Economics Insights @ CBS

Profession- and job-related social events such as mixers are viewed by organizations and individuals as incubators of interpersonal ties, as arenas in which individuals can initiate new and different contacts. Theory and evidence on network dynamics, however, suggests that such outcomes may be unlikely, because past ties constrain future contacts, and because homophily inhibits contact between different types of people. We investigate whether guests at a social mixer "mix" despite these influences.

The relation between emotion and rationality is assessed by reviewing empirical findings from multiple disciplines. Two types of emotional phenomena are examined—incidental emotional states and integral emotional responses—and three conceptions of rationality are considered—logical, material, and ecological. Emotional states influence reasoning processes, are often misattributed to focal objects, distort beliefs in an assimilative fashion, disrupt self-control when intensely negative but do not necessarily increase risk-taking.

Ernst & Young hosted this 2007 roundtable with the goal of providing a better understanding of the challenges and best practices of using valuation analysis to support executive decisions. Panelists included Richard Ruback of the Harvard Business School, Trevor Harris of Morgan Stanley, Aileen Stockburger of Johnson & Johnson, Dino Mauricio of General Electric, Christian Roch of BNP Paribas, Ken Meyers of Siemens Corporation, and Charles Kantor of Lehman Brothers. Jeff Green of Ernst & Young moderated.

The Tuscan Lifestyles case (Mason, 2003) offers a simple twist on the standard view of how to value a newly acquired customer, highlighting how standard retention-based approaches to the calculation of expected customer lifetime value (CLV) are not applicable in a noncontractual setting.