Like anyone trying to get something done with limited time and resources, economic developers have a lot of options to weigh when formulating a strategy to attract and retain businesses in their local economy. Over the years, economic development researchers have espoused a succession of theories as they’ve learned more about the many factors that influence economic growth. Historically, practitioners have tended to respond by focusing their efforts around what they perceive as the latest and greatest thinking, often at the expense of previously favored approaches. In practice, this has led to waves in which economic developers have focused on recruiting large, established companies or on fostering home-grown start-ups—but rarely both.
On Wednesday, Feb. 5, Maryann Feldman, Heninger Distinguished Professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina, adjunct professor of finance at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and director of the Kenan Institute-affiliated center CREATE, testified before the Subcommittee on Research and Technology, part of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The hearing, titled "America's Seed Fund: A Review of SBIR and STTR," discussed the role of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program in helping to move the results of federally funded research into commercial development and generating new economic growth.
In a continuing effort to examine the business sector's contributions to inclusive economic growth, the second annual Conference on Market-Based Solutions for Reducing Wealth Inequality will bring top researchers and private sector representatives to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on April 25-26.
For more than a year, researchers across the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s (UNC) Kenan-Flagler Business School (KFBS) and School of Medicine (SOM) worked with Sharecare, Inc. (Sharecare) to establish a framework for measuring the true value of corporate well-being interventions and develop a measurement tool to quantify their impact over time. The goal of the research was to assess the value of implementing corporate well-being interventions to improve employee health and lower direct medical costs to employers.
A talk and discussion with Jan-Benedict Steenkamp author, Global Brand Strategy: World-Wise Marketing in the Age of Branding. Moderated by Professor Olga Hawn. Book Signing and Reception to follow.
Arun Sundararajan, the Harold Price Professor of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Technology, Operations and Statistics at New York University’s (NYU) Stern School of Business, and member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on the New Economic Agenda, will deliver the 2020 Michael Sherraden Lecture.
The Public Sector Showcase provides scholars the opportunity to present their work via virtual panel presentations. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from each scholar about their experiences with their non-profit and government internships, as well as their grant-funded research that examined the impact of COVID-19 on their local communities.
This paper illustrates the major challenges faced by globally recognised classical art forms through the examination of Kutiyattam, a centuries old renowned theatre form of India, Kutiyattam was declared by the UNESCO in 2001 as an intangible heritage of humankind. During the mid-twentieth century, Kutiyattam performers came out of their traditional performing space in Hindu temples, encouraged by the proactive support of the State. In the wake of the UNESCO recognition for the theatre form, State support measures underwent further strengthening. However, in spite of this, India’s Kutiyattam institutions are confronted with a serious economic crisis that threatens their very existence.
Profound demographic changes of all kinds are radically transforming America’s social, economic and political institutions. Perhaps one of the most troubling is something our affiliated Urban Investment Strategies Center Director Dr. Jim Johnson calls the End of Men.
Business incubators are taking on a greater role in the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems, but debate continues over whether, how and in what situations they work. In this Kenan Insight, we explore what makes incubators successful and how communities can determine if one is right for them.
Higher education is in crisis and its leaders are handicapped by a lack of reliable data. We are entering an era that will require more informed decision making in higher education and unfortunately the underlying data, especially benchmarking performance information, do not exist to support such strategic thinking and change.
ESG measurement and impact accounting can have vast economic and social influence; however, implementation is extremely challenging for both businesses and policymakers. In this week’s insight, our experts propose ways of refining ESG measures to produce structures that meet various stakeholder needs, drive reporting free from political influence and agendas, and illustrate the promise and risks of impact accounting.
Kenan Institute Distinguished Fellow Thomas Stith, North Carolina Community College System President Jeff Cox and Capgemini’s Jennifer Paylor discuss workforce skills and the economy.
On January 18-19, 2018, the Frank H. Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and its affiliated Center for Entrepreneurial Studies will convene a highly curated group of 100 thought leaders to discuss leading-edge research on private business ventures and explore ways to sustain and advance entrepreneurship.
As students trickled back onto campus after the Hurricane Florence hiatus, a group of dedicated juniors made its way to Top of the Hill’s Back Bar on Franklin Street on Tuesday evening – not to belly up to the bar, but for a whirlwind round of meeting, greeting and conversation with strangers.
Adopting a justice enactment perspective, we explore managers' consistent versus inconsistent application of existing rules in allocation decisions. We propose that when managers form friendship relationships with their employees, they are likely to experience greater tensions when fulfilling their managerial duties as resource allocators. On the one hand, managers may wish to deviate from the rules to benefit an employee who is also a friend. On the other hand, benefiting one employee (but not others) might lead to tensions in managers' friendships with other employees.
Kenan Institute Executive Director and Institute for Private Capital Research Director Greg Brown gets the last word in this Bloomberg Businessweek article on the ubiquity of private equity.
In a recent Triangle Business Journal article, Urban Investment Strategies Center Director Jim Johnson and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professor Jeanne Milliken Bonds discuss why Americans are increasingly turning to companies with purpose and ethics, and provide a corporate reputational equity checklist to help organizations move toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices.
In a Financial Times article on paying executives in the age of stakeholder capitalism, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professor Camelia Kuhnen notes that performance-related compensation packages can have negative consequences.