changing economy. Innovation is broadly defined as introducing something new, from changes in internal processes to entirely new products or services. Truly innovative companies foster a strong culture that encourages creativity and embraces risk-taking, viewing failure as a valuable learning experience. They also maintain a relentless customer-focused approach, actively seeking user feedback to offer personalized solutions. Structurally, innovation must be a top priority at every level of the business. Some experts suggest that the CEO should dedicate 20 to 40 percent of their weekly time to this effort, and the innovation function should report directly to the CEO. These companies are highly agile and adaptable, using lean methodologies, rapid prototyping, and data analytics to inform quick decisions. A crucial practice is the ability to explore new ideas continuously, make small investments, and quickly eliminate projects that lack evidence, allowing successful ideas to flourish and creating a safe space for failure. Additionally, innovators work and utilize space differently: they spend less time working alone and much more time collaborating—both virtually and face-to-face—learning and socializing. This requires diverse workspaces, such as quiet zones for focused work and innovation hubs for group activities. Although US office workers reported spending 46% of their time in the office in 2022, innovators expressed a desire to work in the office more often, aiming for a 67% presence. Transforming an established organization into an innovative one is a major challenge that takes years of effort and changes to culture, people, and processes, supported by strong top management. The process begins with a thorough assessment of the current situation—resources, technology, and attitude toward failure—before establishing and communicating a clear vision for the future. Examples of innovative efforts include Tesla, which transformed the automotive industry by investing heavily in core technologies like batteries and maintaining an innovation pace much faster than competitors, and TomTom, which partnered with Wright Management to assess and train 750 managers across 35 countries to develop world-class leaders capable of driving high-performance, autonomous environments.

ENTR 810 | Session 7 | The Future of Grids, EVs, and Data Centers Introduction: The rapid growth of data centers, driven by increasing cloud and AI demands, is testing Microsoft's goal to become carbon negative. This growth raises overall emissions mainly because of the Scope 3 impact from materials like steel, concrete, and computer chips used in construction. To address this, Microsoft is investing its $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund into developing and expanding low-carbon materials and innovative building practices, such as using cross-laminated timber. It is also working to boost renewable energy in the grids where its data centers operate, recognizing that these facilities need to become flexible energy players. At the same time, electric grids worldwide, especially in the US, need urgent upgrades and large-scale transmission investments to meet the rising demands from these data centers and the growing adoption of electric vehicles, which are quickly becoming mainstream thanks to falling battery costs and a shift toward software-defined mobility. This EV revolution faces fierce global competition, with Chinese automakers like BYD quickly challenging leaders like Tesla by offering advanced driver-assistance technology at lower prices. This shows how energy infrastructure, mobility, and data systems are interconnected in the worldwide effort to decarbonize.

ACCTG 502 | Session 7 | Contract contingencies and uncertainty: Evidence from product market contracts - 2025 Kai Wai Hui, Jun Oh, Guoman She, P. Eric Yeung Introduction: The abstract presents the paper as the first large-scale empirical study of contract contingencies in product market agreements. It shows how earlier research mainly focused on "contract completeness" by counting the actions specified, while this study advances the field by explicitly analyzing contingency clauses. The authors contend that product market agreements are inherently more complex than financial contracts because they must account for uncertain state outcomes affecting both buyers and suppliers. The study aims to measure how firms use contingencies to manage uncertainty and tests competing theories on whether uncertainty results in fewer or more contingencies in practice.

ACCTG 502 | Session 7 | Scope for renegotiation in private debt contracts - 2018 Valeri V. Nikolaev Introduction The study explores why and how private debt contracts are renegotiated, focusing on whether the degree of renegotiation can be predicted from initial contracting frictions. Nikolaev creates a large dataset of over 40,000 renegotiations to test predictions from contract theory. The main idea is that renegotiation is a tradeoff: it offers monitoring benefits to creditors and firms, but also brings costs like hold-up and restrictions on investment.

ACCTG 502 | Session 7 | Capital Versus Performance Covenants in Debt Contracts - 2012 HANS B. CHRISTENSEN AND VALERI V. NIKOLAEV Introduction: The article contends that financial covenants in debt contracts help reduce conflicts of interest between lenders and borrowers through two separate mechanisms: capital covenants, which align debt holder–shareholder interests before the fact, and performance covenants, which serve as trigger points that shift control back to lenders after the fact when their claims' value is at risk. The authors demonstrate that firms balance these mechanisms depending on their financial constraints and the ease of accounting information contractibility. Their findings indicate that covenants enhance contracting efficiency in various ways, highlighting the important role of accounting in debt governance.

ENTR 810 | Session 6 | Climate, Energy, and Agricultural Innovation Introduction The food and agriculture sector is essential for fighting climate change because agri-food systems make up about 30 percent of human-caused global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, it receives less than 5 percent of climate finance despite the urgent need for $1.1 trillion in annual investments over the next five years. Climate disruptions, such as extreme weather events, make food production more difficult and create complex, cascading risks across energy and food systems. This calls for major shifts and innovations at scale. Emerging trends in food and agriculture include increasing land value beyond just crops (for example, through regenerative agronomy for carbon sequestration), driving the biorevolution, promoting sustainable eating (such as expanding plant-based and lab-grown proteins), and reducing waste. These solutions often represent a "third way," combining traditional agroecology with advanced technologies like robotics and AI. Overall, the move toward a green economy is projected to create $11 trillion in value by 2040, offering opportunities in four key areas: critical minerals, green technology manufacturing (the largest sector), green industrial materials, and green services. Artificial intelligence plays a crucial role in this transition by helping to accelerate innovations and optimize current infrastructure, especially by accurately predicting the often unpredictable supply of renewable energy sources like wind. Better forecasting can boost performance by up to 20 percent compared to older systems and reduce dependence on carbon-heavy backup fuels. To expand sustainable agricultural practices and other green solutions, there is an urgent need for innovative finance models utilizing catalytic capital to de-risk investments, which often have long payback periods, and thus unlock essential commercial funding.