Thought Leadership

“Our research found that 79% of those who currently use someone else's password would not get their own subscriptions if Netflix outright banned account-sharing,” says Ben Treanor, whose company surveyed so-called “streaming swindlers.” And Netflix will have a fine line to walk if it introduces ads, says Yakov Bart, a marketing expert at Northeastern.

President Joe Biden has ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the country's petroleum stockpile for the next six months to combat the nation's oil crisis as the Russian war in Ukraine marches toward its third month. But some, including two Northeastern professors, question whether Biden was right to do so.

China is rapidly moving from imitation to innovation, with Chinese companies taking a key role in the emerging paths of Chinese company innovation. Non-Chinese executives need to understand the six major paths to innovation taken by Chinese companies. While all these paths have also been taken by many Western companies, we discuss here the unique Chinese adaptation or intensification of each approach. Our findings indicate that the innovation advantages of Chinese companies may well be in the creative combinations of available innovation practices.

JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines are seeking to partner with Spirit Airlines, the low-cost carrier. “From a competitive standpoint, either of these mergers will probably result in higher fares,” says Ravi Sarathy, a Northeastern professor of international business and strategy who studies the industry.

If the COVID-19 pandemic showed businesses that depend on offshore production anything, it's that one stoppage along these vast delivery channels can propagate across the entire system, Nada Sanders, distinguished professor of supply-chain management at Northeastern, said in the annual Robert D. Klein Lecture on Tuesday.

Surging oil and gas prices will spill over into the supply chains for just about everything that has to be carted around the world, says Nada Sanders, university distinguished professor of supply-chain management at Northeastern. In the case of bananas—which have a “very long” footprint—the story is a complicated one.

In rapidly evolving emerging and transition economies such Russia, informal social networks between individuals, companies, and the government play a key role for companies' ability to gain access to information, knowledge, and power. While such informal networks help companies' profitability, they can also entail significant costs for businesses and society at large. Understanding the deep roots of today's corruption trends in Russia can help the survival of domestic and foreign companies operating in the country.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region displays distinct corporate governance trends. These differences are due, at least in part, to the influence of Sharia law and the region's varied political regimes. Research suggests that directing attention towards corporate social responsibility, increasing the transparency of corporate disclosures, and investigating different ownership models can help further align local companies with established global best practices in the corporate governance area.

China's approach to inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) has remained remarkably consistent since the onset of its economic opening. While the rules governing IFDI have changed, the primary goal of improving the competitiveness of Chinese companies and the secondary goal of enhancing economic development have remained. As Chinese companies become more capable and as China declares more industries “strategic,” the space for foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) may narrow. To address this, FIEs need to demonstrate their full economic impact to make their case for continued access to the world's second largest economy.