How do you know the best ways to make your advertisements compelling? You could follow “best practice”, although that might mean little more than following the herd—where the herd have never genuinely looked at the evidence. Or you could opt for evidence-based advertising. Most people who look for persuasive... [read more...]

Performance improvement is entering a new era, raising difficult questions for companies and individuals. Already, millions of people are taking performance-enhancing drugs—not just for athletic performance but to improve cognitive skills. Suppose that a drug company offers a relatively safe and legal... [read more...]

In what direction should we take American health care policy? The current climate seems to favor moving toward top-down rationing, price controls, mandatory coverage and payments, and numerous other controls on the buying of health care services and insurance. The less popular but more promising path... [read more...]

Executive compensation has come under fire for years. Criticism is unlikely to let up, given the contribution it probably made to the current financial crisis. Some critics will never be satisfied since they are offended simply by what they see as excessively high pay. But even those of us not driven... [read more...]

As the Kyoto Protocol’s 2012 expiration date draws near, a general theme dominates the global conversation: leadership and participation by the United States are critical to the success of whatever climate policy regime succeeds the Kyoto Protocol. Two general policy approaches stand out in the current... [read more...]

In tough times, it’s tempting to cut costs without thinking very carefully about unintended consequences. Costs can be squeezed by reducing inputs of factors of production such as labor. But, at some point, the remaining factors will be overworked, resulting in lower productivity and profitability. The... [read more...]

To paraphrase Gordon Gekko, “Goals are good.” At least, most executives would reflexively agree that setting specific, challenging goals can powerfully drive behavior and boost performance. And, as the authors of this critical paper acknowledge, hundreds of studies support that view. How could goals... [read more...]

New information technologies, especially those often loosely grouped together as “Web 2.0,” are changing the actual and potential interactions between companies, customers, and other stakeholders. The authors of this paper focus on retailers and consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs) and the ways in... [read more...]

The more frequently you receive information about a situation, the better your decisions are likely to be. Or so it would seem—at least up until the point that you’re too distracted by incoming data to think about it. Recent studies by the authors suggest that the upper limit for the benefits of increasing... [read more...]

How did securitization allow trillions of dollars of risky assets to be transformed into securities that were widely considered to be safe? Structured finance pools economic assets such as loans, bonds, and mortgages and then issues a prioritized capital structure of claims or “tranches” against these... [read more...]