Business

The Wharton School’s Barbara Kahn explained why Black Friday seems to start earlier and last longer each year. “When someone is offering 50 percent discounts from 10 to 11 on Friday, you can offer 51 percent from 9 to 10 on Friday. That competitive response will cause the creeping behavior — it’s getting earlier and earlier — because you want [customers] to buy from you instead of the competition,” said Kahn.

The Wharton School’s Lawton Robert Burns spoke about the challenge of staffing emergency departments. A shortage of ER doctors makes hiring and salary negotiations time-consuming, which in turn makes third-party staffing agencies an attractive option, he said.

Carolyn Kousky of the Wharton School described the short- and long-term challenges homeowners face after experiencing natural disasters. “Recovery is so much longer and slower than people appreciate at the outset,” she said. “It’ll go out of the headlines, but they’ll still be struggling with this.”

The Wharton School’s Robert Inman said of cities’ efforts to court Amazon’s new HQ, “In most instances, it’s a zero-sum game. You’ll end up lowering benefits or raising taxes elsewhere in the city to subsidize the relocator with probably little impact on jobs.”

The Wharton School’s Brian Berkey said that although companies like Shell or Exxon may be obligated to advocate for their shareholders, “these obligations are constrained by more general moral requirements not to engage in practices that involve contributing to serious harm to society more broadly.”

Noting the new Flyers mascot’s popularity, the Wharton School’s Americus Reed said that Gritty’s eccentric social media presence is like “a quasi-reality TV show.” The orange creature is “taking on a life of its own,” he said.

The Wharton School’s Peter Fader weighed in on Amazon’s new stores, which are equipped to gather data from customers’ every move. By tracking not just what’s purchased but also what’s handled along the way, Fader says “it becomes possible to figure out what’s the bait to attract and retain and build relationships with the most valuable customers.”

Kevin Volpp of the Wharton School and Perelman School of Medicine offered commentary on the “universal challenge” of dieting. “People generally speaking are much more successful in achieving initial weight loss than maintaining weight loss,” he said.

The Wharton School’s Jennifer Blouin weighed in on increased corporate tax cuts. In the case of companies with enough preexisting resources, Blouin said the money saved should be returned to shareholders who may reinvest it elsewhere, rather than being spent on risky business ventures.