We examine how product market competition affects the disclosure of innovation. Theory posits that product market competition can cause firms to increase their disclosure of innovation to deter competitors. Consistent with this reasoning, we find that patent applicants in more competitive industries voluntarily accelerate their patent disclosures, which are credibly disclosed via the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Strategy formation is central to why some firms succeed in entrepreneurial settings while others do not. Prior research suggests that executives effectively form strategies through actions to learn about novel opportunities, and thinking to develop a holistic understanding of the complex set of activities that must fit together.
CEO successions represent critical junctures for firms. Although extant research explores the performance consequences resulting from different succession types, what remains underexplored is what happens when the firm rehires a former CEO (e.g., a “boomerang CEO”).
We utilize the time period over which banking authorities discussed, adopted, and implemented Basel III to examine the financial reporting and operational decisions firms use to respond to proposed regulation. Our primary finding is that the banks affected by this proposal made strategic financial reporting changes and altered their business models prior to the regulation being enacted.
This paper investigates the extent to which the expiration of a temporary tax law makes corporate earnings harder to predict and understand. Examining evidence from eight separate expirations of the R&D tax credit, I find that analysts’ forecast errors and abnormal volume increase surrounding quarterly earnings announcements for firms affected by the R&D tax credit.
Prevailing data suggests that young firms pay employees less than their more mature counterparts. But does a closer look at the data tell a different story?
We study the interaction of flexible capital utilization and depreciation for expected returns and investment of firms. Empirically, an investment strategy that buys (sells) equities with low (high) utilization rates earns 5% p.a.
Research by the institute-affiliated UNC Tax Center shows just six publicly traded U.S. companies, including Amazon and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., would have paid half the estimated $32 billion in revenue generated by a 15% corporate minimum tax signed into law last month. “Who actually pays a lot is just not very many firms at all,” said Jeff Hoopes, Kenan-Flagler Business School professor and the center’s research director, who is one of the study’s authors. “My guess is it will not be the same firms every single year.”
When a business model innovation (BMI) appears, incumbent firms experience great uncertainty about its potential ramifications and their capacity to assimilate the new business model. To resolve such uncertainty, incumbents seek to learn from industry peers, which can spark organizational herding. Organizational herding in BMI contexts is distinct, relative to product/technology adoption contexts, because in addition to peer behaviors, incumbents actively attempt to evaluate peer outcomes, and the importance of peer behaviors and outcomes likely vary, both over time and across types of peers.
In business markets, marketing and sales functions often conflict over customer acquisition. Marketers are seen to complain that sales representatives disregard the leads they generate, while sales representatives question the revenue potential of these leads. How should firms resolve such conflicts? We investigate these questions using relatively novel sequential principal-agent models with risk averse agents where asymmetry of information exists regarding leads’ revenue potentials.
Mark Little, executive director of the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise, was named to the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory Advisory Board on Feb. 7. Little brings to the board an international background in environmental and earth science, policy analysis and renewable energy.
Mark Little, executive director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and director of the institute-affiliated center NCGrowth, was recently featured on an episode of WUNC radio's The State of Things. Mark and Karla Slocum, director of the Institute of African American research, talked with host Frank Stasio about the impetus for the Black Communities Conference, and how black communities are collaborating to preserve and create vibrant futures for themselves.
Join us for an afternoon with Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of SunTrust Banks, Bill Rogers. Rogers has led a significant transformation of the company, building upon its client-first culture and increasing focus on operating returns and efficiency. He is also a champion for the company’s philanthropy and volunteerism.
Kenan Institute Executive Director and Institute for Private Capital Research Director Greg Brown spoke with Wall Street Journal Pro columnist Luis Garcia about what he and other industry observers have noted about investors' interest in the smoothness of private equity returns. Among other insights, Brown offered, “Private equity funds don’t like to mark things up and they don’t like to mark them down. So, when the market goes down, they look better than they should. And when the market goes up, they look worse than they should.”
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has appointed Tom Kenan to the Executive Mansion Fund Incorporated Board of Directors. Kenan is director of Flagler System, Inc. and serves on the UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School Board of Visitors. He is also a trustee of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust and Fund Director.
Mark Little, executive director of the Kenan Institute affiliated center CREATE and co-founder of NCGrowth, appeared on the Friday, Feb. 21 episode of WTVI PBS Charlotte's "Carolina Business Review." Mark discussed economic development across the Carolinas with with Jeff Ruble, Richland County, South Carolina director of economic development; Pat McCrory, former North Carolina governor; and host Chris William. Watch the full episode here.
In the latest webinar collaboration with NCGrowth, Entrepreneurship Center Executive Director Vickie Gibbs spoke with three current and former clients of NCGrowth about COVID-19’s impact on small business.
Greg Brown, executive director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, discussed on WRAL-TV’s July 16 primetime newscast the shortcomings of the federal COVID-19 economic relief package and outlined provisions to make the next stimulus package more effective.
Greg Brown, executive director of the Kenan Institute, spoke with ABC 11 (WTVD) News about LinkedIn’s workforce confidence survey. The survey shows that North Carolina workers’ confidence in workplace safety dropped 10 points from May to June — which Brown said is not surprising.
Mark Little, executive director of CREATE, was recently profiled in an article by Rice University, his alma mater. The article highlights Little’s varied career and collaborative approach to his work.