In October of last year, The Biden administration passed a sweeping executive order on artificial intelligence. The order signaled a new era of oversight for a technology that, since its initial public emergence in the fourth quarter of 2022, operated with minimal guardrails. The wide-ranging directive tasks federal agencies with crafting regulations and voluntary guidance to manage risks from advancing AI systems, the most prominent of which are offered by firms including OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Though the executive order does not introduce new laws, instead directing federal agencies to employ existing statutory authorities, the President’s directive demonstrates that a laissez-faire approach to AI governance is over.
Microchips, oil, and everyday goods’ prices are rising, and interest rates are increasing at the fastest rate since 1981. Until recently, it has never been cheaper, easier, and faster to ship goods across the world — so why has this changed? Since the first COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, shipping has been anything but straightforward. The once-efficient “just-in-time” shipping method is faltering in the face of disruptions and supply chain executives around the world are scrambling for answers.
Imagine searching the internet for updates on a global event, information on a candidate in an election, or some historical account you need for a school paper. You stumble across the perfect headline under your Google search results—from a reliable source like the New York Times or the Washington Post—you go for the click, and suddenly, your access is denied by a paywall. We’ve all been there: being blocked from reading the perfect piece just because you reached your monthly free article limit on that publication. That is, unless, you subscribe.
Rdio - a now virtually defunct company - was once a streaming music service provider offering an expansive catalog of 7M+ songs. Launched in 2010, it enjoyed a first mover advantage in the then-nascent media streaming market. Rdio is a curious yet compelling case study vis-à-vis its eventual Chapter 11 bankruptcy and subsequent intellectual property sale to Pandora in 2015. Rdio, despite a superior product offering and first mover advantage, was afflicted by flaws in its business model due to missteps in leveraging the attractive qualities of information goods, lack of a sound pricing model, and poor execution in building network effects to gain market dominance – the sum effect of which was responsible for its drastic, albeit puzzling, failure.
Spotify’s share price has plummeted to less than $100 a share (as of May 2022), down from a February 2021 high of $365, despite beating earnings and growth projections in April. Of course, rising rates tend to hit growth stocks the hardest, but Spotify’s slide is particularly devastating considering its sluggish pre-pandemic performance. To understand Spotify’s slide, we should consider two key factors: “winner take all” dynamics in two-sided marketplaces as well as the changing competitive landscape of the music streaming industry.
In the face of widespread economic and political uncertainty in Latin America and Africa, the United States has withdrawn from the international community in favor of isolationist policies. Over the past 40 years, the international community has condemned the United States on multiple accounts for corporate and territorial over-extensions and other neocolonial tendencies. Consequently, the United States has reacted by gradually receding from its spheres of influence, with recent manifestations in former President Trump’s withdrawals from NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership as well as President Biden’s military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Michael Polk is currently an Advisory Director at Berkshire Partners, a private equity firm, and the Chief Executive Officer of Implus LLC. He was previously the CEO for Newell Brands, President and COO of Unilever, President of Nabisco at Kraft, and a member of the board of directors of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, Enactus, The Yankee Candle Company. He is also currently on the board of directors for both Logitech and Colgate-Palmolive. Mr. Polk holds a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University where he studied operations research and industrial engineering. He also holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Mr. Polk enjoys ice hockey and acapella, and was a member of the Glee Club during his time at Cornell.
By Anya Gert
In today’s ever-changing music ecosystem, music streaming services have become the most efficient method of audio distribution, discovery, and connection. Many, especially the younger generation of listeners, are easily attracted to Spotify; for a reasonable subscription price, Spotify provides a platform for accessible music streaming and organizing. Self-starting artists are granted the ability to publicize their music and develop a small following. However, monetarily supporting your favorite artists on Spotify is not nearly as easy as consuming their content.
By Maria Alexander
The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges to many, but also fostered creativity, resilience, and innovation. Many industries, including the art industry, have become more reliant on digitalization to recover markets once dependent on in-person experience and interaction.
By Isabella Picillo
Sustainability is one of the most prominent trends in designer fashion, trumping statement-making trousers and voluminous dresses season after season. Although sustainability in fashion has been a conversation for decades, it gained momentum towards the end of the 20th century when fashion became cheaper and more accessible, largely due to globalized manufacturing. In the 1990s, several companies, such as Nike, were exposed for their environmentally harmful practices, which gave rise to “eco-fashion.” Yet the start of sustainable fashion as we know it today began in the early 2010s. Consumer sensitivity, particularly to forced labor, combined with ecological concern as the conditions of fast fashion workers became apparent, such as in the 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse.
By Saurin Desai
Amazon is no stranger to dominating. Using its near-monopolistic market position, vendor exclusivity contracts, expansive distribution network, and low-cost differentiation strategy, Amazon frequently out-competes rivals—which has led to a staggeringly high 50% market share in the US and nearly $400bn in annual revenues. However, for a company the size of Amazon, there is limited scope for additional domestic expansion, underscoring the need for foreign market entry to sustain returns to shareholders.
By Philip Matteini
In the mid-1950s, the semiconductor industry was run primarily in East Coast cities such as Boston and New York. Seeing an opportunity, a recent Harvard MBA named Arthur Rock convinced former employees of the failed Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to form their own company in Palo Alto. With the financial backing of New York entrepreneur Sherman Fairchild, the group formed Fairchild Semiconductor in October of 1957.
By Nick Weising
Cannabis, whether recreational or medicinal, is now legal in 36 states. On March 31st, the state of New York legalized recreational marijuana, adding the Empire State to the large list of states with legal cannabis. Likewise, the Biden Administration and Democratic Congress may further loosen federal enforcement. This is a dramatic turn from the state of legalization just a few years ago, largely because of changing public perception. Once seen as a hard narcotic, marijuana is now largely viewed more mildly, with state governments seeking to tap into marijuana-related tax revenues.
By Davis Donley
SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, have become one of the hottest trends in the financial markets as they offer a unique alternative to traditional IPOs. A SPAC is a blank check company formed solely to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) and acquire an existing company. After their IPO, a SPAC places the money raised in an interest-bearing trust account. Investors with expertise in a particular industry or business sector generally form SPACs and prioritize pursuing deals within their circle of competence. SPACs generally have two years to complete an acquisition or must return funds to investors. Essentially, SPACs are publicly traded companies with no commercial operations and provide retail investors with early access to privately held companies, which have historically only been available to institutional investors.
By Raghav Madhukar
Systemic risk (SRISK) is the quantum of externality that a firm-level failure can impose on the broader financial sector. Perhaps the most impactful instance of SRISK in recent history was the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, which led to severe repercussions across financial institutions and securities markets. In today’s global context, Chinese companies collectively carry approximately 30% of the world’s systemic risk, compared to US companies, which account for a mere 7%. This gargantuan concentration of SRISK in China warrants a serious investigation into its various causes and implications.
By Dilan Minutello
Tanzania houses within its borders the city of Arusha, the capital of the newly proposed East African Federation (EAF). The EAF would be Africa’s second political union in modern history and the greatest border change on the planet since the fall of the Soviet Union. Such a drastic upheaval of the political status quo in Africa holds the potential to shift the power dynamics of the region and the world for decades to come.
By Emily Xiao
You’ve heard it before--bad things happen to good people. But the power of human innovation means that people organize to serve the less fortunate and to create public benefit. This rings true now more than ever—the nonprofit sector has grown by 20% over the past 10 years. The for-profit sector pales in comparison, with only 2-3% growth in the same timespan.
By Wally Chang
The formal gambling industry, dating back to the 17th century, long beckoned the spirited to wager their valuables for the small chance to win big. In more recent years, gambling has become a circumscribed industry, confined to massive casinos in cities built for entertainment and leisure, such as the notorious “Sin City” of Las Vegas, Nevada, the former gambling capital of the world.
By Yoon Jae Seo
A clutter of languages and overlapping voices echo through the floor of a typical call center in Noida, India. Employees continuously work, answering queries and solving issues until their timer hits for a short lunch break. Agencies like Innova Communications, one of the estimated 350,000 call centers in the country, manage customer service for a multitude of clients. Call centers like the one in Noida and its employees benefit from multinational corporations’ need to optimize cost and quality of customer service.
Jane Jiang works at Morgan Stanley in global cybersecurity, fraud, and insider threat risk. Previously, she was a cyber big data scientist and engineer in threat hunting at Citigroup. She holds a bachelor’s from Cornell University in civil engineering and a master’s from Stanford University in management science and engineering. She volunteers as an alumni mentor for both institutions and raises funds for Restore NYC, which works to end sex trafficking in New York and restore the independence and well-being of foreign-national survivors. Jane enjoys writing and writing music, lifting and running, and reading about anthropology, business, history, self-improvement, and theology.
By Rhea Bhammer
“The art business changed dramatically overnight,” Harry Hutchison, director of Aicon Gallery, told Cornell Business Review. “First, we were in India. We were doing this big show at Bikaner House in Delhi, and around March 20, we realized that the Delhi airport was going to shut down.
Photo Credit: Victoria Jones / PA
By Anya Gert
The practice of graffiti within the urban landscape was first popularized in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s in cities like New York and Philadelphia. Traditionally, graffiti thrives in poor, urban areas where individuals, especially youths, strive to protest and self-identify, instilling a sense of belonging and power over their environment. Because these graffitists come with little social privilege, their neighborhood streets become a channel for frustration. During the 1970s fiscal crisis in New York, black and Puerto Rican people were disproportionately affected by the city’s reduction in social services, and thus became the core of the city’s graffiti movement.
By Joyce Wu
Video game console sales by August 2020, including the Nintendo Switch, the Xbox, and the PlayStation, were up by 37% year-over-year. It’s not hard to see why; as people are forced to stay home, in-home entertainment becomes more important. While the Nintendo Switch may have dominated the hype during the early quarantine period, traditional console gamers are gearing up for the biggest rivalry of the fall: the Xbox Series X versus the PlayStation 5.
Photo Credit: Max Pepper / CNN
By Isabella Picillo
As of September 2018, nearly 100,000 establishments which temporarily shut down due to the coronavirus are now out of business. Many of these establishments were small businesses which did not have the resources to stay afloat. However, large corporations, which do have the resources to remain open, have also struggled to respond to changes in consumer behavior, attitudes, and purchasing habits while complying with national, state, and local laws. Many of these changes caused by the coronavirus will likely remain as the pandemic abates. Indeed, businesses must adapt, innovate, and even reinvent themselves in order to survive the effects of the pandemic.
By Nick Weising
Imagine never withdrawing cash from an ATM or carrying a wallet ever again. Instead, you have immediate mobile access to your cards and bank account. Your investment and insurance needs are all satisfied by apps. This image is not one of the far future but instead of the next couple years, and it is accelerating closer to the present thanks to the coronavirus.
By Derek Kartalian
Smart cities are no longer science fiction. The Internet of Things (IoT) allows technologies like household devices to communicate with each other through network connections. This system of connections is the core unifying concept of all smart devices, small or large, simple and complex. The most popular form of IoT devices are smart home technologies, such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home. While these gadgets seek to make everyday life at home more efficient, smart cities bring this level of technological efficiency and advancement to the planning and infrastructure of entire urban areas. The integration of IoT technology into city infrastructure can improve many aspects of society, such as waste management, lighting systems, traffic congestion, energy consumption, and building structural health.
By Kyle Castellanos
During the post-war era, it became customary for developed countries to opt into regional free trade agreements. These intergovernmental treaties offered citizens lower priced and higher quality goods while extending governments more exportation opportunities, critical for most countries hoping to recover from the recession. Gradually, these countries began to adopt similar trade agreements and establish intergovernmental organizations which encouraged market specialization through regional free trade.
By Megan Friscia
Numerous states with legalized recreational marijuana and medicinal marijuana programs have recognized dispensaries as essential businesses, alongside grocery stores, pharmacies, police stations, and more during the wake of the coronavirus. Essential businesses are those which are eligible to remain open during a lockdown; though the Federal Department of Homeland Security outlined what essential businesses are, the choice of which businesses qualify as “essential” is ultimately a state issue.
By Wally Chang
When the American people hid away in their homes, stopped going to work, and stopped spending money, the American economy too, shrank back. United States GDP dropped 9.1% in Q2 2020, a drop of unprecedented proportions, job employment fell by 20.5 million jobs in April alone, and perhaps most interestingly and impactfully, total retail sales dramatically fell 14.7% from February 2020 to April 2020. Even with companies making dramatic changes to their financial structures in hopes of minimizing losses, the impacts of reduced spending in the retail industry were felt by nearly all outlets. The hardest hit retail sector was undoubtedly that of clothing and clothing accessories, with a decrease in sales of 50.5% from February 2020 to March 2020, nearly double the decrease of the next hardest hit industry: that of furniture and home furnishings. Even in July 2020, apparel sales were down 25% year over year. In response to the dire effects on the economy, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES), was passed by the US Government on March 27, 2020, releasing $300 billion in economic aid through the medium of stimulus checks to support jobless families and to boost faltering retail spending.
By Davis Donley
Global electric vehicle market penetration is only 2.8% and countries are pledging to reduce fossil fuel usage over the next decade. Consumers are becoming more concerned about environmentalism, governments are instituting global emissions regulations, and companies are improving charging infrastructure and driving ranges. The market is reacting favorably—the EV stocks tracked by Barrons are up roughly 325% year to date. The International Energy Agency projects that EV adoption will reach 125 million cars by 2030, and some analysts predict that by 2027, electric vehicles of all types will make up 40% of global light-vehicle output. While global EV sales increased by 65% from 2017 to 2018, EV sales have begun to slow. In 2019, year-over-year growth was just 9%. And in 2020, EV sales declined by 25% during the first quarter of 2020. Despite the inevitable future growth of EVs as fossil fuels are phased out over the next couple of decades, the lack of earnings, increasing competition, and the rich valuations of EV companies make them poor investments.