Come join us and hear best-selling author and McCombs Professor, Rob Adams, talk about his newest book on Market Validation: If You Build It Will They Come? Three Steps to Test and Validate Any Market (Wiley, 2010). This will be followed by a book signing and cash bar.

Wednesday, April 28
5:30p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center,
1900 University Ave. / Room 204
Google Map.

RSVP HERE.

Courtyard Cash bar will be available starting at 5:30pm.
Talk on the book begins 6:00pm.
Book signing starts 6:45pm.
Books will be available for purchase for $20, or you can bring your copy for signature.

Originally posted from McCombs Today Blog

People are not always rational. In fact, more often than not they are completely irrational.

That was the basic premise behind a presentation by Assistant Finance Professor Bing Han, titled “Prospect Theory and Applications in Finance.” Han gave the presentation March 23 as part of the Faculty Research Presentation Series.

Han explained to students that there are two ways of predicting investment behavior, assuming that people are rational beings and acknowledging that people have certain biases that affect their rational thought.

The second type of analysis is called prospect theory, and has been the subject of Han’s research for roughly 10 years. Han explained that prospect theory is all about relativity, mainly the way investors view changes in their overall wealth relative to previous numbers or how the rest of society is doing. …..click here to read more

By John Daly
Guest Blogger for the McCombs School of Business

You’ve long wanted to buy a really nice car—say, a new Mercedes. Next year, your firm has a fabulous year. (Why not? It could happen.) Soon after the announcement of the ‘great year,’ your boss strolls into your office, congratulates you for being a key contributor and hands you a $30,000 bonus (taxes are, of course, taken care of). That evening, you’re driving home. As you pass the Mercedes dealership, you spy the car of your dreams with $45K price tag on the window. What do you do? …..click here to read more

Originally posted from McCombs Today Blog.

McCombs Finance Professor Sheridan Titman and IESA Business School Associate Professor Carlos Molina, a McCombs Ph.D. alumnus, discuss Venezuela’s potential (and challenges) to becoming the largest oil producer in the world on Titman’s Energy Insights blog.

Venezuela already has one of the largest oil reserves (by country) in the world and new discoveries, like the Orinoco oil belt fields, offer reserves large enough to propel them to the top spot. However, as is the case with most countries with large oil reserves, the oil assets are managed by a state-owned company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), which has a unique and interesting history, as well as its own opportunities and challenges.

The discussion centers around the recent Energy Brief Molina wrote on for the Energy Management and Innovation Center on the subject and touches on production number reliability, political circumstances, technical issues, risk mitigation and suggestions for PDVSA and the Chavez administration to facilitate the development of the Venezuelan oil industry.

There is certainly a high political risk of doing business in Venezuela. Poor investment protection, continuously changing laws, arbitrary expropriation of lands and companies, and a lack of international arbitration create a difficult business environment. Under these circumstances it is almost impossible to structure contracts in ways that mitigate Venezuela’s political risk.

There is, however, a substantial opportunity for those ready to assume the risk. Foreign oil companies that decide to face current adverse conditions could profit in the future by being awarded oil projects with favorable geological conditions, vast proved reserves, comparably low production costs, and weak competition.

Read the center’s new Energy Management Brief on Venezuela’s Oil Production and PDVSA.

Read the full interview with Molina about Venezuelan oil production on Sheridan Titman’s Energy Insights blog.

By John Daly
Guest Blogger for the McCombs School of Business

Why this blog? For many years I’ve been teaching courses at UT, both in McCombs and in the College of Communication, on topics related to “people skills.” What does it take to be an effective advocate for your ideas? How can you get your messages across to others in memorable ways? Why are some people more likeable than others? Why are some people more successful leaders than others?

In addition to my research and teaching at UT, I’ve spent time working with companies world-wide on issues such as leadership, influence, communication, teamwork, and customer loyalty. When visiting those firms I often chat with senior folks. Invariably, I seek their wisdom on what it takes to succeed in their organizations. They often give me very insightful observations. What’s impressive is how much of what they tell me matches quite nicely with academic research on interpersonal and organizational effectiveness (never forget, UT is in the research business as well as the teaching business).

So this blog is a way for me to describe some of the things I’ve discovered about interpersonal effectiveness. …..click here to read more