As legislators negotiate comprehensive immigration reform, Professor Mushfiq Mobarak explains, in a commentary in the New York Times, the importance of skilled foreign workers in sustaining the United States’ comparative advantage in science and innovation. 

Esther Duflo, a development economist at MIT and director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, explains how our understanding of the economic lives of the poor has grown more complex in recent years. While Duflo doesn't see any silver bullet that will end poverty, she points to progress, in part from the use of randomized control trials to solve specific problems.

Companies are competing almost as hard as the athletes during the 2012 London Olympic Games. What does it take to be the best in branding?

On March 30, 2012, a panel of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and academics discussed the complex process of commercializing university research. The panelists talked about working with university tech transfer offices, financing, the role of faculty inventors, and technology-driven versus market-driven business models, as well as their own experiences turning research into successful enterprises.

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games start in four months. As athletes around the world train for the biggest moment of their lives, marketers are also preparing for a huge opportunity—a chance to get the whole world's attention. Antonio Lucio, CMO of Visa, describes how his company leverages major global events like the Olympics.

In its early days Google didn’t have a marketing team. Now with many brands to support, the company has brought its data-driven approach to its relationship with users and advertisers. Qn magazine spoke with Claire Hughes Johnson, VP of new products, media, and platforms, about the role of marketing in launching new products.

When solar panel manufacturer Solyndra went bankrupt after receiving millions in federal loan guarantees, some said that the government should stop interfering in energy markets. Nancy Pfund and Ben Healey show that the U.S. government has a long history of subsidizing emerging forms of energy, dating back to the 19th century.

On December 2, 2011, a panel of Yale SOM alumni from the venture capital and techology fields discussed their own experiences and reflected on the current state of venture capital; disruptive new models for raising financing, such as social media; and the outlook for the industry. 

Getting a rocket into space is complicated business. In addition to expertise in physics, materials science, and electronics, you need the business savvy to create a sustainable company in an industry replete with flameouts.
 

As chair of medicine at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Nicholas LaRusso started a small experiment to see whether teams of doctors and designers could redesign the way healthcare is experienced and delivered. After introducing the design world's rapid prototyping approach to test potential changes to waiting rooms or integration of technology, he found himself heading the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation promoting innovation throughout the institution.

The nonprofit sector is developing tools for financing and managing the organization that come largely from the for-profit world. Clara Miller, president and CEO of the Nonprofit Finance Fund discusses both the need for more financial savvy in the nonprofit realm as well as the pitfalls of an overly commercial mindset.

In a traditional model, for-profit companies strive to maximize returns for investors, while nonprofit organizations serve the public good. In recent years, a new model of for-profit social enterprise has emerged. Jon Carson '84, CEO of BiddingForGood, and Scott Griffith, CEO of Zipcar, bring their experience in the field to a discussion of the for-profit social enterprise ecosystem.

Polaroid went from ubiquity to obsolescence as digital photography replaced the print. But as early as the 1960s, Polaroid had been doing research into digital imaging. Did mistaken assumptions keep the company from making the transition to the digital world?

Media businesses must make decisive strategic choices even as the only market certainty is that some of the old revenue models aren't holding up. Jeff Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner, talks about the prospects for television, movies, and magazines.

Decades of economic research have assumed people pursue their goals in a rational manner, discounting the effects of emotion, bias, error, and other irrational forces. Robert Shiller argues that economists need to take a closer look at how people make decisions.