Rice Business Wisdom

Startups | Strategy

Does Gender Diversity Attract Investors? It Depends.

In startup accelerator programs, gender diversity alone doesn't engage investors — what matters more is that founder and mentor teams align in their gender composition.

6 Feb

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Finance | Finance

How Do Firms Actually Use Hurdle Rates?

New research shows how firms use hurdle rates differently in practice than finance theory predicts.

23 Jan
AI | Finance

Teaching Finance in the Age of AI

Professor Kerry Back received the 2025 Financial Management Association’s Innovation in Teaching Award. We sat down with him to talk about how AI is changing finance — and the way we teach it.

6 Jan

Data Centers | Strategy

Your Data Center Is Either Closer Than You Think or Much Farther Away

A new study shows why some facilities cluster in cities for speed and access, while others move to rural regions in search of scale and lower costs.

12 Dec

Social Ventures | Strategy

When Doing Good Comes With Stigma

For social ventures rooted in marginalized communities, sharing their origin story can deter mainstream customers due to fear of stigma transfer.

21 Nov
Financial Markets | Finance

When Research Promises the Impossible, Investors Pay the Price

A new study finds that “look-ahead bias” makes trading strategies appear highly profitable in published research, even though they fail in the real world.

7 Nov