Effective leadership: Building a successful corporate culture

Year in and year out, cars manufactured by Toyota Motor Corp. are praised by automobile critics and lauded by loyal customers. The cars sell extraordinarily well and, come year's end, can almost always be found at the top of the rankings in reliability, quality and customer satisfaction.

Working it out: Stock-market players detect and reward smart outsourcing

Last year, some 28 percent of corporate managers surveyed told Evans Data, a market research firm, that their primary driver for outsourcing was cost cutting. You'd think saving money would catch the eye of Wall Street but, in fact, it doesn't.

Supply base complexity: Finding the right balance

Finding the optimal number of suppliers to form your supply base is not easy — nor is it the only factor buying companies must juggle in order to manage their suppliers effectively.

Coming soon from a utility near you: More power to the people

For the past 10 years, the electric utility industry has focused on competition and restructuring.

Keep it to yourself? The costly stigma of mental illness

Sixteen years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed, workers with mental illness still face a disheartening choice: keep their health problems a secret at work, or risk being shunned, passed over, paid up to one-third less, or even fired, according to a new study conducted by the

When the cure is worse than the disease: the HP debacle

In early 2005, Hewlett-Packard's board of directors was embroiled in controversy. Board discord anonymously spilled into the media, and an effort commenced to find and plug the leaks of board deliberations. The probe has erupted into scandal, indictments and congressional hearings.

Interview: Marianne Jennings discusses the ethics of the HP situation

The HP situation provides a many-faceted illustration of ethics in the breach, according to Marianne Jennings, professor of legal and ethical studies at the W. P. Carey School of business and author of "The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse: How to Spot Moral Meltdowns in Companies ...

Wanted: Internet logistics expertise

Online retailers seek logistics service providers offering high-quality supply chain management knowledge. But new research by supply chain management professor Elliot Rabinovich shows retailers need to look before they leap into a contract with a provider.

Are investors really fooled by earnings manipulation?

Accrual accounting, which allows firms to adjust cash flow from operations, is intended to provide flexibility so that financial statements can be made more informative. Nevertheless, managers may instead use the flexibility to mislead stakeholders about the underlying strength of the company.

The gentle science of persuasion, part one: Liking

The ability to persuade others is critical to success, whether you are selling cars or a new corporate strategy. Psychology and marketing Professor Robert Cialdini has examined the component parts of influence, in the lab and on the street.