The SMU Cox School of Business honored three 2024 Distinguished Alumni and two Outstanding Young Alumni during its Alumni Awards luncheon. The event is held every May at the start of commencement weekend on the SMU campus. Award nominations are submitted to the SMU Cox Alumni Association for consideration by a selection committee.
Veteran leader Joshua Taylor has joined SMU Cox School of Business as the Managing Director of the William S. Spears Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Taylor will be responsible for leading the Institute’s goals, programs and operations, in alignment with the overall mission and vision of SMU Cox, Co-Founding Directors Megha Tolia and Nirav Tolia and benefactor Dr. William S. Spears.
Following a national search, William T. Chittenden, Ph.D., has been selected as the President and CEO of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking (SWGSB) Foundation, headquartered at the SMU Cox School of Business. Dr. Chittenden, whose new role took effect earlier this month, most recently served as Chief Academic Officer of SWGSB and Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in the McCoy College of Business at Texas State University.
Following a national search, William T. Chittenden, Ph.D., has been selected as the President and CEO of the SW Graduate School of Banking (SWGSB) Foundation, headquartered at the SMU Cox School of Business. Dr. Chittenden, whose new role took effect earlier this month, most recently served as Chief Academic Officer of SWGSB and Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in the McCoy College of Business at Texas State University. The selection follows previous President and CEO Jeffrey R. Schmid’s appointment to President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in August 2023.
The SMU Cox Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship hosted its annual celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit Thursday night with a gala and awards dinner at the Dallas Hyatt Regency. The alphabetical list of the 2023 Dallas 100 winning companies was released.
In new research, Strategy Professor Wendy Bradley of SMU Cox and Julian Kolev of the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office analyze new products and services in the digital world, which helps in explaining the rise of intangible assets among firms.
In new research, Wang of SMU Cox and coauthors explore why narcissists are more promotable, enjoy longer tenures, and earn higher compensation than their peers.
In groundbreaking research, Darius Miller and Ruidi Huang of SMU Cox, with coauthor Erik Mayer, examine gender bias in promotions within the U.S. financial industry.
The SMU Cox School of Business honored three 2023 Distinguished Alumni and two Outstanding Young Alumni during its Alumni Awards luncheon. The event is held every May at the start of commencement weekend on the SMU campus. Award nominations are submitted to the SMU Cox Alumni Association for consideration by a selection committee.
Okechi Nwabara (MBA '23) was named among the “2023 Best & Brightest MBAs” by Poets & Quants.
Madeline Langley (BBA '23) and Raleigh Dewan (BBA '23) were named among the “100 Best & Brightest Undergraduate Business Majors of 2023” by Poets & Quants.
SMU Cox honored its academic high-achievers at last week's 2023 Beta Gamma Sigma induction luncheon. The international business honor society welcomed twenty-three BBA students and seventy-three graduate students, representing the top 10% of their respective classes. Induction represents the highest national honor a business student can achieve.
Does the failure of Silicon Valley Bank threaten the integral structure of banking? Read the causes and implications of SVB’s unraveling with expert analysis from SMU Cox professors Gauri Bhat and Hemang Desai.
In a forthcoming paper, Accounting Professor Hemang Desai of SMU Cox and coauthors analyze these firms’ carbon reduction pledges to understand the drivers behind pledges and whether the market finds them credible.
Ryan Murphy, research assistant professor at the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom, and co-author Colin O'Reilly recently published "Anti-growth safetyism" on WorksinProgress.co.
SMU Cox Clinical Professor Michael Davis appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal to discuss possible causes and implications of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
New research by Professor Toby Mühlhofer of SMU Cox and co-authors focuses on valuing illiquid assets, specifically commercial real estate and related securities.
Materiality is in the eye of the beholder. In a more disclosure-aware environment, unique angles are emerging that spotlight the effect of information. New research by Accounting Professor Hayoung Yoon of SMU Cox, with coauthors Thompson and Urcan, shows how presumably immaterial redacted information can have material consequences for investors.
A group of eighteen SMU Cox MBA students recently traveled to Mexico City to “Battle for Banking in Mexico” with MBA students from IPADE Business School.
Dr. Candice Lucas-Bledsoe, director of the Action Research Center in Dallas and SMU Cox Executive Education facilitator, will be honored with the Athena Leadership Award® by the Dallas Regional Chamber on March 9th. The award recognizes "exceptional women who excel in their careers, contribute to their communities, and develop future leaders."
SMU Cox alumni were honored at the 2023 Dallas Business Journal Leaders in Diversity awards. As a sponsor of the event, we are honored to celebrate Tina Bowers (MBA '04) and Cristina Candia Lopez (GMCP), who were both recognized for their outstanding leadership in the DE&I space. Ms. Bowers, Vice President, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer for Children's Health, encouraged her peers to stay excited and passionate as intentional #DEI changemakers. Congratulations to Tina, Cristina, and all the 2023 honorees.
The research, co-authored by SMU Cox Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and MNO department chair Marcus Butts, affirms that conflicts at home also negatively affect our energy and emotions throughout the workday and also shows that many employees react to their bad home experiences in a surprising way: by offering help to their colleagues.
The SMU Cox Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship kicked off its annual celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit Thursday night with a networking reception at the Cox School of Business Collins Executive Center on the SMU campus. The alphabetical list of the 2022 Dallas 100 winning companies was released.
Supply chain research has often centered on shock transmission. However, missing from the equation are insights into how firms are affected by supply chain risk—quantified at the firm level—and how they respond. New research by SMU Cox finance Professor Ruidi Huang with Ersahin and Giannetti reveals novel insights into the nature of supply chain risk.
In new research, SMU Cox Accounting Professor Sorabh Tomar with his coauthors highlight how diversity information influences jobseeker behavior—the “innovation” of their research being the specific focus on information.
Various types of analysts measuring environmental, social, governance (ESG) factors in the financial and corporate world come to the conclusion that the “E” is the most important part of the term. In a new study by SMU Cox Marketing Professor Milica Mormann and her coauthor, they actually show the effects of general and specifically-worded climate risk ratings on investment choices, the E.
Most investors, especially in their retirement portfolios, face the task of choosing a mutual fund, often with inertia. According to research by Finance Professor Feng Zhang of SMU Cox, the typical investor tends to lose money investing in mutuals funds.
In new research, Marketing Professors Matthew Fisher and Milica Mormann of SMU Cox shed light on a surprising persistent mistake consumers make that can have important consequences. The “off-by-100%” bias the authors observe impacts purchase decisions, with implications for every-day shopping decisions and even on trading on platforms like Robinhood and E-Trade.
Professor Glenn Voss, Professor Emeritus of Marketing and Research Director at SMU DataArts, and Karthik Kannan, Assistant Professor of IT and Operations Management and Donna Wilhelm Research Fellow at SMU DataArts, recently presented a webinar on prediction models for post-COVID recovery of arts organizations.
Host Graham Richmond welcomed Lisa Tran and Jason Rife from SMU Cox to explore the symbiotic relationship between corporate relationships, admissions and career services that propels MBA graduates’ success.
Who are we becoming — as individuals and as members of society — the more we engage in technology-mediated spaces that are increasingly populated by robots and AI? These are the kinds of questions that have fascinated Ulrike Schultze, a professor in information technology and operations management (ITOM) at SMU Cox, for years.
Lean supply chains, which emphasize efficiency, leave very little slack in the system, with small changes in demand and supply patterns potentially leading to severe shortages.
SMU Cox Associate Professor Marcus Butts researches topics including workday social media usage and inter-team dynamics.
In the study, SMU Cox Strategy Professor Wendy Bradley and co-author Julian Kolev of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office observe how technology companies altered their intellectual property (IP) portfolio strategies after a period of piracy motivated more diversified innovation strategies.
In new research by ITOM Professor Sreekumar Bhaskaran of SMU Cox and co-authors, they re-think the congestion challenge and offer a new perspective about the traditional approaches of using the levers of price and quality. Rather than solely using higher prices to reduce traffic, the authors offer more nuance with the idea of “consumption control.”
Delivering on the promise of partnership with the city it calls home, SMU is launching a $1.5 billion fundraising campaign focused on the opportunities created through scholarships, meaningful research and teaching and community.
Professor Ruidi Huang of SMU Cox and his coauthors show how firms react to natural disasters and what actions can help supply chains stay resilient.
In new research, Accounting Professor Sean Wang of SMU Cox and his co-authors identify a group of firms that move in tandem with the VIX and find that these firms essentially act as bellwether firms, microcosms of the market itself.
Jeff Schmid joins the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking (SWGSB) Foundation, headquartered at SMU’s Cox School of Business, as president and CEO effective Sept. 1. Schmid’s move comes as current President and CEO S. Scott MacDonald, Ph.D., retires from the position after 24 years of service.
In new research by ITOM Professor Vishal Ahuja of SMU Cox and co-authors Alvarez and Staats, they show that proximity of physical spaces, that they refer to as co-location, matters.
Dallas Startup Week brings together entrepreneurs and change-makers for a week-long experience, described as the largest entrepreneurial event in North Texas, to exchange ideas, collaborate, and grow alongside the 10th largest startup ecosystem in the US.
This year, Dallas Startup Week will be hosted in person at SMU Cox School of Business and Online through Brushfire.
Click to learn more and register.
With mature crypto projects in short supply, new research from Cox ITOM Assistant Professor Rowena Gan sheds light on the optimal design of “uncapped” initial coin offerings.
This study is one of the first to quantify the effects of disclosing GHG emissions when the bulk of emitters transition from no disclosure to public disclosure.
The event marks the Caruth Institute’s 30th Dallas 100 awards ceremony. It was live-streamed this year because of COVID-19. The online presentation was facilitated by business-to-business media provider MarketScale, one of this year’s Dallas 100 honorees.
SMU Cox management and organizations associate professor Marcus Butts and his co-authors discover that coworkers are displaying more concern for and less mistreatment of ill colleagues rather than self-interested behavior in this time of COVID-19.
Starting in the airline industry in the 1980s, loyalty programs have been adopted in businesses such as hotels, casinos, retailers, grocery stores, and restaurants. In novel research, Marketing Professor Wayne Taylor of SMU Cox and co-author Brett Hollenbeck analyze the competitive “spatial” landscape surrounding the customer and identify actionable marketing insights.
An assistant professor of information technology and operations management (ITOM) at SMU Cox and an adjunct professor of clinical sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Ahuja leans on his years of experience in the corporate world to apply principles of operations management and data analytics to local healthcare data and improve patient outcomes and efficiency of care.
New research by SMU Cox finance professor Anna Cororaton and Samuel Rosen of Temple University sheds light on which public firms applied for and received stimulus funds, in one of the first empirical studies of the unprecedented fiscal programs to help keep American businesses afloat during the pandemic.
SMU Cox Finance Professor Darius Miller examines the effects of the Foreign Investment and National Security Act on shareholder wealth and the U.S. economy.
“Our biggest challenge is to spread the word from what we’re learning beyond the classroom to reach today’s marketers.”
New research by SMU Cox marketing professor Milica Mormann and coauthors Bazley and Cronqvist reveals how the visual presentation of financial information impacts important financial decisions.
Meet professor Zhen Zhang, SMU Cox School of Business’ newest faculty addition. Zhang brings his substantive expertise in leadership and analytical methods to the School.
The SMU Cox Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship has released the names of the entrepreneurial businesses that made it into this year’s coveted list of Dallas 100 companies.
Dallas Love Field and Southwest airline passengers received multiple boons when the Wright Amendment was repealed in late 2014. There were more nonstop flights and destinations, more gates at Love Field and reduced fares. Media stories reported that this policy reversal was a positive development. However, in new research, ITOM Professor Vishal Ahuja of SMU Cox and co-authors show that the repeal had some unintended consequences.
SMU Cox will continue to streamline application requirements, most notably its GMAT/GRE test-optional policy, for all SMU Cox graduate programs through August 2021.
Bhaskaran has studied what makes startups successful, with an emphasis on how entrepreneurs find a balance between their businesses’ short-term survival and their long-term profitability. It’s a trade-off at the heart of a research paper he co-authored in 2019 entitled, “Sequential Product Development and Introduction by Cash-Constrained Start-Ups.” We spoke with him about why most startups fail and the skills needed to facilitate their success.
Vishal Ahuja's empirical study examined the impact of maintaining continuity of care in a primary care setting. For Ahuja, the research was personal, and a goal was set: Capture the value.
The COVID-19 stay-at-home orders have created a dependence on the use of videoconference platforms and telepresence. We spoke to Professor Amit Basu, who conducted an empirical study on the effectiveness of such technologies, for his insights.
The Cox School of Business announced today the Cox MBA Direct, a new path toward earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA) for recent college graduates with less than two years of post-degree work experience, including Class of 2020 graduates completing their undergraduate degrees this month. The new Cox MBA Direct program will allow recent college graduates who are working full-time to begin MBA studies online upon completion of their undergraduate degree. It will also prepare them to secure MBA-level employment by obtaining needed work experience as they complete their MBA degree.
Congratulations, Raynelle “Raye” Anwukah, Cox Full-Time MBA Class of 2020, for being recognized among the 2020 Best & Brightest MBAs by Poets&Quants. “In her nearly two years in the SMU Cox Full-Time MBA program, Raynelle “Raye” Anwukah has shown incredible resiliency, leadership, and growth . . . Raye has also exemplified extraordinary leadership skills. She is a merit scholar, a Forté fellow and an officer in five Cox graduate clubs.”
In his paper “An Empirical Study of the Effectiveness of Telepresence as a Business Meeting Mode,” Information Technology and Management Journal, 2016, Professor Amit Basu reported on a large-scale empirical study of the use of various virtual meeting technologies in business meetings.
SMU Cox Graduate Admissions waives GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, & Executive Assessment requirements until September 2020. Graduate Admissions will also consider applicants for Fall 2020 until August 2, 2020.
The SMU Cox School of Business will honor four alumni at its annual Distinguished Alumni and Outstanding Young Alumni Awards Luncheon on Friday, May 1. This year’s Distinguished Alumni Awards honorees will be Kelly H. Compton, BBA ’79 and William (Bill) A. Hall, BBA ’67 and MBA ‘68. The 2020 Outstanding Young Alumni honors will go to Mark A. Lau, BBA ’06 and Courtney N. Naudo, BBA ’01.
Perkins School of Theology and Cox School of Business announce the creation of cooperative, sequenced degree programs between the two Southern Methodist University graduate schools.
The Maguire Energy Institute at SMU Cox School of Business will present Kenneth Hersh, president and chief executive officer of George W. Bush Presidential Center, with the L. Frank Pitts Energy Leadership Award at a luncheon ceremony Friday, February 21, on the SMU campus.
Over the last several decades, consolidation in the banking industry has created larger banks, according to new research by SMU Cox Finance Professor Erik Mayer, leading to some negative effects for low-income households.
In ambitious research, SMU Cox Accounting Professor Sean Wang and his co-authors develop a new way to measure intangible assets that has been lacking for decades.
In a new study, strategy professors Julian Kolev and Wendy Bradley analyze the link between digital piracy and innovation for technology firms in the software business.
The Dallas 100, the Caruth Institute’s annual celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit, announced the fastest-growing, privately-held companies in rank order from No. 100 to No. 1 before a crowd of nearly 1,000 people at the Omni Hotel Thursday in downtown Dallas.
Mystery and speculation shrouds short sellers, also known as the “smart money.” Who are they? Where do they trade and why? In new research, Finance Professor Mehrdad Samadi of SMU Cox and co-authors provide the first evidence of short sellers, or informed traders, trading venue of choice.
Vast amounts of knowledge are at our fingertips owing to the Internet. As we continually immerse ourselves in the online world of information, what are the cognitive effects of it? This fundamental question is on the mind of Marketing Professor Matthew Fisher of SMU Cox in new research about Internet learning and its consequences. According to Fisher, little research about the subject has occurred to date in understanding this phenomenon.
The mobile channel is poised to be the future of online markets, according to ITOM Professor Tom Tan of SMU Cox. And, retail operations managers should not blindly treat the mobile channel like the conventional PC channel. In a working paper, Tan and co-author Nitish Jain make important contributions to innovative retail practices and operational decisions.
Cross-border venture capital investments play an important role in the scaling up of high growth companies, according to Strategy Professor Wendy Bradley. Foreign capital, expertise, and the networks that accompany cross-border investments are welcome by start-up ventures. However, a concern is that they transfer the majority of economic activity to the investor country. In new research, Bradley of SMU Cox and her co-authors examine cross-border venture capital (VC) investments and its implications for public policy. “There is a need for cross-border investments and partnerships for the advancement of science and economic growth,” says Bradley.
Firms with strong corporate governance are like democracies, according to Finance Professor Nickolay Gantchev. Through their proposals and votes, shareholders can determine the broad direction of a company. In new research, Nickolay Gantchev of SMU Cox and Mariassunta Giannetti study the effectiveness of this low-cost form of shareholder activism. “Like a democracy, if you have more informed shareholders, when they vote, they can figure out which are good proposals, and prevent the bad ones from passing,” says Gantchev.
The Maguire Energy Institute at SMU Cox School of Business presented Tim Leach, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Concho Resources Inc., with the L. Frank Pitts Energy Leadership Award at a sold-out luncheon ceremony on Tuesday, April 9 on the SMU campus. At the same event, two iconic oil industry entrepreneurs and longtime supporters of SMU, Bobby B. Lyle and Cary M. Maguire, were honored with the Maguire Energy Institute Pioneer Award.
The rapidly changing field of customer engagement — how marketers attract long term customer brand loyalty — was the focus of the third annual Professors Institute at SMU Cox. The school’s Brierley Institute for Customer Engagement hosted the event in January, in partnership with Marketing EDGE, a national nonprofit with a track record of connecting students, academics and professionals to the resources they need to stay ahead.
LLI Director Shares Perspectives on Higher Education’s role in Advancing Latinos
For more than three years, ambiguous wording in the Texas Penal Code led to inconsistent treatment of black and white arrestees for low-value shoplifting, according to a new study by a professor at Southern Methodist University.
SMU Cox Marketing Professor Chaoqun Chen analyzes how consumers shop around various retail formats and how their behavior changed during the Great Recession. Her findings uncover truths about how consumers from different income levels adjusted to a new normal in their weekly treks.
How do businesses use Customer Engagement as a competitive tool to combat disruption? A panel of marketing experts pondered that question at a recent symposium titled “Engaging Customers in a World of Disruption,” hosted by the Brierley Institute for Customer Engagement at SMU Cox School of Business.
Just when “simple" worries about the economy and the elections were on our minds, a new source of risk to the financial system emerges…
What if clinical trials could be conducted faster, required fewer patients, cost less, and led to improved health? "Our approach is good for patients, companies, and the public health at large, which would come from needed drugs being on the market sooner," states Vishal Ahuja, ITOM professor at SMU Cox.
At a time when capital has never been more mobile and available, financial protectionism is on the rise. The costs of these economic nationalistic policies are little known however. In new research, SMU Cox Finance Professor Miller and co-authors reveal the important consequences of government-related incursions in deals between foreign and domestic companies and the resulting decline in shareholder value for a wide range of industries.
The new scarce resource is attention, notes Marketing Professor Milica Mormann of SMU Cox. "We live in an attention economy, and our attention is limited." Through a multi-disciplinary approach, Mormann and co-author Cary Frydman reveal how attention is operating to influence economic choices in their novel research. "Attention is the step that leads a manager or consumer toward an action," she states. "We know we have about eight seconds to deliver a message on social media, in a TV ad, or for an investing decision or health care choice. But we do not know exactly how attention operates, in spite of the industry performing studies to gauge attention."
When it comes to corporate governance, hedge funds are the new sheriffs in town. That’s the take-away of “Do Activists Turn Bad Bidders into Good Acquirers?” Associate Professor of Finance Nickolay Gantchev and his co-authors reveal new insights about the mergers and acquisitions strategy of firms that shareholder activists target.
Getting inside the mind of the chief executive officer is a difficult research avenue. Knowledge about how CEOs process information, their cognitive style, has been relatively sparse. Strategy Professor Daniel Zyung of SMU Cox and co-authors unpack the cognitive mechanisms of CEOs in new research — and reveal how and why it matters. "Basically, this is a study about CEOs’ information processing style," Zyung says, "with many important implications, including their firm’s growth strategies."
The emergence of U.S. shale oil has expanded the global supply of oil. New research notes that the long-run impact of shale oil will depend on how much can be produced and how much it will cost. Few have good answers. In recent research, finance professor and energy expert James Smith of SMU Cox with co-author Thomas Lee determine what portion of known shale resources are economically viable at various price points and how many wells are likely to be drilled. So far, only a small portion of drilling sites have factored into the shale oil boom, according to Smith, and we have only depleted a fraction of U.S. shale resources.
The U.S. healthcare system is the most expensive system in the world. Identifying ways to lower costs and have better health outcomes is a primary goal for health care managers and providers, policymakers and consumers. In new research, ITOM Professor Vishal Ahuja of SMU Cox and co-authors show that better continuity of care lowers costs and wasted effort, reduces time to see specialists, and produces significant savings in hospital system resources. They identify how "gatekeepers" are key to a more optimal and healthier system.
As policymakers around the globe continue to debate options to incentivize retirement savings, new research uncovers some game-changing facts. The two main competing options consist of traditional tax-deferred savings vehicles like 401(k)s and IRAs, in which savers contribute pretax money and pay tax on withdrawals, or Roth-type plans, whereby savers pay taxes first and withdraw funds tax-free upon retirement. Which type of scheme is better depends on which side of the table one sits. In their paper, SMU Cox Finance Professor Mattia Landoni and co-author Zeldes discover that under a Roth-type regimen, government fares better, largely because of the investment fees that government implicitly pays in traditional tax-deferred accoun
Regulators of financial markets, including the Federal Reserve Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission, worry about a liquidity crisis in the corporate bond market. The financial market crisis of 2008-2009 involved domino-like liquidity shocks and regulators wish to steer clear of them if they can help it. In new research, SMU Cox Finance Professors Venkataraman and Jotikasthira show that some bond mutual funds are filling the role of a liquidity supplier, alongside a decline in dealer participation in market-making activities.
Today, many crowd-sourced investment research venues and platforms co-exist on the Internet, with new competitors continuing to arrive on the scene. These new entrants are becoming a source of information for investors and capital markets that rival the incumbent sell-side analyst research model. Technological innovation is making it so, along with smart entrepreneurs identifying market opportunities. In new research, SMU Cox Accounting Professor Stanimir Markov and co-authors examine how this increased competition is shaking up the status quo.
The findings will help inform policymakers’ rulemaking to prevent future crashes and better design market structures.
Veteran administrator will continue to serve on Cox faculty
The SMU Cox School of Business Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree program remains ranked at no. 21 in the nation in Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2016 Ranking of Best Undergraduate Business Schools.
Six New Cities Added to the Top 20 Lists of Arts Vibrant Cities in the U.S. Data-driven Assessment Ranks Cities by Arts and Cultural Assets
The state-of-the-art Sheffield Lab will give students a unique experiential learning opportunity as they prepare to enter the energy industry. The hands-on learning space is dedicated solely to the advancement of energy investment-related education.
The use of big data in the health care industry, the largest sector of the economy, offers many benefits for the overall economy, businesses, and the health and well-being of people. In a first-of-its-kind study, SMU Cox ITOM Professor Vishal Ahuja and co-authors show how the use of data can validate life-changing health care findings. Additionally, this new approach using big data demonstrates how regulatory agencies can advance their governance missions by monitoring public safety with more robust, real-time analytical methods.
With literally troves of corporate information available online for analysts to sift through, how can firms differentiate their message and convey complex, meaningful information to those who need it? The increasing number of analyst days, a long-form presentation by publicly-listed companies, indicate a trend toward a greater demand for face time with management. In novel research, Accounting Professor Stan Markov of SMU Cox and co-author Marcus Kirk study analyst/investor days as a disclosure medium that large firms with complex operations use to deepen stakeholders' understanding about the firm's outlook and valuation.
Are people hard-wired to reach agreement, even when a deal is less than optimal or below a bottom line? According to new research by Management Professor Robin Pinkley and co-authors, as if force of habit, when faced with an offer people are reaching agreements and sealing deals when not agreeing might be a more rational choice. This phenomenon is based on the tendency of people being averse to impasse and attracted to agreement.
The oil and gas industry has received a bad wrap about drilling for shale gas. Since late 2008, when prices collapsed owing to demand destruction from the economic crisis and an abundance of supply, prices of natural gas have remained low. From an all-time high of $14 per mcf (thousand cubic foot) they have fallen to under $3 today. Critics have charged that too many gas wells have been drilled given the low prices, and that the gas boom is unsustainable. SMU Cox Finance Professor James Smith's new research says the facts do not support that claim.
The conventional method used by the oil and gas industry to report on upstream operations and results distorts profitability and valuations. Industry practice is to use "barrels of oil equivalent" or BOE— a measure that combines oil and gas volumes based on thermal parity, or the energy content of the source. Research by Finance Professor James Smith, the Maguire Chair of Oil and Gas Management, shows why and how the BOE convention has overstated the cost of adding reserves, the principal asset held by these firms. This comes at a time when the industry can scarcely afford miscalculations to their detriment.
Companies buy back stocks for a variety of reasons. One rationale is a key motive for a new study: Managers of undervalued firms use stock repurchases as a mechanism to signal firm value. Curiously, Finance Professor Stacey Jacobsen of SMU Cox and co-author Utpal Bhattacharya find a large number of firms announce share repurchases but do not actually follow through with the buyback. The stock market tends to view repurchase announcements as good news, according to its reaction.
In the U.S., shareholder voting and activism is increasingly used to influence firm policy. New research by SMU Cox Finance Chair Darius Miller and co-authors suggests that shareholder voting can be an effective governance mechanism in countries outside the U.S. "This is important," says Miller, "since in many countries outside the U.S., the need for governance is greatest." The authors set out to test shareholder activism in global markets in a first-of-its-kind, large-scale study. Prior to this paper, there was not any evidence on whether shareholder voting in other countries was effective or not.