Professor Wernerfelt has been a thought leader on various strategic management, economics, marketing, and management science topics for decades. His work on the resource-based view has set the tone for numerous studies and advances across many business fields (see Wernerfelt 1984, Strategic Management Journal). For this invited research presentation, Wernerfelt will focus on issues that he presented at the Copenhagen Business School recently when they awarded him an honorary doctorate. Specifically, his presentation titled Small Forces and Large Firms: Foundations of the RBV is a synthesis of several papers he has written since the publication of A Resource-based View of the Firm (Wernerfelt, 1984). The starting point is a very small force: The reduction in bargaining costs when several bargains are pooled into one. He shows that one can construct a theory of the firm based on this force and defend the theory by arguing that it makes predictions consistent with several stylized facts. In addition, the theory suggests that firms should decide on their strategy and scope based on excess capacity of productive resources – exactly like the RBV. More on Birger Wernerfelt can be found at http://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/detail.php?in_spseqno=41242)

Academics, industry, government, and individuals are confronted with an explosion of data. The data increasingly are emerging from sources such as Web traffic, social networking interactions, search behavior, sensors that track suppliers, customers and shipments, and GPS systems that monitor traffic, to name only some of the more visible sources. This trend, often referred to as the age of big data, is pushing the world toward data-driven discovery and decision making. This abundance of data presents both opportunities and chal¬lenges. To solve some of the analysis issues with todays data, this one-day workshop provides an introduction to PLS Path Modeling. Participants will learn how to apply PLS Path Modeling by means of the SmartPLS software. The seminar contains several SmartPLS examples and exercises. We suggest you download the free SmartPLS software (www.smartpls.de) and install it on your computer, and then bring the computer to the workshop to participate in running the sample problems.The workshop is designed for faculty scholars, doctoral students, and marketing research professionals who are engaged in, or interested in, current techniques to perform Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using PLS Path Modeling. Christian Ringle and Marko Sarstedt will lead the workshop, authors of the recent Sage book on PLS. Ringle is also the lead creator of the SmartPLS software (which is used by more than 45,000 professionals worldwide).

Tevfik Dalgic, Professor of International Marketing and Strategy at the School of Management of the University of Texas at Dallas, will present a research seminar titled "Ethnicity and International Marketing."

Paul Vaaler, Associate Professor of International Business and Director of the Hitachi Center for Technology & International Affairs at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, will present a Research Seminar on "DEMOCRACY'S RISK PREMIUM: Political Business Cycle Effects on Sovereign Risk Ratings and Bond Spreads in Developing Countries."

Bernard Yeung, Abraham Krasnoff Professor of Global Business, Professor of Economics and Professor of Management, at the Stern School of Business, New York University, will present "Thinking about the functionality of equity markets - let International Business and Finance meet."

Aysegul Ozsomer will present a research seminar on Marketing Program Standardization: A Cross Country Exploration.

Gurhan-Canli will present a research seminar focused on cross-cultural differences in brand extension evaluations based on analytic-holistic processing framework.

The Ohio State University will present a research seminar on "Sequential Divestiture Through Initial Public Offerings," 1:30 - 3:00 PM, Friday October 11, 2002 in 336 North Business College Complex. Attendance is free of charge for all MSU Students, Faculty, and Staff.

Professor Zou will present on "Global Strategy: Framework and Measurement"

Isabelle Maignan presents a research seminar titled "Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing: An Integrative Framework." Attendance is free of charge for all MSU Students, Faculty, and Staff. Isabelle Maignan is Associate Professor of Marketing at Nijmegen School of Management.