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Global B-School Research
We begin this series by providing authentic information and knowledge from select top of the line B-Schools of the world. The information is being brought exclusively to our website readers. The first in this series would be from SMU Cox School of Business ranked as fourth in the US and Tenth in the world
A look at recent research by Cox School faculty

Financial Market Regulation: New York vs. the World
Is New York becoming uncompetitive vis-à-vis other global financial centers such as London? New evidence proves that certain regulations are in fact valued by markets and investors, and that over-regulation is not the source of America’s woes for foreign firms coming to the U.S. Novel research by Finance Chair Darius Miller of SMU Cox and co-authors shows that an attempt to enhance U.S. competitiveness by relaxing regulations for foreign firms listing in the U.S. has had the opposite effect. (Forthcoming in Journal of Financial Economics)

Smarter and More Modern Ways to Pay for Infrastructure
Given the deficits of state and federal budgets, bringing the private sector into the financing equation through public-private partnerships (PPP) makes more sense. Certain types of infrastructure projects illustrate the challenge of funding, implementation and the need for private sector involvement. As a new form of public-private partnership, U.S. and global capital markets can offer a viable source of funds, promote better governance, and bring transparency to the infrastructure challenge. (The unpublished opinion piece by Distinguished Finance Professor Andrew Chen and co-author Jennifer Warren is available upon request.)

Generous Unemployment Benefits Reduce Entrepreneurial Activity
While unemployment benefits are helpful to cushion the blow of job loss, overly generous benefits reduce the incentive for new start-ups. This is worrisome given their multiplier effect. The authors show that a 0.1% GDP increase in benefits reduces the share of entrepreneurs by 3%; of a population of 200 million that’s at loss of 600,000 start-ups. With entrepreneurs employing two or more people, 1,200,000 jobs could conservatively be lost -- all of the adults in the city of Houston. This calculation excludes other indirect effects of unemployment benefits for established firms. The study by Entrepreneurship Chair Maria Minniti and co-author Philipp Koellinger is forthcoming in Economic Letters. (Paper and summary can be requested.)

Innovation and Imitation: How Entrepreneurs Impact Economic Growth
Most governments are in hot pursuit of growth or soft landing policies to lessen the effects of recession and financial crisis. Spending in research and development (R&D) and the innovation it brings is often a target for growth. But what can be learned from China’s economic miracle, with scant R&D spending? SMU Cox Professor Maria Minniti and co-author shatter some myths about entrepreneurs, innovation, and the growth of an economy -- with lessons for policymakers.

The Price Women Pay
As their numbers grow, women are increasingly making pricing decisions in the professions. But the role gender plays in the income-gender disparity is still not well understood. A new study on gender and how it impacts pricing decisions helps explain a piece of the puzzle about the income gap between men and women. Management Professor John Slocum of SMU Cox and co-authors explain why women’s salary gaps are still widening compared to men.

New Ideas Needed for 2009? Try Brainwriting
Generating creative ideas is critical for organizations given the challenging business and economic climate. A different approach to generate novel ideas may bring employees, managers and the customers they serve out of the doldrums. SMU Cox Management Professor Peter Heslin shows how the technique of brainwriting may prove useful for organizations searching for breakthrough ideas or simply a better way forward.

http://www.cox.smu.edu/article/research/research.do

Updated book ‘ The Lean Toolbox – The Essential Guide to Lean Transformation' released

THE LEAN TOOLBOX:

A PRACTICAL GUIDE ON HOW TO DO MORE WITH LESS, AND SAVE COSTS ALONG THE WAY

CAMBRIDGE, UK, – Judge Business School , University of Cambridge is delighted to announce the publication of the fourth edition of ‘ The Lean Toolbox – The Essential Guide to Lean Transformation' .

The book is a significantly updated revision of the best-selling ‘The Lean Toolbox', authored by John Bicheno who is joined in this edition by Dr Matthias Holweg, Director of the School's Centre for Process Excellence and Innovation (CPEI) and Reader in Operations Management at Judge Business School. 

Written for busy Lean practitioners, managers at all levels, as well as business students, the book provide a “no-nonsense”, straightforward explanation of the dynamic evolution of Lean; from it's roots in manufacturing, to its ability to adapt to an ever-widening range of industries and organisational functions, including product development, service and even healthcare operations. 

The authors also explain the amalgamation of traditional Lean with the Theory of Constraint and Six Sigma and other relatively new concepts for transformation – an issue that has caused considerable confusion at firms in the recent past. “It is indeed possible to combine Lean and Six Sigma and ‘get the best of both worlds', but to do that successfully one must clearly understand their differences in philosophy and approach”, said Dr Holweg.

In the current contracting economy, the pressure to achieve better cost savings is higher than ever. There exists a drive to do more with less resource, be that energy, materials, finished goods or even reduce the carbon footprint of production and distribution operations.

Dr Holweg concluded: “Here is where Lean can help. It is largely common sense put into practice, so people will naturally start to gravitate towards the concepts that underpin a Lean transformation. However, it is important to understand that Lean is not just about waste reduction or time compression, with connotations of ‘mean-ness' or cutting back and redundancy – on the contrary Lean is about growth and opportunity, seeing the value stream from the customer's point of view can unlock huge improvements and lead to natural cost reductions.”

A podcast recorded with Dr Holweg entitled “Leaning towards a transformation” which looks at Lean's evolution and how it can provide longer term cost benefits to any organisation in any sector globally can be found at http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/news/research_focus/windowontheworld.html#0902holweg_leaning

for contacting Judges Business School :

Aislinn Ryan
Communications Manager
Judge Business School
University of Cambridge
Trumpington Street
Cambridge
CB2 1AG
a.ryan@jbs.cam.ac.uk

About Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Judge Business School is internationally recognised as one of the leading providers of innovative, intellectually challenging and practical business management education across a portfolio of undergraduate, graduate and executive programmes. As a fully integrated department of a world renowned university, Judge Business School hosts one of the largest concentrations of interdisciplinary business and management research activity in Europe. Built on an ethos of collaboration, the School is a unique place where policy makers, regulators, industry leaders, not for profit organisations, entrepreneurs and academics can meet, interact and share ideas. Judge Business School delivers business education for the 21st networked economy, fostering collaborative leadership skills, developing communities of partners to meet the challenges of the new global business landscape.

Ranked  17th in the 2009 FT Global Rankings of business schools , 7th in the 2007 Economist Intelligence Unit Global MBA Rankings, and 3rd in the 2007 Forbes Global Rankings for one year MBA programmes, the Cambridge MBA sits alongside the very best in the world. 

http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/