Business

Barbara Kahn of the Wharton School was interviewed about changes in the world of retail and marketing. “People talk about [contemporary online shopping] as ‘omnichannel’ but right now it’s just retail. Retail has now become a seamless integration between online and offline,” said Kahn.

Speaking about Sears’ decline, the Wharton School’s Daniel Raff said that expressions of nostalgia for the store, which has long catered to blue-collar Americans, “may well resonate with [Trump’s] core voters.”

Discussing Indian e-commerce, the Wharton School’s Kartik Hosanagar said that the ratio of customer acquisition costs to customer lifetime value is “even more lopsided than in the U.S., Europe, and China.” The key to profitability, he said, is reducing those acquisition costs and improving customer retention.

Sarah Rottenberg of the School of Design attributed West Elm’s success with millennials to their stylized yet adaptable aesthetic and accessible price point. Rottenberg’s research has shown that “practicality is a critical attribute for millennials purchasing products.”

The Wharton School’s Amir Yaron has been selected as the new Bank of Israel governor. “We want to ensure that the head of the Bank of Israel will be a person with great ability, independence and top professional capabilities,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Emily Hund, a doctoral candidate in the Annenberg School for Communication, discussed retailers’ attempts harness the power of influencers to attract customers. The approach, she said, “seems like a new height in the social media-fashion feedback loop.”

“People want to work for and buy products from companies they think are good,” said Katherina Rosqueta of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy. Rosqueta broke down common corporate philanthropic strategies and recommended that companies pursue efforts that reflect the values of their employees and founders.

Kartik Hosanagar of the Wharton School attributed Amazon’s international success to its omnichannel model, which allows customers to shop online and at brick-and-mortar stores. “The value of a physical channel is even more in India because a large portion of India cannot still be reached on the internet,” he said.

The Annenberg School for Communication’s Victor Pickard discussed conservative news channel Newsmax and its recent deal with Comcast. If Comcast is “feeling the heat from the right, it will make sense to appease some of those critics,” said Pickard.

Amir Yaron of the Wharton School is in the running for the post of governor of the Bank of Israel, as announced by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Finance Ministry.