Knowledge@Wharton Business Research Journal

Fit for the Holidays: Amazon Is Shaping Up and Shipping Out
Amazon.com enters the holiday shopping season with enviable strength. The financials at the world's biggest online retailer are looking better than ever while it is finding new ways to muscle in on the competitive advantages traditionally enjoyed by conventional bricks-and-mortar retailers -- including its recent launch of same-day shipping in seven major U.S. cities. But as Amazon grows, competitors are still giving it a run for its money, according to e-commerce and marketing experts at Wharton.

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Lessons from Brazil: Why Is It Bouncing Back While Other Markets Stumble?
The sense of optimism in Brazil is palpable and it's not just because the country is getting ready to host soccer's World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. Brazil's economy was the first in Latin America to stage a recovery following the global economic crisis -- in the second quarter of this year. What has helped Brazil to remain so resilient while other markets are still struggling? And what can it do to maintain economic growth and become, as the World Bank predicts, the world's fifth-largest economy by 2016?

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CEO Terry Lundgren: A Focus on Turning 'My Macy's' into Your Macy's
Terry Lundgren's experiences in retailing a generation ago recently led the Macy's CEO to come up with a new vision for how to organize the company's more than 800 stores. The concept, known as 'My Macy's,' calls on buyers and executives to focus on a small number of stores in a specific metro area as a way to offer customers more localized, personalized service. During a recent presentation at Wharton sponsored by the J.H. Baker Retailing Initiative, Lundgren talked about the nature of retailing, the role of celebrity-backed products and pop-culture figures in Macy's stores, and the challenges of selling in a recessionary economy.

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Avoiding the Agony of a 'Bogey': Loss Aversion in Golf -- and Business
Tiger Woods and other golf superstars who stand to win millions on inch-long putts apparently are subject to the same fear and aversion to risk that can afflict investors and managers. According to new research by two Wharton faculty members, even the best golfers systematically miss the opportunity to score a "birdie" -- when a player sinks a ball in one stroke less than the number of expected strokes for a given hole -- out of fear of having a "bogey" -- or taking one stroke more than what is expected. Playing it safe, however, has its own costs -- in golf and in business, the researchers say.

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Efficient Markets or Herd Mentality? The Future of Economic Forecasting
Once on the academic fringes, behavioral economics has been gaining considerable ground over the past year. While not all economists, government policy makers and corporate financiers agree wholeheartedly with behavioral economists' assertion that markets are inefficient and irrational, it's difficult in the wake of the global financial meltdown to be too dismissive of it, according to some Wharton faculty members. It's likely, they say, that future regulations will be shaped in part by both behavioral economics and the efficient market theory, which has dominated government policymaking since the early 1980s.

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From Soup to ... Corporate Social Responsibility: Campbell's Efforts to Lead the Way
Since 1869, Campbell Soup Company has transformed tomatoes, celery and carrots, among other ingredients, into mainstays of the American lifestyle. More recently, it has become known for another core competency -- its success in establishing a reputation as one of the most socially responsible companies in the U.S. During a presentation at Wharton, Campbell's Dave Stangis talked about the challenges of building support for corporate social responsibility within one's own company.

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