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Lessons from China’s Short-Drama Boom

March 13, 2026

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Haiyang Li, the H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Management, examines how Chinese short-drama platforms have built an “emotion-first” business model that inverts Hollywood’s development logic. Rather than greenlighting expensive series upfront, as streaming platform Quibi did before collapsing, these firms test story concepts through hundreds of micro-ads and produce only the highest performers. Li and his co-authors argue the real lesson for managers isn’t about entertainment but rather about an operating system built on continuous experimentation, modular monetization and a core engine that travels across markets.

They close with four questions for business leaders in any sector to ask as they try to learn from the success of this new format:
Are you designing for real usage contexts?
Is experimentation your operating system or just a side project?
Is your monetization stack modular?
And — can your engine travel?

How to Supercharge Tiny Businesses

April 30, 2026

Research by Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Accounting K. Ramesh and alumni Marcela Aguilar (Ph.D. ’26) and Gary Lind (Ph.D. ’19) examines how accounting helps small businesses in developing countries secure credit. Drawing on International Labour Organization surveys of microenterprises in Central America and the Dominican Republic, the researchers found informal firms that kept systematic financial records were more likely to apply for bank loans and be approved. Even handwritten notebooks worked, provided owners separated business and personal money. The findings suggest recordkeeping quality, not legal registration alone, can open the door to financing.

“Structured recordkeeping plays a key role in how lenders evaluate informal businesses,” said Aguilar.

Lawmakers Press Credit Bureaus on “Buy Now, Pay Later”

May 6, 2026

Assistant Professor of Finance Benedict Guttman-Kenney weighs in on why “buy now, pay later” loans remain largely invisible on consumer credit reports. As four Senate Democrats press TransUnion, Equifax and Experian on how they handle the loans, most major pay-later lenders still withhold their data. Some cite fears the loans won’t be scored fairly. But Guttman-Kenney points to a competitive concern: credit bureaus sell customer data to other lenders, so reporting means risking rivals poaching your best borrowers. Fixing how scoring models classify these loans is the easier half of the problem.

Ensuring that credit scoring fairly classifies pay-later loans is a “technical problem” that’s solvable, says Guttman-Kenney. Persuading lenders to share their data “is a more fundamental problem.”

SpaceX is aiming for the world’s largest IPO. Texas communities could feel the impact for years.

May 21, 2026

Research by Jesse H. Jones Professor of Finance Alex Butler and Ph.D. alum Ioannis Spyridopoulos ’17 on how stock listings ripple through local economies gained new relevance in June 2026, when SpaceX raised $75 billion in the largest IPO ever. Butler and his co-authors found that each additional $10 million raised creates roughly 35 to 47 local jobs and up to 0.8 new businesses in the surrounding county. Prices for expensive homes within two miles of headquarters rise about $3,900.

The gains flow through early investors and employees who sell stock and spend locally, so the effect concentrates near a company’s home base — here, SpaceX’s Starbase, meaning Brownsville and other South Texas communities would absorb much of it.

All-Inclusive Vs. A La Carte: Which Makes A Better Vacation?

June 5, 2026

Marketing professor Utpal Dholakia argues that pay-as-you-go vacations may beat all-inclusive ones, at least sometimes.

His case rests on the “pain of paying,” the small sting that accompanies a visible transaction.

All-inclusive pricing eliminates that sting by design — but Dholakia notes the discomfort serves a purpose. A tab arriving with each cocktail prompts travelers to weigh whether they actually want the next one. Remove it and nothing signals a stopping point. While the Forbes author disagrees with Dholakia for most travelers, he acknowledges the satiation problem.

Major Bank Advises Investors That the Market Is Near its Peak

June 9, 2026

James Weston, the Harmon Whittington Professor of Finance, decodes Wall Street’s euphemisms in coverage of a Bank of America report advising investors to “take profits.” The phrase, Weston explains, means sell — analysts just soften it out of market etiquette. There’s a reason for the indirection:

“If you tell everyone to sell and everyone all sells at once, that triggers a market crash,” says Weston.

Weston also points to the fundamentals behind BofA’s caution, citing worsening consumer spending, rising consumer indebtedness and climbing oil prices. Other analysts counter that timing a market peak is notoriously difficult.