Research

This year, retailers in Arizona saw a 6.7 percent increase in holiday sales year over year – topping the 3-4 percent reported for retailers nationally. That translated to $9.8 billion in sales, said W. P. Carey economist Dennis Hoffman at the Economic Club of Phoenix luncheon this week.

Charles Redfield, the executive vice president of merchandising for Sam's Club, outlined the major lessons he’s learned in business at the February Economic Club of Phoenix Luncheon.

Mike Orr, author of the monthly housing report issued through the W. P. Carey School of Business, said that developers were busy shopping for land in December.

It's tough to differentiate yourself in online retailing. After all, you don’t have a physical location for people to check out or salespeople to build face-to-face rapport. Should your company strive to convey a hip image? Authoritative? More affordable than your competitors?

Criticism of the Phoenix metro area clusters around a few main themes: The city is not sustainable, it’s not walkable and it’s just a giant bedroom community with too much sprawl and too few well-paying jobs. So where does metro Phoenix go from here, on its way to 2035?

Three and a half years after the end of the recession, Arizona lags behind the nation in the proportion of lost jobs regained. This is not because of slow growth in Arizona, but is due to the fact that the state was harder hit in the downturn and industries have more jobs to replace.

At the Economic Club of Phoenix Luncheon on Jan. 23, 2013, Arizona Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall talked about how the major league baseball organization is delivering in five key areas: fan experience, performance, community, culture, and financial efficiency.

The Phoenix real estate market has seen prices rise at a dramatic pace over the past year, but what’s next? Mike Orr, director of the of the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at the W. P.

Toddlers must learn to portion out toys and treats: similarly, organizations face a learning curve when transitioning to shared services. Companies and managers must be willing to change — and education is essential. Tim Olsen, clinical assistant professor of information systems at the W. P.

Chief information officers and others familiar with the Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, trend say organizations need to think through the advantages and the challenges of allowing employees to access corporate data with personal devices.