Breakout Sessions

Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations may be one of the books that is now more often cited than read. It gives a nuanced view of global commerce and the then-newly emerging industrial sector. But it is too often claimed as a reference point for laissez-faire economic policy and rational-actor economics. Contemporary economics has yet to come to grips with Smith’s views on the motivations of people and groups. And, as a man of his time, Smith neglected the way differences of culture and institutions matter to how economic behaviors are patterned, and he paid relatively little attention to innovation.

Chair

Mary Morgan, Albert O. Hirschman Professor of History and Philosophy of Economics, London School of Economics

Panel

Christopher J. Berry, Honorary Professorial Research Fellow, School of Social & Political Sciences, University of Glasgow

John Kay, Fellow in Economics, St John’s College, Oxford 

Neil Kay, Professorial Fellow at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University; Emeritus Professor, Economics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

Franco Malerba, Professor of Applied Economics, Bocconi University, Milan

Corporate governance practices are intended to align the interests of shareholders, other relevant stakeholders, and top management. How do boards design the incentives facing management, and to what extent do managers themselves influence the process? What are the performance consequences of current models of governance in the US and UK versus other countries?

CHAIR

Arie Lewin: Professor Emeritus in Strategy and International Business, Duke University, Fuqua School of Business

PANEL

Brian Cheffins, S.J. Berwin Professor of Corporate Law, Cambridge University;

Till Talaulicar, Chaired Professor of Organization and Management, University of Erfurt;

Sarah Williamson, CEO, FCLTGlobal

The finance sector has transformed itself from its traditional role connecting investors with productive activity to encompass trading and other activities that generate short-term gains and fees. While this system generated enormous wealth in the finance sector, it has created problems in the productive economy which is seeing greater concentration of firm size and fewer listings by startups. Can capitalism be saved from itself?

Chair

Sarah Williamson, CEO, FCLTGlobal

Panel

Brad Cornell, Emeritus Professor of Finance, UCLA Anderson School of Management;

George Feiger, Exec.Dean, Aston Business School, Birmingham (UK);

Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, CEO, Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism and E.L. Rothschild LLC;

Weijian Shan, Group Chairman and CEO, PAG Asia Capital.

For a long time, the innovation value chain was becoming increasingly dispersed as multinational corporations placed R&D at offshore locations, and innovation alliances and markets for technology were booming. Can the push for a more dynamic global economy be maintained in an era of increasing regulation, economic nationalism, and turbulent international relations?

Chair

Peter G. Klein, W. W. Caruth Endowed Chair and Professor of Entrepreneurship, Baylor University

Panel

Benito Arruñada, Professor of Business Organization, Pompeu Fabra University;

Jay Barney, Presidential Professor of Strategic Management, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah;

Gary Pisano, Harry E. Figgie Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School;

Todd Zenger, N. Eldon Tanner Presidential Professor in Strategy and Strategic Leadership, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah

The world economy is beset by states who don’t “play well with others.” The successful formulation and execution of new rules for improved global economic governance will be a function of how well the constituencies to whom the rules apply—particularly businesses—see the rules as being consistent with their own objectives. And businesses may increasingly have “divided loyalties” between developed and emerging markets.

Chair

Harry Broadman, Senior Fellow, International Economics, Johns Hopkins University

Panel

Colin C. Blaydon, William and Josephine Buchanan Professor of Management, Emeritus, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth University;

Jeffrey A. Rosen, Deputy Chairman, Lazard;

Don Rosenberg, General Counsel, Qualcomm;

Joanna Shelton, Faculty Affiliate, Department of Economics, University of Montana and Former Deputy Secretary General, OECD.

Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, was one of the pioneers of what became the conventional theory of economic growth, focused on capital accumulation and efficiency. A more qualitative theory based on the productive capabilities of firms that takes innovation and competitive advantage as the foundation of growth may be more useful for explaining differences in growth among countries. In this panel, we explore some of the opportunities and challenges for growth-promoting policies from a capabilities perspective.

Chair

Lord David Sainsbury, Former UK Minister of Science and Innovation

Panel

Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 2007-2010; 

Barry Eichengreen, George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science, UC Berkeley;

David Teece, Professor in Global Business, UC Berkeley.

An open society can encourage growth, but it also makes its intellectual property easier for others to “steal.” But is it stealing for a developing country to use technology perfected elsewhere, as the fledgling US did with British technology in the eighteenth century? Should other non-economic issues of privacy, control, and human rights be addressed as part of international commerce?

Chair

Bruce Guile, President, New Advisory Group

Panel

Thomas Hazlett, Hugh H. Macaulay Endowed Professor of Economics, Clemson University; 

Adam Mossoff, Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University;

Christopher Yoo, John H. Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania.

Business corporations are complex social organizations that invest in productive capabilities for the purpose of generating high-quality, low-cost (i.e., competitive) products. When innovation occurs, the corporation should share the gains with its value-creating employees. In recent decades, however, in the name of maximizing shareholder value, corporations have been distributing their profits almost entirely to shareholders, undermining their innovative capabilities while contributing to employment instability and income inequity. This panel will discuss why and how corporate financialization occurs and the transformation of social mores needed to restore innovative enterprise.

After several decades of blithely assuming that globalization was a global good, both authoritarian and liberal democratic societies are beginning to question that assumption by re-emphasizing sovereignty; fomenting populist-nationalist movements; opposing further blurring of national boundaries; fighting against open emigration; erecting Internet firewalls; engaging in increasingly protectionist trade policies, and eschewing the greater integration of nation-states into global organizations at the expense of perceived national interest. What has led to this inflection point? Are parts of this great disaggregation justified? Is there any way to repair globalization as an acceptable concept by alleviating some of the inequities and contradictions that it ended up creating?