Knowledge@Wharton Business Research Journal

Balancing the Pay Scale: 'Fair' vs. 'Unfair'

Whether you are a shelf stocker at Walmart or an equity analyst at an investment bank, you may feel that you are not adequately compensated for the work you do -- in other words, you are underpaid. But underpaid relative to what? How do employers determine whether compensation is fair, and if it's not, what consequences can that have for the organization?

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Are Pop-up Stores Here to Stay?

Pop-up retail -- storefronts that open for a few days to sell products, launch a brand and/or create buzz -- has attracted business owners, landlords and customers alike. What is driving the trend, under what conditions is it most profitable and does it have legs?

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With Austerity Under Fire, Countries Seek a More Balanced Solution

Six years after the onset of the global financial crisis, economists and policymakers continue to fight bitterly over how to tackle the world's economic woes. Is fiscal stimulus or fiscal austerity the best medicine? Austerity advocates have largely won out -- until now. With many nations still struggling, and the findings of an influential study supporting austerity now under attack, backlash against that strategy is growing. The question is: Where can troubled countries go from here?

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Investing in Gold: Does It Stack Up?

Gold has a timeless allure -- especially if you worry about stock market volatility, inflation, a decay of ordinary currency or the collapse of civilization. Yet not everyone agrees that gold offers the safe haven its promoters describe. How reliable can demand be for a commodity that very few people actually need? What is the proper role for gold in an investment portfolio? Why has its price been falling?

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Google Glass: Can 'Tech Cool' Become 'Market Cool'?

With the introduction of Google Glass, an effort to create and market computerized eyewear, Google has captured the imagination of technologists, consumers and even sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live," while also raising a number of social and privacy issues. Experts at Wharton say that the Google Glass experiment will be important to watch from a business, marketing and cultural perspective, and they add that no one -- including Google -- has any clue how the search giant's efforts will play out.

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Upset about Political Bias in the Media? Blame Economics

News organizations are often accused -- and in some cases, outright acknowledge -- that their coverage is biased toward a particular end of the political spectrum. In a new paper, Wharton marketing professor Pinar Yildirim and her co-authors argue that the slant in coverage does not stem from the personal beliefs of a newspaper's corporate owners or staff, but rather from the economics of trying to attract and retain both readers and advertisers.

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The 'Fancy Layaway': Creating a Market for Unique, Online and High-end Fashion

When Aslaug Magnusdottir started going to the top runway fashion shows in Milan, Paris and New York, she often thought about the wasted opportunity that designers were missing. "Because not many women could come to these shows, they were completely shut out of buying the fashion there," said Magnusdottir. She -- and Moda Operandi -- set out to change that.

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