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Knowledgebase


August 2008

Highlights

  1. Underperforming CEOs Risk Being Fired in Economic Downturns
  2. How to Prevent Cheating
  3. Do Samples Whet—or Dampen—Consumer Appetites?
  4. Young Inventors Make Hybrid Cars Noisier
  5. Digital Nagging Can Keep You Healthy
  6. Putting a Price on Reducing California's Carbon Footprint
  7. United States Can Learn from Students in India, China
  8. Beijing's Olympic Facelift

Corporate Governance

Underperforming CEOs Risk Being Fired
in Economic Downturns

When either their industry or the overall market is doing badly, CEOs are more likely to be fired, according to a recent study. But it isn't just boards looking for scapegoats. The ones who are fired tend to be the underperformers regardless of market conditions.

How to Prevent Cheating

To minimize corruption, leaders must pay attention to incentives, say those who study and teach ethics.

Marketing

Do Samples Whet—or Dampen—Consumer Appetites?

Does passing out samples in a grocery store cause people to not be hungry and therefore shop less? Baba Shiv, professor of marketing, has found evidence that product sampling in fact can do what a good French appetizer is intended to do: whet the appetite for more.

New Ideas

Young Inventors Make Hybrid Cars Noisier

A bright idea that brought several Stanford graduate students to the Business School's Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship is going to work to help Prius and other hybrid cars make enough noise that pedestrians will notice them.

Digital Nagging Can Keep You Healthy

Your cell phone or PDA can help you stay healthy by nagging you to exercise and eat right say Stanford researchers. The University is prototyping a program by Wellsphere, a young company founded in the living room of Ron Gutman, MBA '05, that helps people track their progress online.

Environment

Putting a Price on Reducing California's Carbon Footprint

Making a Prius auto a plug-in costs about $9,000 say Stanford researchers. The cheapest approach, they say, is adopting higher federal fuel efficiency standards for cars in general. The academics are determining the cost for different methods of meeting California's legislated goal to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020.

First Person

The United States Can Learn from High School Students
in India, China

The United States' attitude toward high school, where athletic ability is often valued more than academic prowess, could threaten the nation's future, warns venture capitalist Robert Compton. "The fault lies not in our schools but in ourselves.";

Something to Read

Hot Topic: Beijing's Olympic Facelift

More than US$40 billion has been spent to modernize Beijing and to make sure that the Games will be green, high-tech, and humanistic. The new Beijing now has six rings radiating from the Forbidden City; 2.7 million trees have been planted past year; and a 130-kilowatt system powers the National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics. Jackson Library has compiled coverage of the city's efforts.